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K-19: the widowmaker

Threat advisory: Elevated - Significant risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

Fate has found its hero.

This is the true story of the USSR's first nuclear ballistic submarine, K-19, which on 4 June, 1961, while sailing in the North Atlantic, discovered that the cooling system of the reactor had failed, leading to a possible nuclear meltdown.

Captain Nicolai Vostrikov (Harrison Ford) must lead his crew's efforts to prevent their vessel from having a nuclear meltdown. When the cooling unit of the reactor breaks down, Vostrikov and his second-in-command, Vladimir Yenin (Liam Neeson), must figure out how to save their ship, because if it blows, it could cause a nuclear explosion that would be interpreted as the first strike of a nuclear war...

Inspired by true events.

Theatrical propaganda posters

Target demographic movie keyword propaganda

Film true drama submarine Cold War Russia USSR Soviet Union nuclear meltdown

Persons of interest

Harrison Ford .... Captain Nicolai Vostrikov
Liam Neeson .... Vladimir Yenin
Peter Sarsgaard .... Vadim Ratchenko
Joss Ackland .... Marshal Zelentsov
George Anton .... Konstantin Poliansky
Steve Cumyn .... Oleg Falichev
Steve Nicholson .... Yuri Demichev
Chris Redman .... Rezo Kiklidze
Tygh Runyan .... Maxim Portenko
John Shrapnel .... Admiral Bratyeev
Ingvar Sigurdsson .... Viktor Gorelov
Gerrit Vooren .... Dmitri Volensky
Tim Woodward .... Konstantin Partonov
Christopher Kyle .... Screenwriter
Louis Nowra .... Screenwriter
Kathryn Bigelow .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

K-19: the widowmaker official movie site

K-19: the widowmaker QuickTime movie trailers
Studios and distributors:

Intermedia * Paramount Pictures

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

You have to wonder about a film that's only "inspired" by true events and not "based on" them (let alone "a true story). It adds a degree of distance from the truth that makes it hard to believe anything that happens and with a story that's tied up with real events and locations that's a big danger: the last thing you want as a filmmaker is for people to watch your movie and think that it should've been more realistic.

With submarine movies the ultimate is Das boot, also a story about "the baddies" but only loosely inspired by real events yet somehow more believable than K-19: the widowmaker. Perhaps it's because the German crew is a pack of German unknowns whereas the Russian crew is headed up by an American and an Irish star. Perhaps it's because Hollywood only makes movies about heroes; you know that any film with a poster that describes its protagonist as a hero is going overboard. It's up to us, the audience, to decide if someone is a hero, not the film's publicist.