This workmanlike thriller is based on the true story of a Soviet nuclear submarine that sprung a radioactive leak and almost started the Third World War in 1961. Harrison Ford plays the captain at loggerheads with his second-in-command, Liam Neeson; Ford is willing to sacrifice anything or anyone for the good of the Soviet Union, while Neeson has only the welfare of the crew at heart. After about an hour of these two locking horns, interspersed with shots of doomed sailors looking at photos of their loved ones, the nuclear reactor leaks and the film gets interesting. The horror of the radiation effects, the race against time, the claustrophobic tension - all of this works, but it's too little too late. By then we barely care what happens. And it boasts the least authentic accents since Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins - Neeson tries his best until he hears Ford's paltry effort and then decides not to bother after all.

When Russia's first nuclear submarine malfunctions on its maiden voyage, the crew must race to save the ship and prevent a nuclear disaster.