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Matt Glasby

This is the latest instalment in our From the Vault feature series, in which we reflect on culturally significant movies celebrating notable anniversaries.
Thirty years after its release in May 1995, Tony Scott’s submarine thriller feels terrifyingly timely.
The film that saw one of the last great roles for Gene Hackman, who died in February, posits a world on the verge of World War III because of a conflict in Eastern Europe. Swap civil unrest in Chechnya for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and it could have been plucked from today’s headlines.
Scott (1944-2012) was a British filmmaker known for testosterone-fuelled action films such as Top Gun, also produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer.


Although Crimson Tide retains the team’s usual trademarks – hyperactive editing, fetishised military hardware, lots of men shouting at each other – they are always in service of the story.
Beginning with (fake) CNN footage and based on events that took place during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, Crimson Tide always feels authentic, no matter how intense things get.
When a Russian nuclear missile base falls to a rebel leader, America launches the USS Alabama to keep the peace. In charge is veteran Captain Frank Ramsey (Hackman) with new XO (executive officer) Lieutenant Commander Ron Hunter (Denzel Washington).
While Hunter is a Harvard graduate, considered, calm and politically astute, Ramsey is a no-nonsense man of action with a Maga-ish cap and an ever-ready aphorism. “I can’t stand save-a**es and I won’t abide kiss-a**es,” he warns.

Hackman was apparently just as blunt. “Gene’s a perfectionist,” admitted Scott. “He never does anything in half measures. He’s an icon. A very strong guy, very tough, very straightforward and honest. He can’t abide indecision.”
While the rest of the cast includes ascendant talents such as Viggo Mortensen and James Gandolfini, the real genius lies in putting two legendary stars – with four Oscars and 14 nominations between them – in a pressurised environment, then watching the sparks fly.
To begin with, Ramsey tests Hunter by asking whether bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the right thing to do. Hunter’s careful response, that, “In the nuclear world the true enemy is war itself,” is in stark contrast to what Ramsey would have said: “Drop that f**ker. Twice!”
Discussions on the philosophy of war are not something you would normally expect in a Tony Scott film.

But the rumour is that Michael Schiffer’s excellent script was punched up by Robert Towne (Chinatown), Steven Zaillian (Schindler’s List) and a young Quentin Tarantino, with Towne responsible for this slyly revealing scene.
Tarantino’s contributions – mostly clunky pop-culture references to Star Trek and the Silver Surfer – are rather easier to spot.
Soon, Ramsey and Hunter have to put their principles into action when they receive – garbled – orders to launch nuclear missiles at the Russian base. While Ramsey, of course, wants to push the button; Hunter begs him to wait until they know more.
But when an enemy attack leaves them cut off from the outside world, they must battle to win the hearts and minds of the crew.
It is a fascinating dilemma, because from their own perspectives each character is correct.

For Ramsey, their job is to follow orders, not question them, and anything else risks bringing down the entire chain of command. Whereas Hunter believes they must be certain the orders are correct before starting a nuclear war.
Scott’s films are never short of stirring nationalism, but this offers a rare moral complexity. In the face of potential world devastation, what use are personal scruples? Or as Ramsey puts it: “We’re here to preserve democracy, not to practise it.”
Such high drama gives the usual submarine movie tropes – flashing red lights, men sliding down ladders, sudden torpedo attacks – new urgency. It is equally refreshing to see an action movie in which guns are, ultimately, less important than words.
As the film counts down towards global destruction in (almost) real time, the last hour is desperately tense, the stand-offs between Ramsey and Hunter getting more heated and personal. Even then, Washington barely raises his voice. He does not need to – it is all in his eyes.

While it might be tempting to read these battles as right-wing certainty versus left-wing equanimity, perhaps it is more a case of heart versus head.
Whichever side you are on, the film offers the chance to see two of the greatest actors of all time going toe to toe, and neither giving an inch.
The closing text tells us that, as of January 1996, such a situation could never happen. Why? Only one person in America has the power to push the nuclear button – the US president. In which case, to quote Hunter, God help us all.
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Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington play officers at odds aboard a US submarine in a countdown to nuclear Armageddon in Tony Scott’s film


Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington play officers at odds aboard a US submarine in a countdown to nuclear Armageddon in Tony Scott’s film.


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Why Denzel Washington vs Gene Hackman thriller Crimson Tide remains relevant 30 years on

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington play officers at odds aboard a US submarine in a countdown to nuclear Armageddon in Tony Scott’s film

Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington play officers at odds aboard a US submarine in a countdown to nuclear Armageddon in Tony Scott’s film