In February 1942, just two months after the Pearl Harbor attack, the United States Army Air Forces plan to retaliate by bombing Tokyo and four other Japanese cities—taking advantage of the fact that US aircraft carriers can approach near enough to the Japanese mainland to make such an attack feasible. Lt.Col. James Doolittle (Spencer Tracy), the leader of the mission, assembles a volunteer force of aircrews, who begin their top-secret training by learning a new technique to make their North American B-25 Mitchell medium bombers airborne in the short distance of 500 feet or less, to simulate taking off from the deck of an aircraft carrier. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy Produced by Sam Zimbalist Screenplay by Dalton Trumbo Based on Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo by Ted W. Lawson and Robert Considine Starring Van Johnson Robert Walker Spencer Tracy Music by Herbert Stothart Cinematography Robert Surtees, ASC Harold Rosson, ASC Edited by Frank Sullivan Production company Loew's Inc. Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Release date November 15, 1944 Running time 138 minutes Country United States Language English Budget $2.9 million[1] Box office $6.2 million[1][2]