One of my objections:
Almost everyone flying with McCluskey was convinced they were flying hopelessly out to empty ocean, ANYONE could see there were no Jap carriers out there, WE ARE ALL GOING TO BE F*CKING SWIMMING.
When instead McCluskey said, “Nah! We’re going to keep going..!”
He was alone with his lucky feeling, which paid off.
The movie sorta nicked that one.
Their course correction as prompted by a weirdly LONE Jap ship going like a bat out of hell tipped them off.
IJN Arashi was alone but the circumstance wasn’t weird.
US Sub Nautilus had just previously launched torpedoes that just missed one of the 4 Japanese carriers, I forget which one
The Japanese command staff ordered Arashi to remain behind to depth charge Nautilus. Unsuccessfully.
After a long time on station, Arashi raced to rejoin the Kido Butai.
So it wasn’t just random that the destroyer was there and available for following — she had been ordered to kill Nautilus.
IIRC, the destroyer that McClusky spotted had earlier been detached to hunt down the USS Nautilus, which had been spotted by Japanese fleet scout planes. Later, the Nautilus tried to finish off the burning Kaga, but the torpedo failed to detonate (it broke in pieces upon impact). There's a multi-part documentary, Eagle Against the Sun, that shows a picture of part of the dud torpedo floating next to the stricken carrier.
I guess the submarine's role is usually understated, due to the lion's share of the action belonging to the aviators.