''Gray Lady Down'' is a 1978 American

submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...

disaster film A disaster film or disaster movie is a film genre that has an impending or ongoing disaster as its subject and primary plot device. Such disasters may include natural disasters, accidents, offensive (military), military/terrorism, terrorist att ...

directed by David Greene and starring

Charlton Heston Charlton Heston (born John Charles Carter; October 4, 1923 – April 5, 2008) was an American actor. He gained stardom for his leading man roles in numerous Cinema of the United States, Hollywood films including biblical epics, science-fiction f ...

David Carradine David Carradine ( ; born John Arthur Carradine Jr.; December 8, 1936 – June 3, 2009) was an American actor, director, and producer, whose career included over 200 major and minor roles in film, television and on stage. He was widely known ...

Stacy Keach Walter Stacy Keach Jr. (born June 2, 1941) is an American actor, active in theatre, film and television since the 1960s. Keach first distinguished himself in Off-Broadway productions and remains a prominent figure in American theatre across his ...

Ned Beatty Ned Thomas Beatty (July 6, 1937 – June 13, 2021) was an American actor. In a career that spanned five decades, he appeared in more than 160 film and television roles. Throughout his career, Beatty gained a reputation for being "the busiest ac ...

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and

Rosemary Forsyth Rosemary Forsyth (born July 6, 1943) is a Canadian-born American actress. She made her big screen debut in the 1965 Western film ''Shenandoah (film), Shenandoah'', for which she received Golden Globe Awards, Golden Globe Award nomination for Go ...

, and includes the feature film debut of

Michael O'Keefe Michael O'Keefe (born Raymond Peter O'Keefe Jr.; April 24, 1955) is an American actor known for his roles as Danny Noonan in '' Caddyshack''; Ben Meechum in '' The Great Santini,'' for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Bes ...

and

Christopher Reeve Christopher D'Olier Reeve (September 25, 1952 – October 10, 2004) was an American actor, activist, director, and author. He amassed Christopher Reeve on stage and screen, several stage and screen credits in his 34-year career, including playin ...

. It is based on David Lavallee's 1971 novel ''Event 1000''.

Plot

Aging, respected Captain Paul Blanchard is on his final

tour before promotion to command of a submarine squadron ( COMSUBRON). Surfaced and returning to port, the submarine, USS ''Neptune'', is struck by a Norwegian freighter en route to New York in heavy fog. With the engine room flooded and its main propulsion disabled, the ''Neptune'' sinks to a depth of or approx. 241.6

fathom A fathom is a unit of length in the imperial and the U.S. customary systems equal to , used especially for measuring the depth of water. The fathom is neither an international standard (SI) unit, nor an internationally accepted non-SI unit. H ...

s) on a

canyon A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tendency t ...

ledge above the ocean floor. A

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

rescue force, commanded by Captain Hal Bennett, arrives on the scene, but ''Neptune'' is subsequently rolled by a gravity slide to a greater angle that does not allow the Navy's

Deep-submergence rescue vehicle A deep-submergence rescue vehicle (DSRV) is a type of deep-submergence vehicle used for rescue of personnel from disabled submarines and submersibles. While DSRV is the term most often used by the United States Navy, other nations have different ...

(DSRV) to complete its work. As technical malfunctions increase, the submarine's sections get flooded and men die, crewmen have nervous breakdowns and tensions grow between the commanding officers. A small experimental submersible, ''Snark'', is brought in to assist with the rescue. ''Snark'' is very capable, but run by a U.S. Navy officer misfit, Captain Don Gates. The tiny submersible is the only hope for a rescue. Ultimately, the surviving members of the crew are rescued by the DSRV, thanks to Gates sacrificing himself by using the ''Snark'' to jam the ''Neptune'' in place as another gravity slide begins while the rescue is taking place. Moments later the gravity slide pushes the ''Neptune'' and the ''Snark'' off the ledge and into the ocean's abyss. The film ends with a somber Blanchard climbing out of the DSRV and being welcomed aboard the rescue ship USS ''Pigeon'' by Bennett and his officers.

Cast

as Captain Paul Blanchard *

as Captain Don Gates *

as Captain Hal Bennett *

as Mickey * Stephen McHattie as Lieutenant Danny Murphy *

as Commander David Samuelson *

Dorian Harewood Dorian Harewood (born August 6, 1950) is an American actor, best known for playing Jesse Owens in '' The Jesse Owens Story'' (1984), Det. Paul Strobber on '' Strike Force'' (1981–1982), and Rev. Morgan Hamilton in '' 7th Heaven'' (1996–2003 ...

as Lieutenant Fowler *

as Vickie Blanchard * Hilly Hicks as HM3 Page *

Charles Cioffi Charles M. Cioffi (born October 31, 1935) is an American film and television actor best known as Lt. Matt Reardon in '' Get Christie Love!'' opposite co-star Teresa Graves. Career Born in New York City, he attended Michigan State University, ...

as Vice Admiral Michael Barnes * William Jordan as Waters *Jack Rader as Chief Harkness *

as RM2 Harris * Charlie Robinson as McAllister *

as Lieutenant (JG) Phillips * Melendy Britt as Liz Bennett *Lawrason Driscoll as Lieutenant Bloom *David Wilson as SK1 Hanson * Robert Symonds as Secretary of Navy * Ted Gehring as Admiral at Pentagon Meeting *

Charles Cyphers Charles George Cyphers (July 28, 1939 – August 4, 2024) was an American actor who is known in the horror movie community for his work in the films of John Carpenter, especially his role as Sheriff Leigh Brackett in Carpenter's 1978 movie ''Ha ...

as Larson *William Bryant as Admiral at Pentagon Meeting *Jeffrey Druce as Neptune Executive Officer *James Davidson as Lt. Commander at SACLANT *David Clennon as Neptune Crewmember * Michael Cavanaugh as P03 Peña (uncredited) *Bob Harks as Radio Operator (uncredited) * Robert Ito as Jim, Lieutenant at SACLANT (uncredited) *Sandra De Bruin as Irma Barnes (uncredited) *John Stuart West as Submariner (uncredited)

Production

Even though the submarine depicted in the movie is a ''Skate''-class submarine, in the opening credits, footage of the real-life submarine was filmed specifically for ''Gray Lady Down'', depicting the fictional USS ''Neptune''. ''Gray Lady Down'' also re-used submarine special-effects footage and the large-scale submarine model originally used to portray the fictional submarine USS ''Tigerfish'' in the 1968 movie ''

Ice Station Zebra ''Ice Station Zebra'' is a 1968 American espionage thriller film directed by John Sturges and starring Rock Hudson, Patrick McGoohan, Ernest Borgnine, and Jim Brown. The screenplay is by Douglas Heyes, Harry Julian Fink, and W. R. Burnett, lo ...

'' to depict USS ''Neptune''. The US Navy's USS ''Cayuga'' (LST-1186) appeared in the film as the fictional USS ''Nassau''. The and her DSRV were prominently featured in the movie.

Reception

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who was the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in 2000. ...

, reviewing for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', wrote "It's been composed with its crises so evenly spaced that you ache for a station break bracketed by commercials... The people who appear in movies like that don't act. They display various cuts of resolve and steadfastness as if they were male models."

References

External links