History Film / GrayLadyDown

* TheFilmOfTheBook: Adapted from the 1971 novel ''Event 1000'' by David Lavalee.

''Gray Lady Down'' is a 1978 DisasterMovie directed by David Greene and starring Creator/CharltonHeston, Creator/DavidCarradine, and Creator/StacyKeach, with Creator/NedBeatty, Creator/RonnyCox, Stephen [=McHattie=], and Rosemary Forsyth in supporting roles. Creator/ChristopherReeve, in his film debut, also has a small role.

''Gray Lady Down'' is a 1978 DisasterMovie directed by David Greene and starring Creator/CharltonHeston as Captain Paul Blanchard, the commander of USS ''Neptune'', a nuclear-powered U.S. Navy submarine, who's on his last trip before being promoted to squadron commander.

''Gray Lady Down'' is a 1978 DisasterMovie directed by David Greene and starring Creator/CharltonHeston as Captain Paul Blanchard, commander of USS ''Neptune'', a nuclear-powered U.S. Navy submarine, who's on his last trip before being promoted to squadron commander.

* TheCaptain: While Gates is technically captain of the ''Snark'', Captain Bennett is superior to him, and orders him to take one of his own men with him (instead of Gates' second in command) to do the search for the ''Neptune'' that Gates considers unqualified. After the man mistakes a sunken sonar target for the boat, Gates surfaces and begs Captain Bennett to let him use his own man. Bennett asks him if the fact that the guy made one error was sufficient reason to abandon the search, Gates says, "When I'm steered to a '52 [=DeSoto=] (instead of a submarine about a hundred times the size of an automobile), yes, sir!"

* PetTheDog: The ship's Communications officer freaks out over the surface not hearing his repeated signal attempts, and Captain Blanchard has him forcibly removed from the bridge. When the officer later apologizes to Blanchard, the Captain kindly replies that he (the Comms officer) was only saying what everyone else was thinking. Blanchard later relies on him to decode the Snark's Morse Code communications.

* LostInTransmission: Part way through the rescue, ''Neptune's'' underwater telephone ("Gertrude" in Navyspeak) fails. To signal to the men inside what is happening, the ''Snark'' goes to the crash site, lands on ''Neptune'''s outer hull casing, and Gates then uses a wrench to tap Morse Code through the hull.

Captain Bennett (Creator/StacyKeach), a rescue force commander, gets a call at home announcing that a submarine has been rammed, resulting in her sinking with survivors possibly trapped inside ([[TitleDrop "Gray Lady Down"]]). He calls up every resource he can get his hands on, including having a DSRV (Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle, a rescue minisub) brought in, and an experimental utility minisub called The ''Snark'', whose captain, Gates (David Carradine) has his own ideas about how his boat is to be operated.

* LostInTransmission: Part way through the rescue, ''Neptune's'' underwater telephone ("Gertrude" in Navyspeak) fails. To signal to the men inside what is happening, the ''Snark'' goes to the crash site, lands on ''Neptune'''s outer hull casing, and the ''Snark'''s captain then uses a wrench to tap Morse Code through the hull.

* HeroicSacrifice: ''Neptune'''s XO stays in the rapidly-flooding control room in order to close a watertight hatch and save the men on the other side, while one of the junior officers stays at the ballast control panel to hold the valves open and right the boat. Gates later drives his minisub under ''Neptune'''s hull to buy the remaining survivors a few extra seconds to board the DSRV before she goes over the undersea cliff.

''Gray Lady Down'' is a 1978 DisasterMovie directed by David Greene and starring Creator/CharltonHeston as Paul Blanchard, captain of the nuclear-powered U.S. Navy submarine ''Neptune'', who's on his last trip before being promoted to squadron commander.

While surfaced and returning to base, the ''Neptune'' picks up another ship on its radar off in the distance, on what would be a collision course. The ship, a Swedish freighter with a number of equipment failures, has no idea that the ''Neptune'' is in their path and is quite likely violating the rules for traveling on the open sea. As the freighter gets too close, the watch officer orders that the collision alarm be sounded. The freighter operator then makes a mistake and turns the ship even more steeply into the ''Neptune'', resulting in a collision. The submarine sinks, landing below its crush depth on a ledge near a steep trench.

Captain Bennett (Creator/StacyKeach), a rescue force commander, gets a call at home announcing that a submarine has been rammed, resulting in it sinking ("Gray Lady Down"). He calls up every resource he can get his hands on, including having a DSRV underwater rescue ship brought in, and an experimental mini sub called The ''Snark'', whose captain, Gates (David Carradine) has his own ideas about how his boat is to be operated.

The rescue force must try to save the survivors before the ''Neptune'' slips off the ledge, falling irretrievably into the trench and imploding.

* InsertGrenadeHere: A gravity slide has knocked a large boulder into the boat, and shifted the position of the ''Neptune's'' emergency escape hatch so that it can no longer be reached from the DSRV. Captain Bennett has an idea. Have the ''Snark'' bring down a shape charge of C4 in its carrying arm so that the explosive will pulverize the boulder but not damage the ''Neptune'', allowing it to roll forward and right itself.

* RaceAgainstTheClock: While there's enough air and food for the crew to last until rescue, the place where the boat is resting is subject to severe gravity slides. They have perhaps 22 hours if everything holds. If anything goes wrong, the ship falls into the trench and it's a two-mile ride to the bottom. As the ship is already below its rated crush depth, any further sinking would cause it to implode, killing any survivors.
* ShoutOut: While the crew is waiting, they're watching the movie ''Film/{{Jaws}}''.
* SuicideMission: [[spoiler: Gates decided to take the ''Snark'' down alone to watch the explosion to blow up the boulder (see InsertGrenadeHere) so they can know if it took. Gates refuses to let his second in command come along because of the danger. The explosion takes and the DSRV can rescue the remaining men. When a gravity slide causes the ''Neptune'' to start to slide into the trench during the rescue, Gates pushes the snark in the way, sacrificing himself to block the Neptune from sliding further, giving them the extra few seconds to escape, before the ''Neptune'' and the ''Snark'' slip and fall into the trench.]]
* LostInTransmission: Part way through the rescue, the ''Neptune's'' radio fails. To signal to it what is happening, the ''Snark'' goes to the crash site, lands on the ''Neptune'', and the ''Snark'''s captain then uses a wrench to tap Morse Code through the hull.

While surfaced returning to base, the ''Neptune'' picks up another ship on its radar off in the distance, on what would be a collision course. The ship, a Swedish freighter with a number of equipment failures, has no idea that the ''Neptune'' is in their path and is quite likely violating the rules for traveling on the open sea. As the freighter gets too close, the watch officer orders that the collision alarm be sounded. The freighter operator then makes a mistake and turns the ship even more steeply into the ''Neptune'', resulting in a collision. The submarine sinks, landing below its crush depth on a ledge near a steep trench.

''Gray Lady Down'' is a 1978 DisasterMovie starring Creator/CharltonHeston as Paul Blanchard, captain of the U.S. Submarine ''Neptune'' on his last trip before being promoted to squadron commander.

While returning to base with the boat surfaced, a ship is noticed on radar off in the distance on what would be a collision course. The ship, a Swedish freighter with a number of equipment failures, has no idea that the ''Neptune'' is in their path and is quite likely violating the rules for traveling on the open sea. As the freighter gets too close, the watch officer orders that the collision alarm be sounded. The freighter operator then makes a mistake and turns the ship even more steeply into the ''Neptune'', resulting in a collision. The submarine sinks, landing below its crush depth on a ledge near a steep trench.

''Gray Lady Down'' is a 1978 DisasterMovie starring Creator/CharletonHeston as Paul Blanchard, captain of the U.S. Submarine ''Neptune'' on his last trip before being promoted to squadron commander.

''Gray Lady Down'' is a 1978 film starring Charleton Heston as Paul Blanchard, captain of the U.S. Submarine ''Neptune'' on his last trip before being promoted to squadron commander.

Tropes Include:

Captain Bennett (Stacy Keach), a rescue force commander, gets a call at home announcing that a submarine has been rammed, resulting in it sinking ("Gray Lady Down"). He calls up every resource he can get his hands on, including having a DSRV underwater rescue ship brought in, and an experimental mini sub called The ''Snark'', whose captain, Gates (David Carradine) has his own ideas about how his boat is to be operated.

* ShoutOut: While the crew is waiting, they're watching the movie {{Jaws}}.

* MilitaryMaverick: Captain Gates. He designed a built a specialized mini-sub that can do a lot of useful functions with nothing but scrounged resources and the help of his second in command. He's damn good at what he does, and he knows it.

Captain Bennett (Stacy Keach), a rescue force commander, gets a call at home announcing that a submarine has been rammed, resulting in it sinking ("Gray Lady Down"). He calls up every resource he can get his hands on, including having a DSRV underwater rescue ship brought in, and an experimental mini sub called The ''Snark'', whose captain (David Carradine) has his own ideas about how his boat is to be operated.

Captain Bennett (Stacy Keach), a rescue force commander, gets a call at home announcing that a submarine has been rammed, resulting in it sinking ("Gray Lady Down"). He calls up every resource he can get his hands on, including having a DSRV underwater rescue ship brought in, and an experimental mini sub called The Snark, whose captain (David Carradine) has his own ideas about how his boat is to be operated.

* LostInTransmission: Part way through the rescue, the [=''Neptune''=]s radio fails. To signal to it what is happening, the ''Snark'' goes to the crash site, lands on the ''Neptune'', and the ''Snark'''s captain then uses a wrench to tap Morse Code through the hull.

* LostInTransmission: Part way through the rescue, the ''Neptune'''s radio fails. To signal to it what is happening, the ''Snark'' goes to the crash site, lands on the ''Neptune'', and the ''Snark'''s captain then uses a wrench to tap Morse Code through the hull.

''Gray Lady Down'' is a 1978 film starring Charleton Heston as Paul Blanchard, captain of a U.S. Submarine on his last trip before being promoted to squadron commander.

While returning to base with the boat surfaced, a ship is noticed on radar off in the distance on what would be a collision course. The ship, a Swedish freighter with a number of equipment failures, has no idea that the submarine is in their path and is quite likely violating the rules for traveling on the open sea. As the freighter gets too close, the watch officer orders that the collision alarm be sounded. The freighter operator then makes a mistake and turns the ship even more steeply into the submarine, resulting in a collision. The submarine sinks, landing below its crush depth on a ledge near a steep trench.

Captain Bennett (Stacy Keach), a rescue force commander, gets a call at home announcing that a submarine has been rammed, resulting in it sinking ("Gray Lady Down"). He calls up every resource he can get his hands on, including having a DSRV underwater rescue ship brought in, and an experimental mini sub.

The rescue force must try to save the survivors before the submarine slips off the ledge, falling irretrievably into the trench and imploding.

While returning to base with the boat surfaced, a ship is noticed on radar off in the distance on what would be a collision course. The ship, a Swedish freighter with a number of equipment failures, has no idea that the submarine is in their path and is quite likely violating the rules for traveling on the open sea. As the freighter gets too close, the watch officer orders that the collision alarm be sounded. The freighter operator then makes a mistake and turns the boat even more steeply into the submarine, resulting in a collision. The submarine sinks, landing below its crush depth on a ledge near a steep trench.