The reason that you do not see fighters in the Midway movie is that Admiral Fletcher would not release but six F4F’s to Commander Thatch. The Admiral retained the remainder of the fighters for defense of his three carriers. Commander Thatch developed the “Thatch Weave” which gave the inferior F4F a chance against the superior ZEKES.
The Thatch Weave required a Fingers Four formation consisting of two 2 plane elements. With only six aircraft, CDR Thatch had only 1 ½ of a Fingers Four and could not effectively protect the SBD’s or the TBD’s
FWIW