Phantom

Imagine my surprise when I find a relatively recent, submarine-set movie which, not only have I never heard of, but that stars Ed Harris, William Fichtner, David Duchovny, and Lance Henrikson. Perhaps you don't need to imagine it, maybe you are feeling it right now? If history has taught us anything, there are really only three reasons something like this could happen. One, the 'living under a rock' scenario which, since we are all hanging around a social media site about movies, isn't likely the case here. Second, the movie must be so absolutely godawful that everyone tries to pretend it never existed in the first place (like, say, [The Con is On](https://boxd.it/3dKgkf)). The third is where the film is odd enough that the studio doesn't seem to know what to do with it. 'Phantom' is the third of these, but before you get all excited, it isn't odd in the 'cool' way that you might be thinking. Even had it not been released in the aftermath of yet another US presidential election cycle (where all candidates constantly play up how great 'Murica is), a film where the heroes are 'ordinary' (as in non-political) *Russian* naval officers and sailors was going to be a hard sell. And setting it in 1968 at the height of the Cold War probably didn't help. Also, going against type for these sorts of things, the major roles are all played by Americans speaking in 'American,' and not by Brits speaking in 'Russian-accented English,' which may have been a bit of a conceptual leap for the audience. There *are* a couple of fist-fights, and a lot of stern looks, but by and large the film avoids a lot of the extra-submarine set pieces that seem to plague other recent submarine movies (no skydiving, for example!). And then there's the, frankly, wild conclusion (more on this later -- you've a couple of paragraphs to bail before spoilers). Ed Harris is a disgraced (for reasons not explained until later) captain given one last command, a run-down diesel sub (this is the age of fancy nuclear subs), before both it and he are retired; there are, of course reasons it is him and *this* sub, but that's all part of the story. His first officer (or whatever, I don't know anything about military ranks) is William Fichtner, a young officer on his way up the ranks to his own first command. Lance Henrikson is the head honcho (told you I was ill informed vis ranks) who sets this all into motion, but then offs himself at about minute 9, so that billing him third seems a bit deliberately misleading. And that leaves the rest of the cast, headed by David Duchovny's double-plus shifty 'guy with a secret agenda.' Harris and Fichtner are both, legit, really, really good in this--unfortunately, Duchovny's 'agenda' seems more about how long before he can get out of that uniform and strip down to a tank-top (the character's agenda is more complicated than that). Anyway, off we sail on a ship full of secrets. There is mistrust, there is insubordination, there are people yelling 'dive dive dive!', there is also, weirdly, a seeming supernatural thing going on for a bit, along with a super secret weapon code named 'Phantom' that appears to be, in essence, a big tape recorder that makes your submarine sound like some other vessel that's def not a submarine, thus confusing your enemies. Oh, and there's a plot to start WW3, blame someone else, wait until everyone destroys themselves in a nuclear war, and then surface, claiming whatever's left for good old Mother Russia. This last scheme is Duchovny's aim and it's up to Harris, who knows deep down that America ain't so bad, to rally his crew, defeat the baddies and save the planet. Ok, here comes that spoiler. They succeed, but at the cost of a bizarre, dimension crossing scene where the dead walk (well, stand), the living pay them tribute, and there's a text crawl about how this is based on a true story. A quick peruse of the ol' wiki shows that a Russian submarine did sink in '68, but pretty much everything else, like what happened on it, is entirely supposition. So, there's that. So, to wrap up, a couple of good performances, Duchovny in a tank top (if that's yer bag), and a weird ending (by the way, the supernatural stuff I mentioned earlier turns out to be PTSD-induced hallucinations and totally unrelated to the *actual* supernatural ending). It's an odd movie.

Imagine my surprise when I find a relatively recent, submarine-set movie which, not only have I never heard of, but that stars Ed Harris, William Fichtner, David Duchovny, and Lance Henrikson. Perhaps you don't need to imagine it, maybe you are feeling it right now? If history has taught us anything, there are really only three reasons something like this could happen. One, the 'living under a rock' scenario which, since we are all hanging around a social media site about movies, isn't likely the case here. Second, the movie must be so absolutely godawful that everyone tries to pretend it never existed in the first place (like, say, [The Con is On](https://boxd.it/3dKgkf)). The third is where the film is odd enough that the studio doesn't seem to know what to do with it. 'Phantom' is the third of these, but before you get all excited, it isn't odd in the 'cool' way that you might be thinking. Even had it not been released in the aftermath of yet another US presidential election cycle (where all candidates constantly play up how great 'Murica is), a film where the heroes are 'ordinary' (as in non-political) *Russian* naval officers and sailors was going to be a hard sell. And setting it in 1968 at the height of the Cold War probably didn't help. Also, going against type for these sorts of things, the major roles are all played by Americans speaking in 'American,' and not by Brits speaking in 'Russian-accented English,' which may have been a bit of a conceptual leap for the audience. There *are* a couple of fist-fights, and a lot of stern looks, but by and large the film avoids a lot of the extra-submarine set pieces that seem to plague other recent submarine movies (no skydiving, for example!). And then there's the, frankly, wild conclusion (more on this later -- you've a couple of paragraphs to bail before spoilers). Ed Harris is a disgraced (for reasons not explained until later) captain given one last command, a run-down diesel sub (this is the age of fancy nuclear subs), before both it and he are retired; there are, of course reasons it is him and *this* sub, but that's all part of the story. His first officer (or whatever, I don't know anything about military ranks) is William Fichtner, a young officer on his way up the ranks to his own first command. Lance Henrikson is the head honcho (told you I was ill informed vis ranks) who sets this all into motion, but then offs himself at about minute 9, so that billing him third seems a bit deliberately misleading. And that leaves the rest of the cast, headed by David Duchovny's double-plus shifty 'guy with a secret agenda.' Harris and Fichtner are both, legit, really, really good in this--unfortunately, Duchovny's 'agenda' seems more about how long before he can get out of that uniform and strip down to a tank-top (the character's agenda is more complicated than that). Anyway, off we sail on a ship full of secrets. There is mistrust, there is insubordination, there are people yelling 'dive dive dive!', there is also, weirdly, a seeming supernatural thing going on for a bit, along with a super secret weapon code named 'Phantom' that appears to be, in essence, a big tape recorder that makes your submarine sound like some other vessel that's def not a submarine, thus confusing your enemies. Oh, and there's a plot to start WW3, blame someone else, wait until everyone destroys themselves in a nuclear war, and then surface, claiming whatever's left for good old Mother Russia. This last scheme is Duchovny's aim and it's up to Harris, who knows deep down that America ain't so bad, to rally his crew, defeat the baddies and save the planet. Ok, here comes that spoiler. They succeed, but at the cost of a bizarre, dimension crossing scene where the dead walk (well, stand), the living pay them tribute, and there's a text crawl about how this is based on a true story. A quick peruse of the ol' wiki shows that a Russian submarine did sink in '68, but pretty much everything else, like what happened on it, is entirely supposition. So, there's that. So, to wrap up, a couple of good performances, Duchovny in a tank top (if that's yer bag), and a weird ending (by the way, the supernatural stuff I mentioned earlier turns out to be PTSD-induced hallucinations and totally unrelated to the *actual* supernatural ending). It's an odd movie.