Tom Hanks plays the captain of an American cargo ship attacked by Somali pirates.

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American ship captain Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks) commands a huge cargo freighter along the east coast of Africa. One day his ship is attacked by Somali pirates. Their objective: to hold the ship hostage for millions in ransom. When Phillips fights back, he’s taken hostage by the pirates.

Watching Captain Phillips requires in-depth knowledge about the conflict in Somalia. Bourne director Paul Greengrass’s movie only hints at the fact that the pirates are not working for themselves, but rather for a warlord. Mainly due to lack of regulating: foreign freighters dump their toxic waste directly into the ocean off Somalia’s coast. For those who are unaware of this background, no matter how well they are played, the pirates are merely one-dimensional bandits out to seize a ship for millions in ransom. Sometimes it seems the movie used to be an hour longer, that the director was forced to cut out the more poignant details to please the studio.