Hostile Waters (1997) on Netflix
The Soviet submarine K-219 performs a Crazy Ivan, and the American submarine Aurora collides with her. Toxic gas and fire flood K-219, and Captain Britanov surfaces the boat.
- Netflix3.2/5
- IMDb6.3/102,503 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
In 1986, the Soviet Navy submarine K-219 runs a Crazy Ivan, and the American submarine Aurora collides with her. The impact ruptures the seal on one of K-219's ballistic missile tubes, and seawater leaks in and sets off a corrosive reaction that fills the boat with toxic gas. A fire starts, and more toxic gas and smoke spread through K-219. Captain Britanov surfaces the boat and moves his crew out onto the deck while he tries to vent it, and the chief engineer tells him the fire may set off the missiles and cause a nuclear explosion. Aurora informs the Pentagon, which fears contamination of the Eastern Seaboard and tells the boat to prepare to sink K-219. The open launch doors on K-219 alarm Washington, where the call is for immediate action should the boat appear about to launch.
Cast
- James E. Kerras Aznabaev
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Hostile Waters (1997)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- K-219's commander, Igor Britanov, sued HBO's parent company Warner Bros., saying the film-makers never asked his permission to portray him and made him look incompetent. After three years of hearings, a 2004 American court found in his favour and awarded damages; Russian media put the sum at tens of thousands of dollars.
- HBO's involvement made Hostile Waters financially possible, but the network demanded American characters at the center of the film, none of them named after real Americans, for fear of legal action, and Troy Kennedy Martin's script went through ten versions.
- Ahead of the broadcast, the United States Navy's chief of information denied the story of a collision with K-219, saying the Navy does not normally comment on submarine operations but was compelled to respond because the scenario was so outrageous.
- The film's postscript notes that almost a decade after the end of the Cold War, fifty one nuclear warheads and seven nuclear reactors from nuclear submarines lie on the floor of the North Atlantic.
- The American submarine that collides with K-219 is called the Aurora in the film; the real submarine involved, the Augusta, was renamed for the drama.
