Plot
The American destroyer USS Bedford (DLG-113) detects a Soviet submarine in the GIUK gap near the Greenland coast. Though they are not at war, Captain Eric Finlander (Widmark) harries his prey mercilessly, while civilian photojournalist Ben Munceford (Poitier) and NATO naval advisor, Commodore (and ex-World War II U-boat captain) Wolfgang Schrepke (Portman), look on with mounting alarm. Because the submarine is not powered by a nuclear reactor, its submerged endurance is limited. This gives Finlander an advantage, but also means the Russians will be more desperate. Also aboard the ship are Ensign Ralston (James MacArthur), an inexperienced young officer constantly being criticized by his captain for small errors, and Lieutenant Commander Chester Potter, USNR (Martin Balsam), the ship's new doctor who is a reservist recently recalled to active duty.
Munceford is on board in order to photograph life on a navy destroyer, but his real interest is Captain Finlander, who was recently passed over for promotion to rear admiral. Munceford is curious as to why. He is treated with mounting hostility by the captain because he is seen as a civilian putting his nose where it does not belong and because he disagrees with Finlander's decision to continue with an unnecessary and dangerous confrontation. Finlander is hostile to anyone who is not involved in the hunt - including the doctor.
The crew becomes increasingly fatigued by the unrelenting pursuit. The conflict escalates into a collision between the vessels. Captain Finlander orders Bedford to withdraw to a safe distance. He reassures Munceford and Schrepke that he is in command of the situation and that he will not fire first, but that "If he fires one, I'll fire one." Ensign Ralston mistakes Finlander's remark as an order to "Fire one" and launches an anti-submarine rocket, which destroys the submarine. Their sonar detects a salvo of four nuclear-armed torpedoes coming at the destroyer. Despite Munceford's frantic pleading, Finlander does nothing to save his ship, perhaps because he recognises that there is no way of escaping. The movie ends with still shots of various crewmen "melting" as if the celluloid film were burning as Bedford and her crew are vaporized. The last image is an iconic, towering mushroom cloud from the torpedo detonations.
The movie bears an uncanny resemblance to the real-life, forced surfacing of Soviet submarine B-59 during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Unbeknownst to the American destroyers hunting B-59, it carried a nuclear torpedo, and the captain, thinking he was under attack and that World War III might be going on up on the surface, considered using his weapon. Unlike in the movie, where Finlander knew the sub carried a nuclear torpedo, the presence of one on B-59 was unknown to most people until decades later.
Read more about this topic: The Bedford Incident
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—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)