What does Hollywood do when there are no longer vicious Reds under the bed and no more Soviet villains to provide convenient political scapegoats? This gung-ho blockbuster from the Top Gun team (director Tony Scott and producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer) simply dusts off the time-honoured Russian menace with a script that turns post-Cold War cartwheels to explain an impending Armageddon. An American nuclear submarine, the USS Alabama, is ordered to make a pre-emptive strike on Russian "ultra-nationalist" rebels who have taken over a missile base, then receives a second, incomplete radio message suggesting it holds off the attack. The submarine's captain, Gene Hackman, is determined to remedy the explosive situation using his nuclear capability, whatever the consequences. However, his mutinous executive officer (Denzel Washington) stands between him and the horribly alluring Doomsday button. Hackman gives one of his most convincing bully-boy performances as an underwater Captain Bligh, plumb crazy with power but hitting a brick wall in the form of a resolute second-in-command. Propelled at full throttle by fast pacing, impressive hi-tech and a palpable friction between the two leads, the underwater action is further fuelled by a slick score from Hans Zimmer. This is riveting stuff, an achievement that is even more remarkable in view of the movie's restricted setting - a submarine's claustrophobic confines. It's not profound, but it is good.

After the Cold War, a breakaway Russian republic with nuclear warheads becomes a possible worldwide threat. U.S. submarine Capt. Frank Ramsey signs on a relatively green but highly recommended Lt. Cmdr. Ron Hunter to the USS Alabama, which may be the only ship able to stop a possible Armageddon. When Ramsey insists that the Alabama must act aggressively, Hunter, fearing they will start rather than stop a disaster, leads a potential mutiny to stop him.