In Enemy Hands (film)

''In Enemy Hands'' is a 2004 American submarine film directed by Tony Giglio and starring William H. Macy, Til Schweiger, Thomas Kretschmann, Scott Caan and Lauren Holly. The film follows an American submarine crew getting captured by a German submarine crew and taken prisoner aboard their U-boat.

Plot

The movie begins with old film footage of World War II with a narrator explaining that Germany produced hundreds of U-boats to control the Atlantic. In 1942, groups of U-boats known as wolfpacks sank over a thousand Allied ships. The Germans began winning the war and if they continued to succeed in destroying the Allies, the Germans will conquer all of Europe. In 1943, Roosevelt and Churchill declared that stopping the U-boats was their main priority. With new technology and the United States committed to the war, the Allies begin destroying the U-boats and bringing an end to the wolfpacks.

In June 1943, Lt. Cmdr. Randall Sullivan (Caan) talks about his upcoming mission with Admiral Kentz (Berkeley). Kentz asks about Sullivan's COB Nathan Travers (Macy) and says he's a good man and Sullivan could learn something from him and bids Sullivan farewell. Elsewhere, as Travers prepares to depart home for the Swordfish, wife Rachel (Holly) makes him promise to come home safe. Two months later, Travers is on board the fictional USS ''Swordfish'' (based on the real submarine in World War II), captained by Sullivan, who has the crew constantly perform general quarters drills.

Meanwhile, the fictional ''U-429'' (based on the real ''U-429'' submarine), captained by Jonas Herdt (Schweiger)survives a depth charge attack by an American destroyer, after which U-429 sinks the ship. After playing chess with his First Watch Officer Ludwig Cremer (Kretschmann), Jonas receives a message from home. The message informs Jonas the German city of Hamburg got bombed. The bombing destroyed his daughter's school and there were no survivors, implying that Jonas' daughter was killed.

On the ''Swordfish'', XO Teddy Goodman (Gregg) becomes increasingly sick with a rash on his stomach, which the doctor believes is meningitis, an extremely contagious disease that can sometimes be fatal. Unknown to the crew, CO Sullivan too has a rash on his arm, indicating he has contracted meningitis.

Meanwhile, German U-boat ''U-821'' sinks the British merchant vessel ''Achilles''. Since there hasn't been any U-boat activity in the area for a while, the closest Allied vessel, the ''Swordfish'', goes to investigate.

Radio operator Virgil Wright (Huntington) hears music played by Glenn Miller coming from the ''U-821'', and Sullivan prepares the crew to attack. ''U-821'' detects the two torpedoes fired from the ''Swordfish'' and it dodges them, getting into attack position in the process. XO Goodman dies from his sickness. COB Travers takes his place, allowing the ''Swordfish'' to fire a third torpedo and destroy the ''U-821'', but the delay caused by Goodman's death allows the U-boat to locate the ''Swordfish'' and fire a torpedo before being destroyed.

U-821's torpedo explodes near the Swordfish. The explosive wave fatally damages the boat, killing most of the crew and forcing the American sub to surface. CO Sullivan, COB Travers, and six other crew (Wright, engineers Abers (Sisto), and Ox (Gallagher), and torpedomen Miller (Somerholder), Cooper (Giovinazzo), and Romano (Morgan) abandon ship and are taken prisoner by ''U-429''.

The Germans split their prisoners into two groups: Travers, Ox, Cooper, and Miller in the bow and Sullivan, Wright, Abers, and Romano in the stern. Wright nurses Sullivan and discovers his rash, where Abers recognizes it as meningitis and the group realizes that if the Germans don't kill them, the disease will.

Days later, U-428 prepares to attack an American destroyer, the fictional USS ''Logan'' (based on the real . Travers and his group break free of their bonds. They are able to fire one of the German sub's torpedoes off course, away from the Logan. When the torpedo detonates the ''Logan'' is alerted to the U-boat's presence. The ''Logan'' then attacks ''U-429'' with depth charges. The explosions allows CO Sullivan's group to break free as well. Sullivan protects his crew by fighting off a German guard, but he succumbs to his illness in the process.

Meanwhile, the meningitis spreads and kills two thirds of the German crew, including Romano of the American crew. Later on, Travers has a hallucination of Rachel, who reminds him of his promise to come home.

With no other choice, U-429's CO Jonas decides to have Travers' men work with his remaining crew in order to save them all. They plan to sail to the US coast and be taken into custody. As both crews reluctantly work together, Jonas explains to Travers that he saved Travers' men in defiance of the standing protocol of capturing only the captain and COB of an enemy ship. He says he personally saved all of them because he's grown tired of the war and he felt strong for himself by saving lives instead of taking them.

Jonas says if they come across either enemy, they must guarantee that their men will go home. During their travel to the US coast, Klause (Heger), the ''U-429'''s quartermaster, becomes disillusioned with Jonas working with the Americans and orchestrates a mutiny, along with two other crew members, Lieutenant Bauer and the ''U-429s radio operator Christophe. Abers and Wright subdue Christophe, who makes a distress call to other U-boats, and engineer Hans (Thorsen) knocks out Bauer to save Ox. Klause unsuccessfully attempts to use the last bow torpedo to blow up the boat and with his knife fatally stabs Jonas in the back. Travers reacts by using a hoist chain to break Klause's neck, killing him quickly. With his dying breath, Jonas gives command of the boat to Cremer.

The U-429 crew again encounters the ''Logan'' and tries to make contact with the destroyer, but they're attacked by ''U-1221'', another U-boat that responded to the distress call. U-1221 fires several torpedoes in an attempt to sink the ''U-429'', while the ''Logan'' is once again put on the alert. Enduring heavy damage as they evade every torpedo attack, two German crew members try to convince Cremer to fight back, but he refuses to fire on his own countrymen.

Abers and Travers convince Cremer to fight, only for him to reveal that they only have one torpedo left in the stern. After passing on top of the enemy submarine to align the stern tubes with it, the crew uses the last torpedo to destroy the ''U-1221'', but it doesn't detonate. ''U-1221'' fires another torpedo ''U-429'' but it doesn't cause any serious damage. Before the torpedo explodes, the ''Logan'' locates the ''U-1221'' with its sonar and fires its guns into the water, destroying the U-boat.

When Travers makes contact with the ''Logan'', Captain Samuel Littleton (Ellis) orders Travers to take the Enigma. Travers falsifies that they're sinking and disconnects with the ''Logan'', keeping his promise to Cremer to never let the ''U-429'' be captured. The crew floods the boat and are rescued by the ''Logan''.

Returning home, Travers argues with Kentz about the Germans saving their lives. Kentz says the Germans are still the enemy, but he'll do his best to have them taken care of. Travers and Rachel are reunited and they go visit Cremer in a POW compound, where Rachel thanks Cremer for saving her husband's life. Travers gives him cigarettes and tells Cremer that it's good to see him as Travers leaves and Cremer watches on.

Cast

* William H. Macy as COB Nathan Travers
* Til Schweiger as Captain Jonas Herdt
* Scott Caan as Lieutenant-Commander Randall Sullivan
* Thomas Kretschmann as 1st Watch Officer Ludwig Cremer
* Lauren Holly as Rachel Travers
* Connor Donne as Lieutenant Bauer
* Clark Gregg as Lieutenant Teddy Goodman
* Carmine Giovinazzo as Cooper
* Sam Huntington as Virgil Wright
* Jeremy Sisto as Abers
* Ian Somerholder as Miller
* Branden Morgan as Romano
* Patrick Gallagher as Ox
* Chris Ellis as Captain Samuel Littleton
*Rene Heger as Klause
* Sven-Ole Thorsen as Hans

Alternate titles

*When the film was shown on Albanian television, it was given a title that translates as ''Underwater Prison'' in English, and had similar titles in some other countries' TV schedules ''U-429: Underwater Prison'' in Armenia.

Continuity Errors

The actual USS ''Swordfish'' was a ''Sargo''-class submarine, while in the film, the boat was described as a ''Balao''-class submarine, which was a much later model.

References

External links

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{{Tony Giglio

2004 films
Films about anti-fascism
Films about the United States Navy in World War II
U-boat fiction
World War II submarine films
Films directed by Tony Giglio
Films scored by Steven Bramson
2000s political films
American World War II films
American political films
American thriller drama films
2000s American films