text: Plot In 1923 Tennessee, best friends Rafe McCawley and Danny Walker, play together in the back of Danny's father's old biplane, pretending to be fighting airmen. Danny's father is a WWI Veteran suffering from PTSD, causing him to be abusive towards his son.
  18 years later in January 1941, with WWII raging, Danny and Rafe are both first lieutenants under the command of Major Jimmy Doolittle. Doolittle informs Rafe that he has been accepted into the Eagle Squadron (an RAF outfit for American pilots during the Battle of Britain).
  Nurse Evelyn Johnson passes Rafe's medical exam despite his dyslexia, and they start a relationship. Four weeks later, Rafe and Evelyn, now deeply in love, enjoy an evening of dancing at a nightclub and later a jaunt in the New York harbor in a borrowed police boat. Rafe shocks Evelyn by saying that he has joined the Eagle Squadron and is leaving the next day.
  During a mission to intercept a Luftwaffe bombing raid, Rafe is shot down over the English Channel and is presumed killed in action. Danny and Evelyn mourn Rafe's death together, which spurs a romance between them. Meanwhile, Japan prepares to attack the US Pacific Fleet, deciding the best way to do so would be a decisive strike on the Pearl Harbor naval base.