Posted on 06/29/2002 4:35:16 PM PDT by pabianice
According to this web site, the movie is "based upon the true story of the USSR's first nuclear ballistic submarine, K-19, which on June 4th, 1961, while sailing in the North Alantic, discovered that the cooling system of the reactor had failed, leading to a possible nuclear meltdown. 20 sailors died in the effort of radiation poisoning, but the leak was fixed, disaster averted."
Oops. K-19 was not the USSR's first nuclear ballistic submarine. It was one of a number of the NATO-code "Hotel class" subs. Both the "Juliet" and "Golf" classes preceeded the Hotel.
It gets worse. "Premise: The captain (Ford) of the Russian submarine, K-19, must lead his crew's efforts to prevent their vessel from having a nuclear meltdown. When the cooling unit of the reactor breaks down, Vostrikov and his second-in-command (Neeson) must figure out how to save their ship, because if it blows, it could cause a nuclear explosion that would be interpreted as the first strike of a nuclear war..."
BZZTTT! Wrong answer! Would you care to guess again?
A reactor going critical and melting-down cannot cause a nuclear explosion (although it can cause major radiological contamination). But if this summary is true, we have a movie "based upon a true incident" written by someone who doesn't know a neutron from a navel orange. Not a good sign.
Director: Kathryn Bigelow (Strange Days, Point Break, Near Dark, Blue Steel; her latest is The Weight of Water)
Screenwriter: Christopher Kyle (cowriter of The Weight of Water; also has Alexander starting production soon)
BTW, for a page on the sub reportedly used for the movie, go
http://www.projectboats.com/whiskeyFAQ.html
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