Ice Station Zebra

14th January 2017

Ice Station Zebra Movie poster

For once its not an amazon prime move so if you want to watch this its wait for TV or rent it I'm afraid to say.

Baseed on an award winning book of the same name by Alistair MacLean

Its 1968 and the hight of the cold war and the space race intelligence is key and the USSR and the USA are spending millions on their respective intelligence gathering capabilities. On the north pole theres a British weather station, Ice Station zebra which has been sending out distress calls but as a front for a top secret mission for Cdr. James Ferraday (Rock Hudson) who is despatched on the first submarine with the rescue party and a shadowy British figure David Jones (Patrick McGoohan) on his arrival his secrecy and orders giving him carte blanche over the submarine and its crew this puts him at ends with the captain but as a professional he continues in his role as ordered, the submarine surfaces to pick up another two passengers a Russian called Boris Vaslov (Ernest Borgnine) who is familiar with the shadowy David Jones although he is introduced to the captain as the most anti Russian, Russian to calm any fears the crew may have and a Capt. Leslie Anders who is there to be hard on the crew and bring them into line for the mission ahead. Boris decides to go on an expedition around the nuclear submarine causing concern to the crew but the captain of the Submarine is hospitable and can sense that there is no real threat from him and escorts him around the boat.    

Stunning footage of the submarine navigating the ice underwater marks their arrival at the polar cap on a big screen it must have been awe inspiring at the time and puts modern submarine based movies to shame. Breaking through the ice proves difficult and requires a torpedo to be shot to create a hole to punch through, a careless mistake from a crew member starts a flood while loading the torpedo and the boat starts sinking rapidly. The torpedo room is made secure from flooding and in order to arrest the flooding the torpedo room is pressurised with air to force the flood water out the resulting pressure causes great pain to the men left inside. Investigation reveals that theres a saboteur on board. With David and Boris in the torpedo room at the time the Captain questions them they point the finger at Capt. Leslie Anders claiming their expertise on sabotage is purely because of their shadowy occupations. David defends Boris the captains prime suspect with a strong conviction and remind the captain that his orders are written by the president himself. The captain demands to know the mission but is interrupted when the bridge inform him they are under thin ice and can surface. 

Submarine Surfaced through Ice 

Once surfaced the mission starts, get to Ice Station Zebra. The radio traffic fro which has been garbled. The rescue party set out across the ice enduring the many pitfalls along the way. The station is reached and there are burned out buildings one has been damaged by an explosion buildings that lead to the suspicion its been attacked, the rescue team of marines sweep the base only to find no enemy force present. A survivor is questioned by David and Boris who are intent on finding Haliwell and Dr Goodwin but the survivors are of little use. A later search find Hailiwell and Dr Goodwin have been shot and left in a damaged building. David and Boris are looking for something and the initial search proves fruitless David delegates the search to Boris but he suspects its in Vain. The captain watches and knows that they are after a film canister from a Russian spy satellite. A special Camera developed by the British and lost the the Russians buy a team of American Scientist. David reviles that the camera contains footage of the whole globe including Russian missile sites and that he's working for British intelligence to recover it. The team of Haliwell and Goodwin contained a joint British-Soviet science group who had recovered the capsule and fought it out after discovery. Now the search is on to find the capsule before the weather breaks and Russian aircraft make the mission impossible. 

Rock Hudson and Patrick McGoohan

 The Weather clears while the crew and rescue party are searching for the capsule and Russain aircraft are inbound. If the Earlier footage of the submarine under ice was impressive the footage of Russian Migs is sadly disappointing. Boris reviles himself as the saboteur when David finds the capsules tracker and he attacks him with a crowbar.  The Marine Captain Anders discovers Boris and a stand off ensues. Boris gets the better of Boris and shoots him. The captain and marines come running and Boris blames Anders. The tracker is activated and starts beeping, Boris tries to hide it but its to late and the captain uses the tracker to find the booby trapped capsule hidden in the ice. The men of the ship use blow torches to free the capsule as Russian paratroops land around their position. The Captain of the Paratroops makes contact with crew and explains he only wants the capsule and he'll let the Submarine and rescue crew go once he has that in his possession as its the property of the soviet union. The submarine captain agrees and tells the Russian that the capsule is his once he has removed the film inside that the Russians stole along with the British camera because it is after all American property. The Russian counters and tell him that he will detonate the booby trap and kill every one there via remote if it is not handed over after his two minute count down, mean while the Boris tries to disarm the device. Boris gets the film from the capsule and David, who has staggered to the stand off hands him a container for the film which he duly fills.  Boris puts the capsule back together and the captain asked that the two civilians be moved out of harms way. the captain walks out and hands the capsule over but we are unsure if the film is in there or not. The Russian Captain opens it to find the film missing and attacks the base. David and Boris fight over the container as the shooting happens and Boris is killed. David has the Film and is in the middle of the two forces. the captain orders David to hand over the film which he tosses to one side. The Russian captain picks up the container and places it on a weather balloon to be received by a Russian jet. as it comes into pick up the container the submarine captain detonates the container with a hidden remote. Once destroyed there is nothing to fight over and the peace is agreed. A teleprinter types the morning headline. 

"word received ice station zebra survivors rescued, Russian paratroopers aid American nuclear submarine in heroic mission, government spokesmen for the two great nuclear power cite this as a further example of international cooperation more to follow."

The End 

A truly great film of the cold war with suspense and great actors and a window of a time we should remember least it happen again.