Maidgethma Wonderfully offbeat film!

Sarentrol Masterful Cinema

Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Kayden This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Robert J. Maxwell At the time that Ronald Reagan and Sergei Gorbachev schedule a meeting in Iceland about reducing nuclear weapons, two submarines are playing tag under the Atlantic Ocean. The American submarine, commanded by Martin Sheen wearing dark hair and an impeccably groomed gray beard, accidentally scrapes the Soviet submarine, commanded by Rutger Hauer, whose movie this is.No damage to the American boat but the incident has sheared off part of the top deck of the Soviet boat. Fuel floods one of the compartments, the missile bay and it's put out only by the exercise of Herculean strength and bravery.But, like the corpse coming back to life in a horror movie, something else flares up. The nuclear power plant goes ape. It has to be shut down manually by men wearing Hazmat suits and putting all their strength into returning the rods to the radioactive materials before they pass out. The rods creak downward, inch by agonizing inch. Success in sinking the rods and shutting down the radiation is finally achieved, with loss of life, but the boat is now so dangerous it must be abandoned and it sinks thousands of feet before coming to rest on the ocean bottom, still carrying sixteen missiles, several corpses, and a radioactive power plant.Hauer handled the emergency as well as any experienced captain could but he's still dismissed from the Soviet Navy. He returns to his wife, Sanja Spengler, who looks so yummy that he shouldn't be suicidal about the way things turned out.It's hard to tell how much of it is true because nobody with any weight seems prepared to talk about it but it has the ring of at least semi-truth. There is a commissar aboard, representing Moscow, and a member of KGB. These political types are usually treated badly in American movies. They're often ugly and they sneer a lot. No wonder Sean Connery broke his commissar's neck in "The Hunt for Red October." In this movie the commissar begins as a superior snotnose. Hauer always greets him with "How's Moscow" and then movies quickly on. But here the commissar, though no sailor, plays a pivotal part in the attempts to save the ship and his last communication with Hauer is a friendly, sympathetic smile.It drags a bit here and there, and some of the technical details escape me. Needles wriggle on strange dials. Incomprehensible orders are issued. But it's not at all a bad movie. The Russians are rational, though they have their hawks. The Americans are rational too, although they have their hawks who want to start the damme war and get on with it.The production values are low and he CGIs primitive but it's a much more balanced story than either "The Hunt For Red October" or "The Widowmaker." If you watch it you'll probably be caught up in this tense story.

danzeisen Playing the captain of the Soviet sub which has an inadvertent collision with an American sub Rutger Hauer does a wonderfully understated job of acting the role. In fact I was pleasantly surprised by all the acting, especially being a TV film. The Soviet sub has a leak of missile fuel which catches fire with toxic fumes. Hauer contains the fire with desperate work by the crew, some of whom die in the effort. The fire threatens the reactor, which start to run out of control and must have manual control rods lowered in the reactor room. By this point they are low on oxygen and have a very small amount for use by the men selected for the job. "Hunt for Red October" while also sub movie is a different kind of movie, more in the tradition of a blockbuster. This movie shows the tension that the men feel, and breath, and is more subtle and realistic in showing how folks under pressure have to contain themselves and their situation to survive. Really a good movie, and yes, let's give Rutger Hauer some more good meaty roles like this one, he has shown the acting chops for it!

ianlouisiana This is pretty much a one man show.Mr R.Hauer is outstanding as the Russian submarine captain determined at all costs to save his crew after a nuclear accident at sea.His is the only character allowed to develop.His American counterpart - Mr M.Sheen - is very one - dimensional by comparison. Mr Hauer is hypnotic.No wonder his men are willing to follow him to hell and back.He radiates strength and integrity. The Cold War politics may seem slightly ridiculous until you remember the reluctance of the Russian navy to acknowledge the plight of the "Kursk" much more recently - proof - if it were needed - that suspicion is deeply rooted in that nation's soul. There is a smattering of British thesps scattered through the Russian crew giving it a certain European gravitas. The claustrophobic nature of the submariner's life is well realised. Whether the incident recounted in the movie occurred in real life is obviously a moot point, but that debate should not be allowed to sideline the overwhelming merits of this production. Before reading the other comments on this site I hadn't realised that "Hostile Waters" was a TV movie;without being in any way patronising I can only say that only makes it even more impressive.

philphoto I spent 24 years at sea and I liked this film because of the accurate portrayal (of the Russians ) in an emergency situation and the way the situations were assessed and dealt with was pretty genuine.Like Sailors everywhere ( well most sailors with some sad exceptions ie Flag of convenience Passenger ships where the crew take to the boats first in recent years)They realise they have to pull together and get things sorted in order to save their Ship ,themselves, and the Eastern US SeaboardWhen I was at sea we had a typical British tongue in cheek saying'If in Danger or in doubt run in circles scream and shout'Which luckily never happens in reality (I hope..)No Nationalistic ranting or Stars/Stripes/Hammer and sickle waving -But do we need that anyway?