The Bedford Incident (1965)
As in the novel, Captain Finlander (Richard Widmark) ignores the advice of just about everybody as he orders his crew to relentlessly hunt the Russian submarine. An ensign, near the breaking point, hears Finlander say that if the Russian fires a torpedo (”fire one”) and mistakenly obeys what he thinks is a fire order. The Russian sub is destroyed by the Bedford’s torpedo — but apparently had time to fire off one of its own (actually several — apparently the Russians were on a hair-trigger as well). Finlander, in shock, can do nothing, despite Munceford’s (Sidney Poitier) protestations that he do something. The salvo hits home, obliterating the ship and killing everybody, leaving nothing behind but a huge mushroom cloud. Even the cloud disappears, leaving the North Atlantic in silence.
Added spoiler for the book: The movie follows the book fairly closely until after the destruction of the Russian sub. In the book, the sub never got a shot off at Bedford, and the Americans end up fishing the sea for remains. The German Navy skipper, perhaps out of guilt (or maybe to forestall a one-sided ending which might trigger WWIII) sabotages one of Bedford’s missile launchers, and destroys the ship. Everybody dies but Munceford, who’s still clinging to wreckage when a Russian support ship shows up.
— Thanks to Ari Rottenberg!
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