<Li> Christopher McDonald as Todd Gross, a Boston meteorologist working for the WNEV - TV (the present day WHDH - TV). </Li> <Li> Dash Mihok as Sergeant Jeremy Mitchell, a crewmember on the New York Air National Guard rescue helicopter . </Li> <P> A ship similar to Andrea Gail, Lady Grace, was used during the filming of the movie . Most of the names used were not changed for the fictional film, but in response two lawsuits were later filed by certain families of the crew members . The film only claims to be "based on a true story", and differs in many ways from the book starting with the fictionalization of the material into a "story". The events shown in the film after the Andrea Gail's last radio contact are pure speculation, as the boat and the bodies of the crew were never found . </P> <P> Contrary to the movie's storyline, Captain Linda Greenlaw says she did not place a distress call on behalf of Andrea Gail . "Without a distress call (directly) from the imperiled vessel, the Coast Guard will not initiate a search until the vessel is five days overdue in port," Greenlaw said . The 1993 U.S. Coast Guard's investigative report said that Andrea Gail was experiencing 30 - foot waves and winds from anywhere from 50 to 80 knots (58 - 92 MPH) around the time of the last communication . The conditions, though threatening, were probably not unfamiliar to Tyne, who had been a successful fisherman for about a decade on other vessels, taking trips to the Grand Banks and fishing off Florida, the Carolinas, and elsewhere . In addition, Hurricane Grace (1991) was described by a weather forecaster as a category 5 storm in the movie, though it never achieved those wind speeds . In the movie, Tyne and his crew agreed to head into the dangerous storm in order to save their fish from spoiling . Greenlaw acknowledged that Tyne did mention having ice problems, but that was not unusual . "My one gripe about (the) movie was how Warner Brothers depicted Billy Tyne and his crew as making a very conscious decision to steam into a storm that they knew was dangerous," said Greenlaw . "That is not what happened . Andrea Gail was three days into their steam home when the storm hit . Whatever happened to Andrea Gail happened very quickly ." </P>

Where did the perfect storm movie take place