There's one thing you have to be aware of from the very beginning. You see that private?
They look down the runway a few hundred feet. A private waves, and starts painting a red line across the runway.
Another private, close by, paints a green line.
DOOLITTLE:
Green means go. Red means dead.
MONTAGE - THE TRAINING - EGLIN FIELD - DAY The pilots practice takeoff's. Red is Rafe's copilot; Anthony is Danny's. Nobody can get airborne before the red line.
INT. EGLIN FIELD - LECTURE ROOM - DAY Doolittle is instructing the men.
DOOLITTLE:
You're having trouble getting airborne in the shorter space because you're not revving the engines enough. You've got to push them to the limit before you ever start to move.
Rafe is distracted; he's lost in though, looking at Danny -- and looks away just before Danny realizes it.
MONTAGE CONTINUES - EXT. EGLIN FIELD RUNWAY - DAY Pilots practice hard, revving the engines, taking off hard...all of them crossing the red line, takeoff after takeoff. Rafe pushes his engine hard and still crosses by twenty feet; Danny pushes even harder, and misses by ten feet.
Doolittle watches with Greening from the edge of the runway.
DOOLITTLE:
We've got to get the weight down.
INT. HANGER - EGLIN FIELD - DAY Greening has removed the intensely complex Norden sight from a bomber and put in on a table for Doolittle.
GREENING:
Okay, forty pounds gone. And in it's place, this.
He shows Doolittle an aluminum strip on a swivel.
GREENING:
Weight, 3 ounces. Cost, 20 cents.
DOOLITTLE:
Does it work?
EXT. EGLIN FIELD - DAY Doolittle pilots a B-25 at treetop level onto a practice bombing range. Greening uses the makeshift sight, and drops a 500-lb sack of flour, right in the middle of the bull's-eye target chalked on the ground.
EXT. FLORIDA COAST - DAY The B-25's are practicing, flying at treetop level. Red is Rafe's copilot, Anthony is Danny's. Doolittle is flying the lead bomber.
DOOLITTLE:
Right down to the treetops. Low as you can.
Rafe brings his plane down, smoothly. Then Danny's plane appears -- under him. Rafe jerks his nose up quickly.
Rafe's angry; Danny's laughing -- but he scares the sh*t out of his crew.
EXT. EGLIN FIELD - NIGHT Danny's outside, looking up at the moon. Rafe appears and moves up beside him.
DANNY:
Fun today. Like old times.
RAFE:
Danny, what the hell are you trying to do out there?
DANNY:
What do you mean? I'm just doing what we've always done.