Question: The disagreement between Hunter and Ramsey centers on the interpretation of the message that got cut off - Hunter says it might be a recall order so it has to be verified before they launch missiles; Ramsey says it is meaningless because it got cut off, so they should proceed with their original orders. I do understand that the captain was working within a scary time limit (one hour till the Russians could fire their missiles), but I don't understand how anyone could justify not spending part of that hour trying to confirm the cut-off message. Naval command would hardly have radioed them again to say "Yes, we really want you to fire your missiles, we're just telling you again for emphasis," so that means it was not just possible but extremely likely that the cut-off message was a recall order. Given that, how could anyone in their right mind want to cause a nuclear holocaust without first trying to find out what the cut-off message really said?
Crimson Tide (1995)
1 commented-on entry since 18 Mar '25, 02:11
Directed by: Tony Scott
Starring: Denzel Washington, Gene Hackman, Viggo Mortensen, George Dzundza, Matt Craven
Continuity mistake: When the incomplete second EAM is shown in the movie for the first time, its subject line states "nuclear missile launc..." However, when this same message is finally received at the end of the movie the subject line states: "terminate launch all missiles". If the first one had been consistent with the second this would have made quite a difference. (00:55:45 - 01:45:25)
Capt. Ramsey: I expect and demand your very best. Anything less, you should have joined the Air Force.
Trivia: I just saw the movie Crash Dive 2 (which is also about submarines and also involves an enemy Akula-class sub) and it has many recycled scenes from Crimson Tide. To name a few: the scene where the sub does a "snap shot" of two torpedoes, the scene of the Akula being hit, and the scene where a torpedo barely misses the heroes' sub.
Question: If the radio antenna was cut, how in the world did they get communication? It seems they were working on the radio on the sub, what good would that do if there was no antennae?
Chosen answer: The ship has a second antenna, but the radio is damaged during the torpedo attack. Therefore they have to fix it in order to use the backup antenna.
Answer: In a war situation, the Captain is absolutely NOT allowed to try and contact anyone, lest it gives their position away, which is why he was unable to question or confirm the order.
GalahadFairlight
All respect to GalahadFairlight, but Hunter was not asking the Captain to 'contact' anyone, but rather to use all possible measures to receive the EAM. Active contact was not required, and in fact, going shallow would have been 100% necessary just to launch the missiles, at which point VLF reception would have been easily possible. No nuclear submarine captain would ever have been so stubborn, nor so dismissive of his own XO. Both of these were pure Hollywood inventions.