Mission: Free the pipe!

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Movie
German title Mission: Free the pipe!
Original title Down periscope
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1996
length 92 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director David S. Ward
script Hugh Wilson ,
Andrew Kurtzman ,
Eliot Wald
production Robert Lawrence
music Randy Edelman
camera Victor Hammer
cut William M. Anderson ,
Armen Minasian
occupation

Mission: Free the pipe! is a film by the American director David S. Ward , in which Kelsey Grammer , known from the TV series Frasier , plays an unusual submarine captain.

action

Corvette Captain Tom Dodge is known as a talented but often unconventional submarine officer, which has so far prevented the fleet command , especially Rear Admiral Graham, from giving him command of their own submarine. Faced with the decision to give Dodge his own submarine or a desk job, the fleet command takes an unusual step: Dodge becomes the commander of the USS Stingray , an old, rusty Balao-class diesel submarine from the time of the Second World War , and is commissioned to make this seaworthy again. He is assigned a team of difficult characters personally selected by Graham, which includes the ambitious, humorless first officer Lieutenant Captain Marty Pascal and the first female dive officer, Lieutenant Emily Lake.

Dodge finds this command humiliated and complains to Vice Admiral Winslow, the superior of Rear Admiral Graham. Winslow then explains the background to the command: Images from spy satellites show that the number of mothballed Soviet diesel submarines is constantly falling in the Russian naval bases in Petropavlovsk and Vladivostok . Presumably the boats will be moved to countries like Libya or Iran. In order to be able to assess whether these submarines pose a threat to the American naval bases in an unconventional conflict, this command is ordered as an exercise. Dodge is supposed to simulate an unknown intruder with the Stingray , sneak past the American nuclear submarines and penetrate the ports of Charleston and Norfolk .

Dodge has doubts about the feasibility of the contract and requests command of a nuclear submarine if it is successful . Winslow goes into the condition that he can set up a dummy ship in Norfolk and Dodge two sharp torpedoes . Dodge is indirectly given a new command in the event that one of the torpedoes hits the target ship.

The crew embarks on the apparently impossible mission with mixed feelings and must first make the Stingray seaworthy again. Dodge must first assert his authority, which was undermined by targeted indiscretions from Graham to the team.

On the voyage to Charleston, there was first contact with a nuclear submarine, of all things the USS Orlando under the direction of frigate captain Carl Knox, on which Dodge was deployed as first officer immediately before his Stingray command. Dodge shows up and mounts position lights. Thanks to the bad weather and the diesel engine, it manages to look like a fishing cutter , the successfully deceived Orlando turns and Dodge is able to reach Charleston.

Graham can't come to terms with the first success of Dodge and reduces the battle zone to half. On the voyage to Norfolk, the Stingray encounters the Orlando again . Dodge orders the submarine to be put aground, thus fooling the Orlando sonar . Lake is a bit overwhelmed with this and rudely puts the submarine on the rocky bottom. This makes the Orlando even more attentive. Only the sonar technician's ability to imitate whale noises will save the crew.

Due to his unconventional management style , Dodge is gaining increasing respect from the team, with the exception of Marty Pascal. When Dodge disregards the unauthorized reduction of the battle zone by Graham, Pascal mutinies , who wants to become captain himself. Dodge lets Pascal go over the plank , but instead of falling into the ocean, he falls into a network of helpful fishermen. By leaving the combat zone, Dodge is considered deserted , so that the Stingray is now also sought from the air. Nevertheless, Dodge manages to reach Norfolk as well. Graham found himself so humiliated by the way the company ran that he allowed himself to be taken to the Orlando and seized command there. He also has Norfolk cordoned off with submarines, sonar buoys , destroyers and reconnaissance planes . Dodge dips the submarine directly under an oil tanker and overcomes the barrier in the sonar shadow of the supertanker . That gives him enough head start over the Orlando so that he can get close enough to the dummy ship and shoot his torpedoes.

Through his unauthorized intervention in the mission, Graham gambled away an upcoming promotion, which caused great satisfaction with Vice Admiral Winslow. Winslow assures Dodge command of a new nuclear submarine with a new crew. Dodge only accepts on condition that he can keep the Stingray's crew , as they played a key role in his success.

Reviews

James Berardinelli wrote on ReelViews that the film is among those who think they are funnier than they actually are. He praised the "relaxed" game and the screen presence of Kelsey Grammer.

"Harmless nonsense comedy in the tradition of the" Police Academy "films, which, with the exception of a few deep-sea scenes, has set in a lot of rust."

- Lexicon of international film

“After a halfway funny start, we go on a dizzying dive trip. Conclusion: The gags usually backfire. "

- cinema.de

"The script was invented by Hugh Wilson, who also wrote" Police Academy ". Accordingly, there are typical gags such as an overweight ship's cook with bad flatulence and personalities aimed at the female crew member, which, however, are largely harmless in nature. This goes hand in hand with the loose, fluffy overall impression, which is primarily due to the sympathetic cast and should therefore command a substantial flood of visitors. "

- kino.de

various

  • Both ship names are fictional. However, the names are closely based on the custom that Balao-class boats were named after fish, Los Angeles-class boats after US cities. So far, no US submarine has been named Orlando . A USS Stingray (SS-186) existed but belonged to an older class from the mid-1930s.
  • In the credits the song In The Navy by the Village People is running .
  • The film was shot with the Pampanito , a museum ship of the Balao class lying in the port of San Francisco .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Review by James Berardinelli
  2. ↑ Mission: Free the pipe! In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  3. ↑ Mission: Free the pipe! on cinema.de
  4. ↑ Mission: Free the pipe! on kino.de
  5. ↑ Filming locations on imdb.de