I have seen that one. It had Kirk Douglas as the captain of the carrier I think. Those jap planes were in shock when they buzzed them for shooting at the people on beach.
The modern carrier was stationed in Norfolk. I saw the movie there. Several young people in the theater identied parents who were either aviators or worked on the flight deck and had ended up in the movie,
After my dad and I saw we talked about it. I was 10 at the time. We came to the conclusion the strike force from the Nimitz would have been only partially successful because with each Japanise plane or ship destroyed would change time just enough until the Nimitz and her crew would have ceased to exist. The ramifications would been the United States never would have entered the war. I don't remember too much more but I do remember that the main superpower was Russia and Japan and Germany in a role of what Great Brittan is now. The logic of how it got there I don't recall. It was a pretty interesting conversation for a 10-year-old. It was one of the first conversations I recall that I having with my father and using what I understood about fact and fantasy to create something new and creative. My mother and sister just talked about the beach.
Interesting but I don't think it would have occurred quite like that. Without knowing how many Japanese planes were in the invasion force or how many American planes are on a carrier I would still assume that if the Americans were not able to completely destroy the Japanese they would at least have caused such massive damage that the remaining planes would have had no choice but to retreat. The Japanese pilots would have already be alive in 1941 so any of them that were killed would only affect whatever future they may have had. American casualties would have been very, very light if at all but any American pilot who got killed would not have been born by 1941 and would cease to exist because they were never born. Whatever future such individuals may have had whether it was President or a captain of industry or any position to affect masses of people would never happen, but I don't think it would do anything to the 1941 timeline. America would have still been at war with Japan. The very fact that they attacked us would be the cause of the war. The outcome of the invasion would have been vastly different but the war would still be on. US involvement in the war in Europe was inevitable whether we were at war with Japan or not. With the Japanese air force in ruin the war with Japan would have not been as long and we would have been able to concentrate more of our forces in Europe, possibly hastening the defeat of the Axis powers. The US would still have emerged as the main superpower and the Soviet Union would probably have been stronger than they were because there would have been less devastation to the population with the shorter European war and with Germany having to divert forces from invading Russia to defending itself from the US. There still would have been a cold war but I'm pretty sure no hot war because of each power having to ability to totally destroy the other with nuclear weapons.
