Crimson Tide

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Crimson Tide is a 1995 film about a young black executive officer who thinks and acts in preventing his captain from launching missiles before confirming his orders to do so, when a doubt exists.

Directed by Tony Scott. Written by Michael Schiffer.
Danger runs deep Taglines


Contents

[edit] Captain Frank Ramsay

  • I expect and demand your very best. Anything less, you should have joined the Air Force.
  • All I ask is that you keep up with me. If you can't, then that strange sensation you'll be feeling in the seat of your pants will be my boot in your ass!
  • What'd you think, son? That I was just some crazy old coot, putting everyone in harm's way as I yelled "YEE-HA!"?
  • We're here to preserve democracy—not to practice it.

[edit] Dialogue

Capt. Ramsey: Mr. COB!
Chief of the Boat: Yes, sir?
Capt. Ramsey: You're aware of the name of this ship, aren't you Mr. COB?
Chief of the Boat: Very aware, sir!
Capt. Ramsey: It bears a proud name, doesn't it, Mr. COB?
Chief of the Boat: Very proud, sir!
Capt. Ramsey: It represents fine people.
Chief of the Boat: Very fine people, sir!
Capt. Ramsey: Who live in a fine, outstanding state.
Chief of the Boat: Outstanding, sir!
Capt. Ramsey: In the greatest country in the entire world.
Chief of the Boat: In the entire world, sir!
Capt. Ramsey: And what is that name, Mr. COB?
Chief of the Boat: Alabama, sir!
Capt. Ramsey: And what do we say?
Capt. Ramsey, Chief of the Boat: Go Bama!
All(everyone including Capt. and COB): Roll Tide!
Capt. Ramsey: You do qualify your remarks. If someone asked me if we should bomb Japan, a simple "Yes. By all means sir, drop that fucker, twice!" I don't mean to suggest that you're indecisive, Mr. Hunter. Not at all. Just, uh... complicated. 'course, that's the way the Navy wants you. Me, they wanted simple.
Hunter: Well, you certainly fooled them, sir.
Capt. Ramsey: [chuckles] Be careful there, Mr. Hunter. It's all I've got to rely on, being a simple-minded son of a bitch. Rickover gave me my command, a checklist, a target and a button to push. All I gotta know is how to push it, they tell me when. They seem to want you to know why.
Hunter: I would hope they'd want us all to know why, sir.
...
Capt. Ramsey: At the Naval War College it was metallurgy and nuclear reactors, not 19th-century philosophy. "War is a continuation of politics by other means." Von Clausewitz.
Hunter: I think, sir, that what he was actually trying to say was a little more -
Capt. Ramsey: Complicated?
[Men laughing]
Hunter: Yes the purpose of war is to serve a political end but the true nature of war is to serve itself.
Capt. Ramsey: [Laughing] I'm very impressed. In other words, the sailor most likely to win the war is the one most willing to part company with the politicians and ignore everything except the destruction of the enemy. You'd agree with that.
Hunter: I'd agree that, um, that's what Clausewitz was trying to say.
Capt. Ramsey: But you wouldn't agree with it?
Hunter: No, sir, I do not. No, I just think that in the nuclear world the true enemy can't be destroyed.
Capt. Ramsey: [Chuckling, tapping glass] Attention on deck. Von Clausewitz will now tell us exactly who the real enemy is.
[Laughing]
Capt. Ramsey: Von?
[Men laughing]
Hunter: In my humble opinion, in the nuclear world, the true enemy is war itself.
Hunter: Captain, here's the results from the missile drill.
Capt. Ramsey: [looks at the missile drill results] Is this the best they can do?
Hunter: No sir. But, that's what they did.
Capt. Ramsey: I want this down to five minutes. Train on.
Hunter: Yes, sir.
Capt. Ramsey: Tell your buddy Weaps to do it again, and keep on doing it until he gets it right.
Hunter: Yes, sir.
Capt. Ramsey: It looks like the whole crew needs a kick in the ass.
Hunter: Or a pat on the back, sir. I just witnessed a fight down in crew's mess, no big deal. It appears that the crew is a bit on edge about all we're going through. Morale seems a bit low.
Capt. Ramsey: [picks up the intercom and speaks into it] May I have your attention please, crew of the Alabama, Mr. Hunter has brought it to my attention that morale maybe a bit low. and you might be a bit... [looks to Hunter]
Hunter: [whispers] On edge.
Capt. Ramsey: [over the intercom] On edge. so, I suggest this. Any crew member who thinks that they can't handle the situation, can leave the ship right now. Gentlemen, we are at DEFCON three, war is imminent. This is the captain. That is all. [hangs up the intercom]
Hunter: Very inspiring, sir.
Capt. Ramsey: We have orders in-hand. Those orders are to make a preemptive launch. Every second that we lose increases the chances that by the time our missiles arrive, their silos could be empty because they've flown their birds and struck us first.
Hunter: Yes sir.
Capt. Ramsey: You know as well as I do that any launch order received without authentication, is no order at all.
Hunter: Yes sir.
Capt. Ramsey: That's our number one rule.
Hunter: National mil—
Capt. Ramsey: And that rule is the basis for the scenario we've trained on, time and time again. It's a rule we follow without exception.
Hunter: Captain, National Military Command Center knows what sector we're in. They have satellites looking down on us to see if our birds are aloft and if they're not, then they give our orders to somebody else. That's why we maintain more than one sub, it's what they call 'redundancy'.
Capt. Ramsey: I know about redundancy, Mr. Hunter.
Hunter: All I'm saying...
[Ramsey walks off. Hunter follows him and lowers his voice.]
Hunter: All I'm saying Captain, is that we have backup. Now it's our duty, not to launch until we can confirm.
Capt. Ramsay: You're presuming we have other submarines out there, ready to launch. Well as Captain, I must assume our submarines could've been taken out by other Akulas. We can play these games all night Mr. Hunter, but ah, I don't have the luxury of your presumptions.
Hunter: Sir...
Capt. Ramsey: Mr. Hunter, we have rules that are not open to interpretation, personal intuition, gut feelings, hairs on the back of your neck, little devils or angels sitting on your shoulder. We're all very well aware of what our orders are and what those orders mean. They come down from our Commander in Chief. They contain no ambiguity.
Hunter: Captain...
Capt. Ramsey: Mr. Hunter, I've made a decision. I'm Captain of this boat. NOW SHUT THE FUCK UP!
Capt. Ramsey: Weapons, Con. Shift targeting to target package SLBM64741/2. This is the captain.
Hunter: Captain, I cannot concur.
Capt. Ramsey: Repeat my command.
Hunter: Sir, we don't know what this message means. Our target package could have changed.
Capt. Ramsey: You repeat this order or I'll somebody who will.
Hunter: Hell no you won't, sir.
Capt. Ramsey: You're relieved of your position. COB, remove Mr Hunter from the control room. Get Lieutenant Zimmer in here right now!
Hunter: No, sir. No, sir. No, sir. I do not concur and I do not recognize your authority to relieve me on the command under Navy regulations.
Capt. Ramsey: COB, arrest this man and get him out of here!
Hunter: Captain Ramsey, under operating procedures governing the release of nuclear weapons we cannot launch our missiles unless both you, and I agree.
Capt. Ramsey: [shouting over Hunter] COB, what're you waiting for?
Hunter: Now this is not a formality, sir. This is expressly why your command must be repeated. It requires my assent, I do not give it and furthermore, if you continue upon this course, and insist upon this launch without confirming this message first...
Capt. Ramsey: [shouting over Hunter] Son of a bitch... As commanding officer of the U.S.S Alabama I order you to place the XO under arrest under charges of mutiny.
Hunter: I will be forced, backed by the rules of precedents...
Capt. Ramsey: [shouting at the Chief of the Boat, over Hunter] I say again, as commanding officer of the U.S.S Alabama, I order you...
Hunter: -authority and command, regulation 08150H6 of the Navy regulations, to relieve you of command, Captain.
Capt. Ramsey: -to place the XO under arrest, under charges of mutiny!
[Silence all round]
Capt. Ramsey: COB!
Chief of the Boat: Captain, please, the XO is right. We can't launch unless he concurs.
Capt. Ramsey: [reading EAM] "To the U.S.S. Alabama: Rebel-controlled missiles being fuelled. Launch codes compromised, dissidents threaten to launch at continental United States, set DefCon 2. Immediately launch ten Trident missile sorties." They're FUELING THEIR MISSILES! We don't have time to fuck around!
Hunter: Sir, I think you need time to think this over.
Capt. Ramsey: I DON'T HAVE TO THINK THIS OVER!
Hunter: Captain, I relieve you of your command of this ship. COB, escort the Captain to his state room, I'm assuming command.
Capt. Ramsey: You're not assuming anything!
Hunter: CHIEF OF THE BOAT, Captain Ramsey is under arrest — lock him in his stateroom!
Chief of the Boat: Captain, please...
Hunter: Now, COB!
Hunter: Chief of the Boat.
Chief of the Boat: Sir?
Hunter: Thank you, COB.
Chief of the Boat: Thank you? Fuck you! Get it straight Mr. Hunter, I'm not on your side. Now you could be wrong! But wrong or right, the Captain can't just replace you at will. That was completely improper! And that's why I did what I did. By the book.
Hunter: I thank you anyway.
Hunter: Look, it wasn't a mutiny, I did everything by the book.
Chief of the Boat: It's not about the book. If the Russians are gonna launch and we sit here and do nothing... who's gonna stop 'em? Half of me's glad the Captain came back.
. . .
Hunter: What if Radchenko surrendered and it's over, huh? We launch. They see us, and they launch. Our birds pass each other in the air. Boom. What have you got?
Chief of the Boat: Nuclear war.
Hunter: Nuclear holocaust.
Capt. Ramsey: God help you if you're wrong.
Hunter: If I'm wrong, then we're at war. God help us all.

[edit] Taglines

  • Danger runs deep.
  • In the face of the ultimate nuclear showdown, one man has absolute power and one man will do anything to stop him.
  • On the brink of nuclear war, two men clash over the fate of the world.
  • The three most powerful men in the world: the President of the United States of America; the President of the Russian Republic; and the Captain of a United States ballistic missile submarine.

[edit] Cast

[edit] External links

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