They're Americans.
Captain?
The jackals have found us. It's an American destroyer.
Captain!
The Americans are contacting us on the emergency band.
The captain is offering assistance. - Tell them...
we don't require assistance. Our men on deck are just getting some air.
What are they doing? - Taking pictures of us.
Hey! Hey, spies!
Take a look at this!
You take a look at this! - Everybody!
Look at this lovely, lovely boat!
Hey! - Where are you going? Hey!
Hey! - Hey!
"Offering assistance!" They want this boat. What a victory that would be.
We could scuttle the boat. They'd have to take us.
Captain Polenin is right. We have enough life rafts to save everyone.
Present my crew to the Americans for interrogation? Scuttle the flagship?
Your duty is to save their lives! - My duty is to defend the state,
and I will do that till my last dying breath.
You're defending nothing but your own ambition.
Tell that to the men who are dying down there. Go on. Tell them.
There will be no more talk of surrendering to the Americans.
It is treason. One more time and I will have you confined to your quarters.
And you, you are the commissar. Responsible for crew morale.
Act like it! The crew needs you to show courage, not fear.
Fear is contagious. - Yes, Captain.
Kornilov. Stop monitoring the Americans. They are the enemy.
Help me! Please.
How are the men? - How would I know?
I don't know the first thing about radiation sickness.
I am giving them aspirin. And I'm trying to prevent that those who are dying...
will contaminate those who have hope yet. - Pull yourself together.
You are an officer in the Soviet Navy.
Go back and tell them that they're improving.
As you say, you know nothing about radiation sickness. Perhaps they are.
Captain. - Yes?
Readings are rising in every compartment now.
Misha?
Comrade Suslov. - What is it?
The radiation is going to kill us all. The politburo gives you the authority
to approve any change of command. - Only in cases of gross breach of duty.
Which this is. He's suffering from radiation poisoning himself.
His judgment's impaired, or he would get the men off the boat.
When the moment comes, you will know.
The weld is giving way! The core temperature is 450°. Rising!
Captain, the reactor repair has failed. - Captain.
The core temperature is 450° and rising.
This is the captain. All hands below decks.
Prepare for emergency descent!
All hands below! Diving stations! Diving stations!
Get the bulkhead doors shut!
I am not going back down! I am not going down!
All hands to diving stations. Come on, move! - We have to go now!
Andrei!
Andrei, no! No, Andrei, what are you doing?
Diving now!
We can't just leave him here! - Move! Get in!
Get in the hatch! That's an order! Move it!
The Americans still offering assistance? - Captain said not to...
Check!
They're still there.
Why is he diving? He's going to cook us.
No, I won't go! - Hey! Yevgeny!
Prepare the tank! Quickly!
Give it to me.
This is bullshit! - Put me down!
Fire in missile silo!
Hurry! Hurry!
Aft torpedo? Dmitri! Vasily? - Report!
Fire in aft torpedo. No communication. Our fire team is suiting up.
Activate the fire suppression system. - That will kill everybody in there.
They have breathing kits. - No, we took them for the reactor team.
Activate the system! - It has to be activated locally.
Go to nine and turn on the system.
You refuse my order?
I'll do it myself. - If you leave the command center,
I will get help from the Americans! You will be in no position to stop me!
If we can't handle it, I'll switch on the suppression system myself.
Get the fire out. And quickly. Why aren't we diving?
Under the authority given to me by the party,
you are hereby removed from your post for dereliction of duty.
Isolate electrical!
You're wasting time. Get a team to repair the reactor.
Torpedo number 8!
Shut down the water!
Kornilov! Tell the Americans we're evacuating the submarine...
and will require assistance.
Send the message!
U.S. Destroyer, this is Soviet submarine. Over.
Comrade Admiral...
General Vershinin, KGB.
I want to know if your man Vostrikov is a traitor.
All we know is that K-19 has broken off radio contact.
Broken radio contact with us. A reconnaissance plane...
has spotted a destroyer shadowing K-19.
An American destroyer.
Vasily!
Vasily.
Captain Polenin to central command!
Repeat. Captain Polenin to central command.
575° and rising! - You have no idea what you're doing.
Easy. Easy. - Who is it?
Captain Polenin to central command. Repeat. Captain Polenin!
Do what you can, Vanya. - It's all right.
5 men. - Captain Polenin,
I have exercised my authority to transfer the boat to your command.
You're our captain. And always have been.
We contacted the Americans. We only need your order to abandon ship.
Good.
Weapons don't belong here. Give them to me.
Give me the gun. And the key for the handcuffs.
Come on. This boat's a family. - Of course, Captain.
And the key for the handcuffs, Suslov.
You betray your family.
You betray me. - What?
You're under arrest. The both of you. - What?
Take their guns. Lock them in. - It's treason! Misha!
The fire in compartment 10 has been extinguished.
The suppression system is not required. Unfortunately only one man has survived.
Thank you.
Captain. We have to dive.
This is the captain.
Don't order them, Captain. Ask them.
This is the captain. Our situation is desperate.
The reactor repair has failed.
At any moment we could have an explosion which could set off the warheads.
This would destroy the American ship only a few km...
from the NATO base.
Given the current level of tensions between our countries...
this could result in horrifying retaliatory attacks.
We... we could dive and attempt to repair the reactor.
There are no guarantees.
I am standing by.
Secure both bulkhead doors!
Compartment 10 isolated. - Compartment 9 clear of smoke.
Manned and ready.
Compartment 8 serving the Soviet Union, Comrade Captain.
Compartment 7 standing by to do our duty.
Compartment 5 manned and ready. - Compartment 4. We await your orders.
Compartment 1. We are with you, Comrade Captain.
Ready to dive, Captain. - Dive the boat.
Dive the boat! Make her depth 300m. Keep 5°! Flood all main ballasts!
Flood all main ballasts! Electric motors full ahead together.
Keep 5° bow down!
Radtchenko!
Radtchenko! Lieutenant Radtchenko! Lieutenant Radtchenko report!
Captain. Reactor temperature's 760° and rising.
Lieutenant Radtchenko.
Vadim! Where is he? - He is inside.
How long has he been in there?
18 minutes. - 18 minutes.
Wait. Captain!
Captain, you can't go in without... - Secure the hatch!
Vadim!
I can't see!
Let me help you, Vadim. - Captain. I'm sorry.
Open the hatch!
280m! - Level off.
Coming through. - 970° and holding.
Open the bulkhead door!
He got a terrible dose. - Who's going in next?
Captain! The temperature's falling!
He did it! He turned himself into a hero!
Surface the boat! - Blow the main ballast!
Rise the planes! Motors at full ahead together!
You have the conn. - I have the conn.
Signal the American captain as soon as we surface.
Tell him we require his assistance.
Yes, Captain. - Yes, Captain.
Up periscope. - Periscope going up.
Men.
You have done your duty for the motherland.
The party is proud of you.
I am proud of you.
Captain. Captain!
Yes, Vadim, I'm here.
The weld. Is it holding? - Yes, Vadim.
The weld is holding.
You're a hero, Vadim. Do you hear?
You are a hero.
You are all,
all of you,
heroes.
I had hoped one of our own boats would find us,
but the radiation levels are rising too quickly.
I have asked the American captain
for his help.
Prepare to abandon the boat.
American destroyer bearing O-4-5. Range 2,000 meters.
Captain, I have a contact!
What the... - Captain!
The boat could be in trouble. - What sort of trouble?
I've known Captain Vostrikov personally for half his life.
There isn't a submariner in the navy whose loyalty I trust more.
More than his father's loyalty? - I never knew his father.
Captain!
When my father went to sea, he used to carry these great handfuls of dirt
in his pockets. - A bit of the motherland, he said.
He would rather die than betray his country.
Contact me from the bridge when the last lifeboat is loaded.
I'll sink the boat. - That won't be necessary, Captain.
Our submarine, S270 has found us.
Yes.
Confirm and out.
Reply from Moscow, Captain. Sent through S270.
Your request to remove the men from the boat is denied.
They're sending a freighter to tow us back to base.
Anything else?
They said,
they said to give the men plenty of fresh fruit.
I want my men off this boat. I am countermanding Moscow.
It will be the end of your career.
They'll send you to the Gulag. Like your father.
Well, it's a family tradition, isn't it?
Easy. Easy.
Good. Good.
You must be decontaminated. We must make you clean. Scrub.
Take off your pants.
Next.
Easy. Easy.
This is your boat, Misha.
I lost my position, Yuri, but not my self-respect.
You lost both.
Where am I going? - They're taking you across, Vadim.
I need my picture of Katya. - Where is it?
In my pocket.
Here you are.
There it is.
I can't see. I can't see her!
All men accounted for, Captain.
Why didn't you take command when you had the chance?
Because...
what they did was wrong.
Prepare the tow, Captain. - Captain.
Lev, you're a welcome sight. - Moscow thought you were defecting.
What? - They want the men who are fit enough
to testify. - Testify? About what?
About you.
Alexei...
Make sure all the lines are secure. - Come on, you're going home!
Let's go home.
At every stage of this disaster, which could have been a far greater one,
the officers and crew did what had to be done.
7 of them are now dead. Nobody knows how many more are dying,
or how fast. These are the men who returned home
to be interrogated as if a crime had been committed.
Questioned, even while undergoing treatment for radiation poisoning.
Locked up and denied access to wives and families.
But they and their comrades saved K-19. And maybe they saved all of you as well.
Thank you. - One thing more. Please.
Thank you. No captain in the Soviet Navy
has ever been faced with such decisions. The fate of the boat.
The crew. The fate of the world. All in the balance.
The Navy is my life,
and one thing I know, there can only be one captain of a ship.
The burden of command is on his shoulders
and his alone.
None of you.
None of you has the right to judge Captain Vostrikov.
You weren't there. I was. He was our captain.
He was my captain.
And it would be an honor to sail under his command again.
East Germany has agreed to do what the West has been demanding it do...
for more than a generation.
After opening up the Berlin wall, democratic elections have been announced.
You're not so tall as I remember. - It's good to see you.
And you. - Please.
I'm glad you found me. But today was, in fact,
not very convenient. - No, no. It had to be today.
The crew.
It was twenty- eight years ago today.
Captain.
A toast.
To the men still on patrol.
For their courage, I nominated these men...
for the title, "hero of the Soviet Union."
But the committee ruled
that because it was not wartime...
because it was merely an accident
they were not worthy of the title, "hero".
What good are honors from such people?
These men sacrificed not for a medal,
but because, when the time came it was their duty.
Not to the Navy.
Or to the state.
To us.
Their comrades.
And so,
to comrades.
To comrades!
Subtitles: VICOMEDIA O3/2003