Sailers have a reputation as a superstitious lot so it's understandable why they would take the wrong message from watching a champagne bottle bounce unbroken off the hull of the submarine they're about to board and take on its maiden voyage.

I, a rationalist, look at this moment and am gratified to see that the hull of the ship and the

hull of the wine are both well made and capable of

sustaining an impact without damage. But this is the moment that earns K-19, the first nuclear-powered

submarine in the Soviet Navy, its reputation as a death trap.

Rushed into service, the ship already has a body count before it's even out of dry dock,

owing to the USSR's eagerness to deploy their newest weapon in the nuclear arms race.

And now Captain Liam Neeson is going to have to take a half step back and let Captain Harrison

Ford take over, creating the perfect Captain XO conflict dynamic that is so widely prevalent in the sub-genre.

He, sub-genre.

The K-19 is a first strike weapon.

It's supposed to lurk around off the East Coast of the United States,

nuclearly deterring NATO from doing anything the USSR would make them regret.

It seems like a simple task, but the ship itself might not be up to it.

If you're like me thinking that this champagne-proof boat is as well made on the inside as it is on the outside,

think again, after some pretty intense borderline foolhardy stress tests at the orders of Captain Ford, the ship successfully fires its test ICBM, but then quickly starts to suffer from engine problems and that's bad because the

engine is just as nuclear as the missiles K-19 carries and someone forgot to pack

radiation suits.

What the crew had bargained on being a cold war against the United States

becomes an extremely hot war against a reactor meltdown

as the cooling system has failed them.

And the only way to fix it is by running a garden hose through an open door into the core.

...