Cool Movies – The Sub Kind

Over the years I’ve found that I really love the movies – as film quality and sound improves I love ‘em more and more. As a person who loves sci-fi and military action movies it’s kinda hard to filter out the ones I want to see over and over.

For your consideration, here are some of the ones I’ve found interesting and that I think are worth seeing more than once.

Great Submarine Movies -

Run Silent, Run Deep- The captain of a submarine sunk by the Japanese during WWII is finally given a chance to skipper another sub after a year of working a desk job. His singleminded determination for revenge against the destroyer that sunk his previous vessel puts his new crew in unneccessary danger.

The Enemy Below - Set during the Battle of Atlantic during the Second World War, “The Enemy Below” tells the story of the cat and mouse Destroyer escort/U-Boat hunt. For the Americans, a former Merchant Mariner who saw his wife killed when his freighter was torpedoed by the Germans. For the Germans, a veteran U-Boat commander who sees no honor in the German aims of the war. Both of these highly experienced men must now battle each other, knowing that only one will survive.

Destination Tokyo- The U.S.S. Copperfin sails under secret orders for Tokyo Bay in the early days of World War II. The submarine’s mission is to enter the bay undetected and place a landing party ashore to obtain information vital to the upcoming Doolittle air raid on Tokyo.

Das Boot -This is the story of 42 raw recruits caught up in a war they didn’t understand, and the Captain who must lead them in their struggle to survive. This movie is truly a classic in that it tells the story of undersea battle from the other side of the lense in such as a way to really show that all the sailors serving in the subamrine corps were similar. They all were fighting for their countries for concepts only laid out in nationalist terms and they lived day in and day out under hellish conditions out of dedication and discipline.

Below – In the dark silence of the sea during World War II, the submarine U.S.S. Tiger Shark prowls on what should be a routine rescue mission. But for the shell-shocked crew, trapped together in the sub’s narrow corridors and constricted spaces, this is about to become a journey into the sensory delusions, mental deceptions and runaway fear that lurk just below the surface of the ocean and deep inside the human psyche.

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea – Admiral Nelson takes a brand new atomic submarine through its paces. When the Van Allen radiation belt catches fire, the admiral must find a way to beat the heat or watch the world go up in smoke. All while battling saboteurs, giant squids, crew discontent and the government. This movie was just one in a string of successful speculative Irwin Allen shows that spawned it’s own TV series.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - The oceans during the late 1860-92s are no longer safe; many ships have been lost. Sailors have returned to port with stories of a vicious narwhal (a giant whale with a long horn) which sinks their ships. A naturalist, Professor (Pierre) Aronnax, his assistant, Conseil, and a professional whaler, Ned Land, join an US expedition which attempts to unravel the mystery. Disney brought this visionary Jules Verne tale to life and brought subamrines into the minds of many with it’s cool depiction of life undersea.

U571 – In the midst of World War II, the battle below the seas rages. The Nazi’s have the upper edge as the Allies are unable to crack their war codes. That is, until a wrecked U-boat sends out an SOS signal, and the Allies realize this is their chance to seize the ‘enigma coding machine’. But masquerading as Nazi’s and taking over the U-boat is the smallest of their problems. The action really begins when they get stranded on the U-boat. This action movie changes the story around so that the Americans recover the supremely important code machine “Enigma” instead to the British as it actually happened, but it’s a good sub movie anyway. The sound quality is especially good as the sub is being blasted by depth charges.

Grey Lady Down - The USS Neptune, a nuclear submarine, is sunk off the coast of Connecticut after a collision with a Norwegian cargo ship. The navy must attempt a potentially dangerous rescue in the hope of saving the lives of the crew. Not the greatest of movies on this list but hey it’s got mini subs and Charlton Heston.

The Abyss – While James Cameron was between mega block buster movies he made this great underwater movie that never got the respect it deserved. An American nuclear submarine is attacked (during the cold war) and crashes underwater. The navy asks the workers of a nearby underwater oil rig who are joined by a number of navy SEALS to locate and investigate the cause of the crash. As the crew embark on their mission, they encounter a number of difficulties and discover that they may not be alone. There is something else down there.

Crimson Tide – In the near future, Russian rebels have taken over one of the ICBM bases in the USSR. Alarmed by the prospect of a rebel strike, the U.S. sends the U.S.S. Alabama, a nuclear ballistic submarine, to watch over the base and retaliate in case they launch. While on patrol, the submarine is attacked and the radio systems are knocked out. An emergency message received during the battle is only partially recovered. Captain Ramsey believes it to be the order to launch on the rebels, while XO Hunter wants to wait for a confirmation message. The conflict escalates into mutiny as Ramsey and Hunter fight for control of the Alabama’s nuclear missiles.  This movie has its’ flaws but it show life in the sub and the problems that can arise when one man weilding supreme power can affect world stability.

Hunt for Red October – Based on the Best Selling novel by Tom Clancy this film tells the story of Captain Marko Ramius, the skipper of the Soviet Union’s newest nuclear sub. Jack Ryan of the CIA gets involved in a tense, tangled hunt for this sub, when Ramius defects, taking the “Red October” with him. The story is an action packed techno-thriller. This movie has a great sound track, a skillfully told story on poticial intrigue, high tech sub developments and Sean Connery – what more could you ask for (plus Fred Thompson as a carrier skipper).

Thunderball - Ok, ok this one isn’t strictly a submarine movie but what the hey. It’s got mini subs, re-breathers, and some of the biggest underwater fight scenes ever filmed live (not digital). Oh yeah what was that other thing – Yeah – it’s got Sean Connery with a jet pack. Yee hah -

James Bond (Connery) continues on his fourth mission, with his aim to recover two stolen warheads. They have been taken by the evil SPECTRE organisation. The world is held hostage and Bond heads to Nassau. Here, he meets the beautiful Domino (Auger) and is forced into a thrilling confrontation with SPECTRE agent Emilio Largo (Celi), on board his boat, the Disco Volante. Will 007 prevent the killing of millions of innocent victims?

Well – what’er ya waiting for – pop some pop corn and start a movie now.

After being reminded by Ross that I forgot a great sub movie that had been submerged on the bottom of my mind (and it’s really dark there) I just had to come back and add.

Ice Station Zebra – This is truly a great submarine movie – I don’t know how it slipped my mind. It’s got top notch action, A-list actors, a race to the pole against the dreaded commies (back in the old days) and Ernest Borgnine with a cheesy accent. What more could you ask for? Plus if it was good enough for Howard Hughes to spend his final days of germophobe paranoia watching it over and over, it’s gotta be on this list.
The commander and crew of the nuclear sub USS Tigerfish have orders: get  a British civilian, a platoon of marines, and a friendly Russian to the North Pole to rescue the crew of Drift Ice Station Zebra, a weather station at the top of the world.

A cute submarine comedy I like is Operation Petticoat – where else you gonna find a pink submarine? And this before our current adminstration decided to let women serve on subs. This WWII comedy is directed by Blake Edwards – a man who knows a thing or two about funny movies (think Pink Panther and 10). This story finds Cary Grant as a submarine commander who finds himself stuck with a decrepit sub, a con-man executive officer (Tony Curtis) and a group of army nurses.

 

Osprey learning sea borne deployment

The crew of the US Bataan and its Marine air wing have become the Navy’s premier experts at operating the MV-22 Osprey aboard ships, mostly by making it up as they go along.

“It’s always something new, different and unexpected,” said Cmdr. Dan Olson, the ship’s air boss. “We are constantly trying to figure out stuff we don’t have published guidance for, and we’re always writing notes, e-mails off to spread what we know.”

When the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group and the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit sailed in May, they became the first ARG and MEU to deploy with Ospreys only — and none of the Corps’ old-standby CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and his entourage climbed aboard one of Bataan’s 10 Ospreys on Aug. 7 in Kuwait to experience the rocket-ship liftoff and silky fixed-wing flight out to the underway Bataan.

Olson said the ships in the ARG have become good at working the Ospreys into air operations, but unexpected things still crop up. “It can slow down operations, it’s cumbersome, it takes up more space on the flight deck than other aircraft,” he said.

Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263 and the crew of the Bataan have added more safety observers to keep an eye on the Ospreys and the flight deck crew members who work under the cyclonic downwash from their massive rotors.

Managing Ospreys on Bataan is just one part of the challenge. The tiltrotors also must take off and land from the other ships in the ARG, both of which have much smaller flight decks than Bataan. Capt. Sara Faibisoff, an Osprey pilot with VMM-263, said the small-deck gators could accommodate two Ospreys comfortably.

“It’s not that bad at all,” she said. “You make a slow approach, put it down and there’s plenty of space.”

The main difference with landing on small-deck gators is the damage its engine exhaust does to flight decks. An Osprey’s twin nacelles blast heat downward when a V-22 is in helicopter mode. Crew members aboard the small-deck amphibs have taken to setting up metal pads, known as “hot plates,” underneath the nacelles while an Osprey’s engines are running on the flight deck.

“We touch down, they run them in, and then they take them away before we launch,” Faibisoff said.

The Osprey had many skeptics aboard this ship and in Iraq’s western Anbar province, where it deployed last year, because of the controversy surrounding the aircraft’s quarter-century of development, its high cost, and crashes that killed more than two dozen Marines.

“When we were first flying up there, people didn’t want to fly in them — they were scared,” Faibisoff said. “It takes getting used to.”