Paul Greengrass's Captain Phillips is based off of the book "A Captain's Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs, and Dangerous Days at Sea", by Richard Phillips and Stephan Talty, and the true story of the 2009 Somali pirate hijacking of the U.S. container ship Maersk Alabama. Captain Richard Phillips, is taken hostage, and Maersk Alabama's hijacked, by Somali pirate Captain, Muse.