Remember Crimson Tide, the
1995 feature film in which Gene Hackman is the skipper of a nuclear missile-carrying
submarine and Denzel Washington his reluctant first mate? If you haven’t
watched it in a while, now’s the time.
In it, civil war has broken out in post-Soviet Russia. An
ultra-nationalist rebel military leader called Vladimir Radchenko and his
followers have taken over a Russian nuclear missile installation and threaten
to trigger a nuclear holocaust if either the Russian central government or the
US federal government decides to challenge their power.
Captain Frank Ramsey (Hackman) is the skipper of the USS Alabama, who
has received orders to have his nuclear sub in position to launch a pre-emptive
nuclear strike if Radchenko should attempt to prepare his missiles for an
attack. Ramsey is an old salt and one of the few naval commanders with any real
war-time experience. His executive officer, Lieutenant Commander Ron Hunter (Washington),
is a modern, highly educated Navy officer with in-depth studies in military
history and extensive strategic training but no combat experience whatsoever.
This military generation gap and vast difference in styles lead to
rising tension between the two officers even before the plot thickens. On the
one hand, Captain Ramsey is a hard-nosed, impulsive, my-orders-above-all, sort
of officer, while Commander Hunter is a cautious, discerning, analytical leader
who, although highly disciplined, isn’t above double-checking orders that might
be questionable or illegal.
The real clash between the two men comes when the Alabama receives
emergency action orders. Satellite images appear to show that Radchenko is fuelling
up his missiles to launch an attack. The order Skipper Ramsey receives is to
launch an immediate preemptive nuclear attack on Radchenko’s facility. As he’s
making preparations to do so, however, a second message starts coming in from
the naval command. But only half of it reaches the Alabama before a rogue Russian
submarine that backs Radchenko attacks Ramsey’s sub and knocks out its
communications.
Damage to the Alabama’s communications electronics keeps the sub’s crew
from being able to decode the second half of the message. And here, the two
officers’ totally different approaches result in a split that has Hunter trying
to instill logic and Ramsey bent on obeying the last orders available—to launch
a nuclear attack. The drama is a modern version of a story not unlike Mutiny on the Bounty or The Caine Mutiny in which a captain’s
refusal to see logic leads to other officers questioning his fitness to
continue serving.
In this case, Hunter reasons that theirs is not the only US sub in the
region and that the others will be in possession of the full second order,
which may very well be a retraction of the first. And if that is the case, the
Alabama may well end up being responsible for initiating nuclear holocaust on
the capricious strength of only partial information. Ramsey contends, however,
that orders are orders and that without communications, there’s no way for the
Alabama to know whether or not the other US subs in the region have also been attacked
and perhaps destroyed. His sub may be the last thing standing between Radchenko
and a nuclear attack on the United States.
A military drama ensues in which Hunter takes command and confines
Ramsey, at gunpoint, to his stateroom. However, in the midst of the mutiny, the
Alabama is again attacked by a Radchenko-loyal vessel. After a brief chase and
undersea naval battle, the Alabama emerges victorious. But the skipper has
managed to take advantage of the chaos to pull off a counter-mutiny and to arm
enough men to place Hunter and some of his fellow mutineers under arrest in the
officer’s mess. Ramsey again begins the countdown to nuclear missile launch,
but Hunter and his men escape and retake command, while in the meantime, the
technical crew find a way to repair the damage to communications.
In happy-ending Hollywood style, rugged individualism and Hunter save
the day. Commander Hunter halts the nuclear strike, just as the second message
is finally decoded, telling the Alabama to stand down from the original orders.
Crimson Tide is supposedly based on a true story of an incident
that actually took place during the Cuban Missile Crisis, back in the early
sixties. But as the movie ends, you can’t help thinking about how much more
capricious, illogical and dangerous the world is today. Even just twenty-five
years down the road since the film was made, you tend to ask yourself whether,
if something similar happened today, could a worldwide nuclear catastrophe be
avoided?
These are some things any sane person is certain to ponder when the
chief executive of the US places the Armed Forces on red alert for a preemptive
strike on the territory of a foreign power in the morning and by the afternoon
has said, well, okay, maybe not. Logically, you have to breathe a sigh of
relief that the man in charge—and holder of the nuclear codes—decided against
his first impulse.
But that also leads you to realize that it was just that, a personal
impulse with no more apparent consideration or consultation than the reactionary
tweets for which he is infamous. And then too, you have to realize to what
extent the US and the world are subject to the whims of a single American oligarch.
And, what all can go wrong in the timespan between the whimsical orders and counter-orders
on which his policies turn.
