Hi Friends,
This is a movie with two of the most respected actors in Hollywood. It is full of high octane performances by power house actors. The story is about a US nuclear submarine which has been ordered to sail towards Russia and if need arises fire the nuclear missiles to neutralize Russia’s missile base on which nuclear missiles are ready to be fired on Washington and New York.
The Characters and Story
Gene Hackman is the captain of USS Alabama (the aforementioned submarine) and Denzel Washington is his excel i.e. second in command. If nuclear missiles are to be fired orders of only one of them are not sufficient. Both have to give orders, Gene succeeded by Denzel and then only the missiles can be fired.
This is the central idea. The story is that in Russia Martial law has been declared, with army taking the control of the nation the country is in civil war. Russia attacks some neighboring country and UK & USA stop all the monetary helps to Russia. Russia says that it is an act of war against her and takes control of a nuclear missile base. But the missile cannot be fired because there is a secret code for them. Still for safety purposes USS Alabama is ordered to sail armed with torpedoes and nuclear missiles. Now, the central command gets the information that the codes for nuclear base in Russia have been compromised and Russian president is threatening to use them.
In the story, this is the closest world can get WW III after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Finally, central command gets the information that after the codes being compromised the Russians have started preparing their missiles and they need only one hour to prepare missiles – to upload nuclear firepower on the missiles, the set their angles and whatever and finally fire them. So, if USA has to be saved USS Alabama which happens to be the closest, has to fire its nuclear weapons and neutralize the Russian base.
On board USS Alabama, the orders are received by Captain (Gene Hackman) who orders everything to be prepared. Now they only need to press the trigger.
But, suddenly out of nowhere a submarine appears on the radar of USS Alabama and now to get into firing position (which happens to be 150 feet from sea level) they need to eliminate the submarine. They somehow survive the submarine’s torpedoes and get are about to get into firing position when suddenly another message is received on board USS Alabama. Its from central command, its an incomplete message and it say ‘Nuclear Missile launch…….’ and after that connection is broken because communication system is damaged.
Now, if you thought that much must have been quite action packed just hold it because real action starts after this. And if you really want to know or don’t have the time to watch the movie then read on –
Gene Hackman ignores the order and says that they are going to go ahead with the order because the new message is an incomplete one and can’t be given any regard. Denzel Washington insists that the new message could be a message to abort and they should wait till the communication system is fixed so that they can make sure what the new orders were. The problem is they’ve got only 45 minutes.
What happens afterwards consists of high octane, high voltage drama by two veteran actor and they deliver to their best.
If you really want to know the rest of the story e-mail me and I will be pleased to tell you but for the sake of the reader who still hasn’t watched the movie I will stop here.
The Technical Aspects
Now, time for a word on the technical aspects of the movie. The camera work of the movie is good – just what you would expect from a Hollywood action flick. The background score is perfect. The weapon systems and submarine ‘dog-fight’, if my fighter-pilot brothers allow me to quote it like that, is nicely presented. The screenplay of the movie is very well written and there are no lose ends in the entire movie. The sets are fine too – telling to what a submarine looks from inside with good detail – not that you’d like to bother about it though.
Technically the movie is very well made and presented. Every technical aspect of movie is worth your every penny.
The Dramatical Aspects
The dialogues of movie are really fine. This is one thing I really look forward to movie – especially with actors like Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington you got to give then really nice dialogues or else you are wasting their time and your money!
The dialogues are with deep meanings and though its your routine action flick with some new twists to it – the conversations between Hackman and Washington on board USS Alabama do not fail to convey the same idea which every sensible action film maker tries to convey again and again – War is our biggest enemy, thus we should not fight.
The person who wrote screenplay and dialogues and story had a nice understanding of the naval procedures during emergency. A senior officer has the authority to remove another officer from duty while war time without answering any questions if he feels that the person is not doing his job or doing something which is not in the best interest of the nation. This is the law that I roughly know about the army procedures and I don’t have much idea about US Naval procedures but the kind of research put in is impressive.
Final Word
I would recommend this movie to every fan of Denzel Washington – the man has performed well in the movie. I don’t know much about the box office results of this movie so can’t comment on that but I tell you friends it is worth every penny. I bought it online from indiatimes.com and it cost me Rs. 180 plus courier expenses Rs. 20.
It’s a good movie and can be watched with family on a weekend. It is certainly not the kind of movie which I’d say is a ‘must see’ but it is sure enjoyable. It is an action movie and involves US Navy but if you are looking for an action movie with bullets and bombs and blood – something like ‘Black Hawk Down’ then give it a second thought.
Look out for high octane power packed performances from Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington et al and some good running-short-on-time-now-fire-the-damn-thing action. All in all, it’s a good movie – worth your money and worth adding to your collection.
Enjoy,
Khagesh Gautam