There are as many powerful moments as there are scenes in HBO’sThe Pacific, but these stand above by how hard they hit on every rewatch. One of thebest TV shows produced by Steven Spielberg, second only to his previous entry in World War II canon,Band of Brothers,The Pacificdepicts the Battle of the Pacific, specifically focusing on the island-hopping campaign done by the 1st Marine Division, with attention paid to the 1st, 5th, and 7th regiments in particular. So, unlikeBand of Brothers, we jump around to different characters and storylines.
The Pacificisgenerally ranked betweenBand of BrothersandMasters of the Air. With its dueling storylines, it can be hard to become attached to any one character. The brutality on display is much more intense as well. There are far fewer “heroic” moments inThe Pacific. It’s a series that is dirty, violent, and cruel, and the marines come out of it with pieces of themselves left behind. However, there is so much to love about the show.The Pacificis a powerful series about the chaos and horror of war, and these are the most powerful moments.
10Leckie And Company Learn They’re Heroes Back Home
Part Two
WhileThe Pacifichas far fewer obvious moments of heroism when compared toBand of Brothers, there are scenes that are certainly stirring. One of these takes place in Part Two. After the terrible Battle of Guadalcanal, Leckie (James Badge Dale) and three of his friends are finally safe on a transport boat. They even have coffee for the first time in weeks.
They all sit in silence, coming to grips with the horror they’ve participated in. Their pain is slightly alleviated, however, when a mess hall worker tells them that everyone in America has heard of Guadalcanal. These Marines are heroes back home, he respectfully tells them.For the first time since the soldiers began their fight, they actually seem proud, and there’s a hint of light in the darkness clouding their minds.
9Manny Rodriguez Is Killed
John Basilone’s (Jon Seda) story inThe Pacifictakes up the majority of the episodes at the start of the series, and his friends, Manny Rodriguez (Jon Bernthal) and J.P. Morgan (Joshua Bitton), seem like they’re going to be the main characters for the rest of the series. It only takes one more episode to lose Manny in Part Two.
During the Guadalcanal campaign, Basilone made a name for himself as a hero, almost single-handedly ensuring the Americans were not overwhelmed. However, in the fight, his friend Manny is killed while protecting his rear. It comes out of nowhere and is shown right after Basilone succeeds in the impossible, making fora powerful gut punch that reminds the audience that even the victories are costly inThe Pacific.
8A Soldier Refuses Fare From Leckie
Part Ten
This is only a small moment in the grand scheme ofThe Pacific, but it’s a powerful scene all the same. After Leckie makes his way home, he takes a cab from the train to his parents' house. He talks with the young cab driver, saying that nothing much has changed, and the driver says he thought the same when he came back, revealing himself to have also served.
When Leckie offers the cab driver money, the cabbie refuses it, saying that while he may have jumped in Normandy on D-Day, he was at least afforded a party and a welcome after Germany surrendered. The Marines, he said, got nothing for their incredible efforts. It’s a powerful scene that shows,even among servicemen, the Marines had a particularly burdensome job to do.
7The Peleliu Landing
Part Five
There are severalbrutal landing and fight sequences inThe Pacific, but the worst of them is the Peleliu landing in Part Five. Sledge (Joseph Mazzello) and his regiment, and Leckie and his regiment arrive during the invasion at different times, but the entire division receives a firestorm of bullets and rockets from the Japanese defenders.
It’s a brutal and intense assault with many soldiers dying in various bloody ways, and unlike in the episodes with John Basilone, there are no heroic moments here. It’s just a desperate race to survive, and Sledge immediately gets a taste of why the other marines in his regiment are so hollow-eyed. It doesn’t seem possible after a battle like this that anyone would ever get out alive.
6The French Soldier Commits Suicide
Part Four
The Pacificbounces around to a lot of different stories that can make it difficult to remember who is who, as more and more characters are introduced. This is doubly confusing for a character introduced in Part Four, Lebec (Rohan Nichol), a French-Canadian soldier who comes to work alongside the Marines after his unit is all but destroyed.
Leckie stumbles across Lebec one evening, standing in the shower. The Canadian begins crying and talking to someone who isn’t there before pulling out a gun and shooting himself in front of Leckie. It’s tragic, and it comes right at a time when Leckie is beginning to lose his will to carry on.It’s a burdensome scene for Leckie to see, and a frightening depiction of PTSD.
5Snafu Tells Sledge Not To Desecrate The Dead
Part Seven
Merriell “Snafu” Shelton (Rami Malek) is an intimidating character when Sledge first meets him. He’s got a wild sensibility to him, and it feels like he’s not always present in a conversation. He tries to scare the new Marines at every opportunity, andfar from welcoming them, reminds them that they’ll likely die here.
This devil-may-care attitude is a front, and there are things that disturb even him.
In the early battles, he digs into the mouths of dead Japanese soldiers to steal the gold from their teeth, unsettling Sledge. As the war drags on, though, and Sledge’s humanity slips, he decides to dig for gold himself, earning a rebuke from Snafu, which Sledge harshly criticizes. It’s a startling example of how far Sledge has slipped and also an impactful insight into Sanfu’s character. This devil-may-care attitude is a front, and there are things that disturb even him.
4The Japanese Soldier Cries After Being Caught
Part One
The Pacificproves it’s going to be different from other war shows early on in the series. In the firstepisode ofThe Pacific, the Marines are already exhausted and beginning to hate the Japanese. When they stumble across a small, fleeing patrol of Japanese soldiers, they kill them all and have target practice with the last one.
It’s a terribly sad scene and hints that the soldiers on the other side are just men, fighting for their lives, and terrified all the same.
The soldier first tries to be brave, demanding that the Americans kill him, but he quickly breaks down sobbing, as he knows he’ll never live, but that the Americans won’t let him die either. It’s a terribly sad scene and hints that the soldiers on the other side are just men, fighting for their lives, and terrified all the same.
3Gunny Is Left Traumatized
Elmo “Gunny” Haney (Gary Sweet) is the typical “old school” marine type. He’s unafraid to yell at privates and officers alike if they’re doing something wrong. He’s fearless in the face of enemy fire and bombs, and is always quick to crack a joke. Gunny is a movie character made real, the way he swaggers around with a cigarette. So, when he breaks in Part Seven,it’s a shocking and disturbing moment to see the older, wizened man’s face fall.
He looks like a child in that moment, and the fact that the reason for the break is the death of his friend makes the scene all the more affecting. If something like that can happen to Gunny, it can happen to any of the Marines.
2Leckie Meets Gibson At The Hospital
The Battle of Cape Gloucester is the focus of Part Four ofThe Pacific, and after the devastation and non-stop fighting that came from the battle, the Marines are in a worse state than ever. Leckie develops a case of nocturnal enuresis and is sent to a medical station a ways away from the front line. There, he begins seeing a psychiatrist who tells him that his bedwetting could be a result of psychological exhaustion.
The scene at the medical station is a grim one, and many Marines are in far worse shape than Leckie. Not only will they never return to fighting, butthey will likely be psychologically changed for the rest of their lives. In one powerful but tragic moment, Leckie sees a soldier from his regiment, Gibson (Tom Budge), in a cell at the hospital. He was previously seen strangling a dying Japanese soldier to death. Gibson can barely look at Leckie, and Leckie begins to understand what this war is doing to young men like himself.
1Sledge Can’t Bring Himself To Shoot A Bird
Eugene Sledge is possibly the soldier who is most affected by his time fighting in the Pacific. In Part Ten, Sledge finally goes home, but his father’s worst fears are realized, and his son is an empty shell of the man he once was. It’s a look Dr. Sledge (Conor OFarrell) saw in other men returning from the First World War.
Sledge tries to remain stoic after returning home, but when he and his father go bird hunting, like they often did before the war, Sledge breaks down crying, realizing he doesn’t want to kill anything anymore. It’s a powerful moment of catharsis. Sledge lets everything that’s been weighing on him out, and his father is right there to comfort him. It’s the most powerful scene inThe Pacificfor how it wraps together everything that the soldiers have been through.
