K-19: The Widowmaker Page #6

Our situation is desperate.

The reactor repair has failed.

At any moment

we could have an explosion

which could set off the warheads.

This would destroy

the American ship, only...

a few kilometers

from the NATO base.

Given the current level of tensions

between our countries,

this could result in horrifying

retaliatory attacks on the motherland.

We...we could dive

and attempt to repair the reactor,

but there are no guarantees.

I am standing by.

Secure both bulkhead doors.

Compartment ten isolated.

Compartment nine clear of smoke.

Manned and ready.

Compartment eight, serving

the Soviet Union, Comrade Captain.

Compartment seven, standing by

to do our duty, Captain.

Compartment five, manned and ready.

Compartment four,

we await your orders, Captain.

Compartment one,

we are with you, Captain.

Ready to dive, Captain.

- Dive the boat.

- Dive the boat!

Make her depth 300 meters.

Keep five degrees.

- Flood all main ballasts.

- Flood all main ballasts!

Electric motors full ahead together.

- Full ahead together!

- Keep five degrees bow down.

Radtchenko.

Lieutenant Radtchenko.

Lieutenant Radtchenko. Report.

Captain.

Reactor temperature

is 760 degrees and rising.

Lieutenant Radtchenko.

Vadim.

- Where is he?

- He's inside.

How long has he been in there?

- 18 minutes.

- 18.

- Captain! You can't go in...

- Secure the hatch!

Vadim!

I can't see! I can't see!

Captain. I'm sorry.

Open the hatch!

- 280 meters.

- Level off.

Coming through.

Open the bulkhead door!

He got a terrible dose.

Who's going in next?

Captain. The temperature's falling.

He did it.

He turned himself into a hero.

Surface the boat!

Blow the main ballast! Rise the

planes. Keep 15 degrees by the bow.

Motors at full ahead together.

- You have the conn.

- Full raise. 15 degrees by the bow.

I have the conn.

Signal the American Captain

as soon as we surface.

Tell him we require his assistance.

- Yes, Captain.

- Yes, Captain.

- Up periscope!

- Periscope going up!

Men...

you have done your duty

for the motherland.

The Party is proud of you.

I am...

I am proud of you.

Captain?

Captain?

Yes, Vadim. I'm here.

The weld, is it holding?

Yes, Vadim.

The weld is holding.

You're a hero, Vadim. Do you hear?

You're a hero.

You are all...

all of you...

heroes.

I had hoped one of our boats

would find us.

But the radiation levels

are rising too quickly.

I have asked the American captain...

for his help.

Prepare to abandon the boat.

American destroyer. Bearing 0-4-5.

Range 2,000 meters.

Captain, I have a contact!

- What the...?

- Captain!

- The boat could be in trouble.

- What sort of trouble?

I've known Captain Vostrikov

personally for half his life.

There isn't a submariner in the navy

whose loyalty I trust more.

More than his father's loyalty?

I never knew his father.

Captain!

Captain!

When my father went to sea

he used to carry these great handfuls

of dirt in his pockets.

A bit of the motherland, he said.

He would rather die

than betray his country.

Contact me from the bridge

when the last lifeboat is loaded.

I'll sink the boat.

The Americans won't get her.

That won't be necessary, Captain.

Our submarine S270 has found us.

Yes.

Confirm and out.

Reply from Moscow, Captain,

sent through S270.

Your request to remove the men

from the boat is denied, Captain.

They're sending a freighter

to tow us back to base.

Anything else?

They said...

they said to give the men

plenty of fresh fruit.

I want my men off this boat.

I am countermanding Moscow.

You know that will be

the end of your career?

They'll send you to the Gulag.

Like your father.

Well, it's a family tradition, isn't it?

Let's go. Let's go.

Come on.

Easy.

Good. Good.

You must be decontaminated,

you understand?

We must make you clean.

It's cold but you'll be warmer inside.

You must take your clothes off.

We will decontaminate you.

and destroy the clothes.

Then you can go down below.

- Take off your pants.

- Next!

Easy.

Be careful there!

This is your boat, Misha.

I lost my position, Yuri,

but not my self-respect.

You lost both.

- Where am I going?

- They're taking you across, Vadim.

I need my picture of Katya.

- Where is it?

- In my pocket.

Here you are.

There it is.

I can't see!

I can't see her!

All men accounted for, Captain.

Why didn't you take command

when you had the chance?

Because what they did was wrong.

Prepare the tow, Captain.

Captain.

Get all these men up! Move!

Lev, you're a welcome sight!

Moscow said you were defecting

with your boat.

- What?

- They want a list of the men

fit enough to testify.

Testify? About what?

About you.

- Alexei.

- Make sure all the lines are secure!

- Come on, you're going home.

- Thank you, Doctor. We did it.

We're going home.

Let's go home.

At every stage of this disaster,

which came within moments

of being a far greater disaster,

the officers and crew did

what had to be done.

Seven are now dead.

And nobody knows how many more

are dying or how fast.

These are the men

who returned home to be interrogated

as if a crime had been committed.

Questioned, even while undergoing

treatment for radiation poisoning.

Locked up and denied access

to wives and families.

But they and their comrades

saved K-19.

And maybe...

just maybe...they saved

all of you as well.

Thank you, Captain Polenin.

- One thing more, please.

- Thank you.

No captain in the Soviet Navy

has ever been faced

with such decisions.

The fate of the boat, the crew...

the fate of the world.

All in the balance.

The navy is my life.

And one thing I know. There can be

only one captain of a ship.

The burden of command

is on his shoulders and his alone.

None of you...

none of you has the right

to judge Captain Vostrikov.

You weren't there.

I was.

He was our captain.

He was my captain.

And it would be an honor

to sail under his command again.

East Germany has agreed to do

what the west has been demanding

for more than a generation.

After opening up the Berlin wall

the government announced

it will hold democratic elections.

You're not so tall as I remember.

It's good to see you.

And you.

Please.

I'm glad you found me.

But today was, in fact,

not very convenient.

No, no. It had to be today.

Your crew.

It was 28 years ago today.

Captain. A toast.

To the men still on patrol.

For their courage

I nominated these men

for the title

"Hero of the Soviet Union".

But the committee ruled

that because it was not wartime...

because it was merely an accident...

they were not worthy

of the title "Hero".

What good are honors

from such people?

These men sacrificed

not for a medal...

but because when the time came...

it was their duty.

Not to the navy or to the state

but to us.

Their comrades.

And so...

- To comrades.

- To comrades!

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