50 Fun Facts About Unbroken

Which leader asked to shake Louis Zamperini's hand after his 1936 Olympic race?

Adolf Hitler asked to meet the teenager whose 56-second final lap had caught his eye. Louie had finished only eighth, but his closing lap set a record.

In Unbroken, how long did Louis Zamperini drift across the Pacific on a life raft before his capture?

47 days of raw fish and rainwater left Louie and Phil at about half their normal weight. The boat that finally reached them was Japanese, not American.

In Unbroken, which evangelist's 1949 tent revival in Los Angeles turns Louie Zamperini's life around?

Billy Graham's sermon brought back a vow Louie had made on the raft. He stormed out of the first meeting, returned another night, and his nightmares about the Bird stopped.

Which Japanese guard, nicknamed the Bird, singles out Louie Zamperini for constant beatings in Unbroken?

Mutsuhiro Watanabe came from a wealthy family and never got over the army's refusal to make him an officer. Prisoners picked a nickname with no insulting meaning, in case he overheard it.

Before Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand wrote which 2001 bestseller about a Depression-era racehorse?

Seabiscuit led her to Louie: while researching the horse she came across a 1938 newspaper article about the young runner. Both books were later filmed.

Which Hollywood star directed the 2014 film version of Unbroken, shot largely in Australia?

Angelina Jolie released the film on Christmas Day 2014, less than six months after Louie died at 97. It follows him only as far as his return from the war.

In Unbroken, what is Louie Zamperini's crew position aboard the Super Man on missions over the Pacific?

Bombardier Louie aimed and released the bombs, and in training he proved superbly accurate. He had enlisted in the Army Air Forces a few months before Pearl Harbor.

In Unbroken, which seabird do the castaways catch on the raft and cut up as bait for fish?

An albatross worried Phil, who remembered the sailor punished for killing one in 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'. Louie shrugged off the superstition.

Which worn-out bomber, trusted only for errand flights, crashed into the Pacific with Louis Zamperini aboard?

Green Hornet was known among pilots as a lemon. Two of its engines failed over open ocean in May 1943, and only three of the eleven men aboard survived the crash.

In Unbroken, what does the Bird force a weakened Louie Zamperini to hold above his head?

A heavy six-foot beam stayed up for 37 minutes while Louie stared his tormentor down. The Bird finally charged and punched him in the stomach.

In which Southern California town did Louis Zamperini grow up stealing, brawling and outrunning the police?

Torrance forgave its troublemaker: the town cheered him onto the Olympic team, and its airport was later named Zamperini Field.

In the first chapter of Unbroken, which German airship glides over twelve-year-old Louie's house in 1929?

Graf Zeppelin was three days from completing a flight around the world. Hillenbrand turns the giant shape that blotted out the stars into an omen of the coming war.

At the 1936 Olympics, which distance race did the teenage Louis Zamperini run for the United States?

5,000 meters was his second choice: the field at his favorite shorter distance was too strong, so he switched and tied the American record holder at the trials.

Which city, first awarded the 1940 Olympics, was the goal Louie Zamperini trained toward after 1936?

Tokyo did become his destination, as a prisoner of war rather than an Olympian. The Games he was training for were called off when the world went to war.

Which American miler, who learned to run again after childhood burns, was the teenage Louie Zamperini's hero?

Glenn Cunningham lost the ability to walk in a fire as a boy, taught himself to run, and by 1932 was hailed as America's greatest miler. Louie trained daily to match him.

Which California university gave track star Louis Zamperini a scholarship and later named a plaza after him?

USC is where Louie set a national collegiate mile record in 1938 that stood for fifteen years, even though rivals spiked his shins during the race.

Which college friend of Louie Zamperini's turns up again in Unbroken at his first prison camp in Japan?

Jimmie Sasaki had posed as a student in California while nearing forty, and the FBI suspected him of spying. He claimed to be a powerful official but proved to be only a low-ranking interpreter.

Which American gold medalist was Louis Zamperini's roommate at the 1936 Olympics?

Jesse Owens won four gold medals at those Games. His young roommate went home without one, but with a reputation for a blistering final lap.

Which four-engine heavy bomber does Louie Zamperini's crew fly on Pacific missions in Unbroken?

B-24 Liberator crews found the plane ugly, hard to fly and prone to accidents. After hundreds of hours of training, Louie's crew came to love theirs as a home.

In Unbroken, what grim nickname does a crewman give the accident-prone bomber that Louie Zamperini trains on?

The Flying Coffin fit a plane that felt like a death sentence to its crews. Early in the war, most American planes that went down were lost to accidents rather than combat.

After a raid on which Japanese-held island did Louie Zamperini's bomber limp home with 594 holes in it?

Nauru cost the crew dearly: three Zeros attacked after the bombs fell, five men were wounded and one of them, Harry Brooks, died.

In Unbroken, where is Army trainee Louie Zamperini sitting when he learns Pearl Harbor has been attacked?

In a movie theater in Texas, where he was in training, the news left him wide-eyed and struggling to take it in. He had joined the Army Air Corps only months earlier.

In Unbroken, what is Louie Zamperini's crew sent out to do on the flight that ends in the ocean?

Search for a lost plane was the order, and the searchers became the lost. Nobody knew where their own aircraft had gone down, so rescue was unlikely from the start.

In Unbroken, what does a panicking Mac eat on the first night adrift, wiping out the raft's food supply?

The chocolate bars were meant to be rationed, one square each morning and evening. Louie chose not to blame Mac, whose sweet tooth was already known to the crew.

In Unbroken, which animals does Louie Zamperini haul onto the raft by the tail so the men can eat the livers?

Sharks had lunged at the men on the raft, which Louie felt broke an unspoken truce. The liver gave them their first full stomachs of the whole drift.

Which Japanese-held island chain do Louie Zamperini and Phil reach at the end of their Pacific drift?

Marshall Islands waters were patrolled by the Japanese navy, which hauled the two men off the raft. They were soon shipped to Kwajalein and locked in wooden cages.

Late in the raft journey in Unbroken, what does Louie Zamperini hear coming from the clouds overhead?

A choir singing, with twenty-one human figures in the clouds, is what Louie described. Phil heard and saw nothing, but Louie never believed it was a hallucination.

In Unbroken, what does Louie Zamperini promise during a desperate prayer for rain on the raft?

To serve God forever was the bargain, and rain fell the next day. Louie forgot the vow for years, until it came back to him at a revival meeting in 1949.

In Unbroken, where do Louie, Frank Tinker and William Harris plan to sail after escaping from Ofuna?

China was the goal: hike across Japan, steal a boat and cross the sea. They shelved the plan when guards announced that other prisoners would be killed for every escapee.

What did Americans call the Japanese base where Louie Zamperini is caged for 42 days after the raft?

Execution Island had earned its name: the nine Marines whose names were carved in Louie's cell had been killed there. He and Phil were spared, for reasons Louie learned only later.

In Unbroken, what is Ofuna, the first place Louie Zamperini is held on the Japanese mainland?

An interrogation center kept off the Red Cross books, Ofuna forbade its two hundred captives to speak to one another. Screams from the questioning room broke the routine.

Which snowbound camp in western Japan is Louie Zamperini's last prison, where he hauls coal onto boats?

Naoetsu held a terrible surprise: the Bird had been posted there before him. Louie collapsed when the familiar figure burst out of a shack at the new arrivals, and called it the darkest moment of his life.

What do prisoners call the Ofuna official who beats William Harris senseless over a hidden map in Unbroken?

The Quack was the camp's doctor, later sentenced to death for his part in the deaths of four prisoners. Harris still looked like a wreck when Louie met him again months afterward.

What kind of animal is Gaga, the pet that the prisoners at Ofuna dote on in Unbroken?

A duck named Gaga was loved by men who were forbidden even to talk to one another. Guards abused and killed the pet to break the prisoners' spirits.

In Unbroken, what does the Bird order every enlisted prisoner to do to Louie and other officers?

Punch them in the face, one blow each from some two hundred men, went on for about two hours. It was punishment for a fish that someone else had stolen.

In Unbroken, the Bird warns Louie Zamperini that he will die if which sickly animal in his care dies?

A goat, already ill, died almost at once. Louie had begged for work to earn back full rations, and this was the job the Bird chose for him.

After his first radio message home in Unbroken, what do Japanese producers pressure Louie Zamperini to do?

Read propaganda on air, they urged, handing him a script critical of the United States. He refused, was threatened with a punishment camp, and went back to the Bird.

Days after Japan's surrender in Unbroken, what do American planes deliver to Louie Zamperini's prison camp?

Food and medicine came down with clothing and magazines, and a feast of eating and smoking began. Hillenbrand titled the chapter 'Cascades of Pink Peaches'.

A year and a day after Louie Zamperini's plane vanished, what did the Army officially declare him?

Killed in action was the verdict, and his parents received a condolence note from President Roosevelt. His mother never believed it, and she turned out to be right.

On which American general's list of Japan's forty most wanted war criminals does the Bird appear?

Douglas MacArthur ranked the camp guard twenty-third of the forty. By then the Bird had slipped away into the countryside, and he was never caught.

Which wealthy young woman does Louie Zamperini propose to after two weeks in Miami Beach in Unbroken?

Cynthia Applewhite married him in 1946 against her parents' wishes. Three years later she was ready to divorce him, until a revival meeting changed her mind.

In Unbroken, what does Louie Zamperini throw out at home on the night of his conversion?

His liquor went down the sink that same night, and for the first time since coming home he did not dream of the Bird. The next morning he sat under a tree with an old Bible.

In the epilogue of Unbroken, what does Louie Zamperini open in California in 1954?

A camp for troubled boys, the Victory Boys Camp, took in the kind of delinquent he had once been. When not with his campers he toured the country telling his story.

Where in Japan, among jailed war criminals, does Louie Zamperini greet his former guards in 1950?

Sugamo Prison held many of the men who had guarded him. Louie went to test whether his new peace would hold, and found himself rushing toward them with outstretched hands.

For which Winter Olympics did an 80-year-old Louis Zamperini carry the torch past his former prison camp?

Nagano's torch relay took him past the place where he had once been caged, with Japanese crowds cheering him on. In the book's last scene he feels only joy.

When the Bird refuses to meet him in the 1990s, how does Louie Zamperini deliver his forgiveness?

In a letter, he wrote that the beatings had made his postwar life a nightmare but that he had forgiven him. No reply ever came.

Which American fighter ace and fellow prisoner later wrote about Louie Zamperini's Italian recipes?

Pappy Boyington recalled in his memoir Baa Baa Black Sheep how Louie's recipes kept starving prisoners' minds off the camp food.

Which illness kept Laura Hillenbrand largely housebound while she researched and wrote Unbroken?

Chronic fatigue syndrome struck her at nineteen, so she interviewed Louie by telephone. He had read her essay about the illness and trusted her with his story.

After charges against him were dropped in 1952, the Bird prospered in which line of business in Unbroken?

Insurance made him wealthy, and he married and raised two children. Interviewed in the 1990s, he admitted beating prisoners but said he had treated them as enemies of Japan.

Which pastime did the elderly Louie Zamperini finally give up at the age of 81?

Skateboarding suited a man who stayed trim and restless all his life. He gave up skiing ten years after that, and lived to be 97.