'Hunter Killer' Review: Torpedo in the Water, but is it a Dud?

Hunter Killer Directed by Donovan Marsh | Action, Thriller | R | 2h 8m

By William Lydon

Dec 8, 2018

Beneath the white ice sheets of the Barent Sea, a silent tango is danced between the world’s quietest warships. An American Los-Angeles-class submarine, the Miami, tails a Russian Akula-class from only half a mile behind, keeping track of her location in the frigid depths. The Miami's captain, calmly standing vigil on the dimly lit bridge, is humming along with the hushed activity of the modern nuclear attack boat with keen eyes. Nestled in the Akula’s baffles (the noisy area directly behind a submarine's propeller), she is camouflaged from sonar in the noise generated by the Akula's propeller. The Los-Angeles class is all but invisible to the Russian boat and her crew.

However, the silence is broken all at once, as a sonar operator reports, “Loud explosion bearing two-six-nine.” The Akula’s detonation resonates through the water and hull with a sickening reverberation, a distant doom for the 62 souls aboard the Russian vessel. At once the bridge becomes a fury of actions, questions demanding what has happened, and status updates on the accident only broken by another sonar report - this one dreaded by every submariner. “Torpedo in the water, bearing one-nine-zero…” followed by the deadly pinging of the weapon's own sonar guidance system accelerating as it locks on for the kill…

The opening moments of Hunter Killer play like something out of a Tom Clancy novel, reflecting its roots in print. Based off the 2012 book, Firing Point by Don Keith and George Wallace, Hunter Killer is another military film that tries, with the aid of U.S. Navy technical support and an A-list cast, to create a submarine version of Top Gun with a story to match. Deep beneath the Barent sea, an American submarine has gone missing at the doorstep of Russia’s largest naval base. One of the Navy's newest attack subs is tasked with finding it, and unknowingly sails into the cross-hairs of a plot to usurp the Russian president. Now, all that stands between peace and war is the USS Arkansas and a team of Navy SEALs deep in enemy territory never before traversed by Americans. The only hope of averting a crisis that could spark all out war is to join forces with a loyal Russian submarine commander to guide them through some of the world’s most dangerous waters.

Hunter Killer stars Gerard Butler as Commander Joe Glass, the new CO of the USS Arkansas, veteran character actor Gary Oldman as Admiral Charles Donegan, late Swedish actor Michael Nyqvist as Russian submarine Captain Sergei Andropov, Mikhail Gorevoy as the villainous Russian Defense Minister Durov and Toby Stephens as Navy SEAL Lt Commander Bill Beaman. The cast delivers the kind of performances expected in a military film - stern authoritative officers. (Although Gary Oldman is wasted, playing a mostly idiotic admiral whose roll is blown out of proportion on the poster.)

Both Nyqivst and Butler have the aura of command made famous of the performances of past skippers like Sean Connery in Red October and Jürgen Prochnow in Das Boot, calm and collected with a plan for evasion and survival always at the tip of their minds and always keeping the audience guessing on their next moves. Toby Stephens was the most convincing, as the Navy SEAL Lt Commander leading the mission on land. He carries himself as a no nonsense warrior who leads from the front and leaves the field with every man behind him, even if he has to carry them to do it. However, none of the actors broke out to become memorable in any way.

Special effects are a mix of mock up sets of the USS Arkansas interior which was painstakingly built to accuracy, although the scenes using CGI to portray the submarine and other warships get the job done despite the quality being lower than expected, looking like something out of an early 2000's submarine simulator rather than a big budget film. Fortunately, the action on land redeems this fault somewhat with gunfights and explosions that have an action feel, even if the portrayal is unrealistic. These land scenes get the film moving again. The work of director Donovan Marsh does a welcome job of using the right amount of cutting, allowing the viewer to get a sense of the action, but not miss what else is going on, and he sets the mood well in the chaotic battle scenes and the quieter moments.

My appraisal of Hunter Killer is that the film is flawed as a poor adaptation attempt, not living up to its source material at all, causing the plot to make very little sense (Why did the Russian Defense Minister kidnap his own president?) and suffers further from reality breaking film issues (Navy SEALs walking around in broad daylight at the Polyarny naval base never seem to get spotted) and of course the cardinal sin of bullets traveling through water (Newton is rolling over in his grave as we speak). However, I must give it high marks as an action film and for generating an interest in the Silent Service, perhaps inspiring a new generation of submariners, and serving as a film on Russian-American cooperation in a time when the political climates of either nation need to see the human sides of one another. Hunter Killer gets three Mark 46 torpedos (Stars) out of five.

Image credits to Lionsgate