Film / The Atomic Submarine

In the near future the North Pole has become an undersea shipping lane for commercial atomic submarines, but something is sinking them. The US Navy dispatches their latest atom sub the Tigershark to find out who—or what—is doing this and stop them.

Directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet, the movie was released on November 29, 1959. It stars Arthur Franz, Dick Foran, Brett Halsey, Paul Dubov, Bob Steele, Victor Varconi, Joi Lansing, Selmer Jackson, and Jean Moorhead.

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Tropes for the film:

• 20 Minutes into the Future: According to The Narrator by the late 50's/early 60's the North Pole is routinely used as an undersea highway by cargo-carrying submarines and underwater passenger liners.
• Aliens Are Bastards: The alien sinks civilian ships and submarines for reasons it never explains. It does however announce its intention to kidnap humans and take them back to its planet for study, so the aliens can use that knowledge to modify themselves so they can colonize Earth.
• Aliens Speaking English: Done via telepathy. Holloway is even encouraged to stop talking and just 'think' what he wants to say at the alien.
  Alien: You do not 'hear' me. Our individual brain frequencies are attuned, and we exchange wave-thoughts.
• Boarding Party: Who end up suffering the fate of all Red Shirts. At least Holloway has a reason to survive besides Plot Armor, as the alien intended to bring an unharmed 'specimen' back to his planet.
• Cool Boat: The "atom killer sub" Tigershark, which also carries a minisub called the Lungfish.
• Cyclops: The crew dub the Flying Saucer "Cyclops" because it has a single light on top of its dome. Turns out the alien inside only has one eye as well.
• Dilating Door: A crewman gets crushed when his arm is caught as he tries to dive through the dilating door as it closes. So in this case it was a contracting door.
• Dynamic Akimbo: Commander Wendover when ordering they ram "our one-eyed friend."
• Flesh Versus Steel: The alien with its Organic Technology versus the humans with their atomic submarine.
• Flying Saucer: Though in this case it's a USO (Unidentified Submerged Object) because they wouldn't have much of a plot if it wasn't underwater. It is however in the usual saucer shape and it tries flying off into space before our heroes shoot it down.
• Gelatinous Encasement: The Tigershark launches a couple of atomic torpedoes at Cyclops, but it produces some kind of gel that stops them dead in the water so they don't strike the hull and explode.
• Go for the Eye: As per established procedure for dealing with a cyclops. The alien proves Immune to Bullets, killing the man who fires on it. Holloway then fires a Flare Gun into the alien's single eye, so it's temporarily Blinded by the Light, giving Holloway a chance to escape.
• Herr Doktor: One of the scientists is played by a Hungarian actor to give him the requisite accent.
• Hot Topic Phlebotinum: The world's first nuclear-powered submarine USS Nautilus had achieved the first underwater transit of the North Pole the year before.
• Humans Are Ugly
  Alien: So Commander Holloway, as you human inhabitants would express it—we meet! Face-to-face!
  Cmdr. Holloway: That's a face?
  Alien: Point-of-view is everything. To us, your form of life is ugly, as we appear to you.
• I'm Melting!: A couple of Redshirts meet their end this way, either scorched by the USO's defense system or radiation from its drive powering up.
• It's the Only Way
  • Regardless of the risk of sinking his own ship, Wendover orders the Tigerfish to ram the Cyclops as they're the most powerful vessel on Earth and if they can't stop it, nothing else can.
  • The Narrator helpfully informs us that turning an ICBM into a guided missile is Crazy Enough to Work. "It was foolish...it was insane...it was fantastic. But it was their only hope. And the Earth's only hope."
• Just Between You and Me: The alien is nice enough to explain the whole Evil Plan, instead of just luring Holloway into a trap and rendering him unconscious. Then again given that the alien is all alone on the spacecraft, it probably just wanted someone to talk to.
• Moment Killer: Holloway is smooching with a hot blonde when someone slips a letter under his door, with orders for him to report to the Tigershark.
• Narrating the Obvious: The Narrator insists on saying what we can see The Captain is writing in his Captain's Log in a close-up shot, or restating what someone has just said they intend to do.
• No OSHA Compliance
  • After docking with the alien spacecraft, the boarding party don't put on their scuba masks until after they open the hatch. If the seal hadn't been perfect between the two vessels, they'd have all drowned given the water pressure at that depth. Then after discovering there's a breathable atmosphere inside, they leave their scuba equipment behind even though their aim is to cut the Tigerfish loose which would cause the spaceship to flood.
  • Holloway waves about his still-lit cutting torch while standing close to the person he's talking to.
  • Decades before Star Wars, the alien ship has catwalks without safety railings.
• Nuclear Weapons Taboo: Nope, the captain has no problem authorizing the use of atomic torpedoes in international waters.
• Organic Technology: Cyclops is a Living Ship and can repair itself even after being rammed, sealing up the hole to prevent the ship's atmosphere escaping. The aliens in turn can modify themselves to adapt to any environment and intend to do so to colonize Earth.
• Pacifism Is Cowardice: Dr. Nielsen insists on piloting the Lungfish to dock with the alien spacecraft, and when Holloway gets in his face says he's not a coward no matter what Holloway thinks of his political beliefs.
• Plug 'n' Play Technology: Having repaired itself, Cyclops will return to its planet and come back with an invasion force. Fortunately, the skipper has a couple of scientists on board who know how to combine a homing torpedo with an ICBM to make a water-to-air interceptor missile! And that's how SUBROC was invented, folks.
• Ramming Always Works: Not this time. When the atomic torpedoes fail to detonate the skipper orders the Tigershark to ram the USO because It's the Only Way to stop it (in fairness the sub appears to have a specially built prow for this trope). The USO appears to come off worse than the submarine, but the latter is jammed halfway inside and sinks to the bottom with it, forcing the skipper to send a Boarding Party on board to try and cut them loose.
• Space Suits Are SCUBA Gear: Justified as it is scuba gear, worn by the boarding party onto the spacecraft in case there's no atmosphere.
• Those Two Guys: Seaman Carney and Powell, the two frogmen, are actually introduced this way by The Chief.
• Slow Doors: Zigzagged; Carney gets crushed when he tries to flee through the Dilating Door. Holloway is able to dive through just in time, though he nearly gets his foot caught. Nielsen is able to hold open the last door for him, even though it was strong enough to kill Carney.
• Starfish Alien: Give them credit for making an alien that looks 'alien'. The pilot of the USO is an Octopoid Alien with a single, very large eye.
• Spinning Paper: CLOSE ARCTIC SEALANE AFTER EPIC DISASTER!
• Sub Story: Despite having a spacecraft in it.
• Tagline: "Our fleet of atomic submarines has disappeared!".
• Unnecessarily Large Vessel: The Cyclops with its Crew of One dwarfs the Tigershark. It's Unnecessarily Large Interior has a genuinely spooky effect.
• Violence Really Is the Answer: One of the scientists is a pacifist, but by the end of the movie he realises that nukes are the only way to deal with those Dirty Communists...erhmm with an alien spacecraft which will return with an invading force if it isn't blown out of the sky.
• Zee Rust:
  • Instead of a SLBM being launched from vertical tubes inside the hull, the Tigershark pivots the missile (incorrectly called an ICBM) from a horizontal position until it's standing on top of the submarine, whereupon it fires.
  • Atomic cargo and passenger submarines are in regular use just a few years after the then-present day. In real life they were never economical enough to be worth developing. Ironically only the Soviet Union gave it serious thought (as a means of bypassing their often ice-locked Northern harbors) but the Cold War ended before the plans got off the drawing board.