French movie action drama on a SSN : Le chant du Loup (The Wolf's Call)

[UglyMowgli]

A young man has the rare gift of recognizing every sound he hears. On board a French nuclear submarine, everything rests on him, the Golden Ear. Known as infallible, he makes an error that puts the crew in danger of death. He wants to regain the confidence of his comrades but his quest drives them into an even more dramatic situation.
In the world of nuclear deterrence and misinformation, they find themselves trapped in an uncontrollable gear.

The Trailer in french.



the movie will be released in France in February and in 13 other country in 2019.

[Amiral Crapaud]

A new trailer with a few different scenes from the teaser.
Let's hope it's a better, more intimate experience than Hunter Killer...






A lot of French specialized glossary, seems they had some reliable experts and some help from the French navy, crossing fingers!

[Prolands]

Being currently in France I just watched it and immediately purchased a ticket for another day. It was amazing and I cannot recommend it enough - I pretty much created an account here to promote this movie (although I'm a long time lurker).

It is a highly technical, procedural almost, submarine movie, closest in flavour to Crimson Tide, although much more realistic. Some scenes were shot on actual French submarines and I found myself looking frequently at the setup in the control room. You'll find none of the recycled stock footage in this movie. It's either real subs or pretty good CGI. Great portrayal of how cramped attack subs are and how spacious the boomers look by comparison. I cant wait for it to be on VOD so I can pause and take in the juicy details, it's so rich. It is definitely a much more intimate experience than Hunter Killer, which the previous poster mentioned.

The plot focuses on sonar-man's work and the creators have done a wonderful job portraying the details of the profession and sounds that come along with it. I recommend watching this movie with headphones when it's released cause it's so beautifully done.

Below is a list of submarine warfare concepts that I've encountered - technical list only, no movie plot, but as such it can still be a minor spoiler!

 

- Boomers and attack subs
- Passive and active sonar (and the displays make sense)
- Turns per knot analysis
- Solution plotting
- Rigging ship for ultraquiet
- Special forces retrieval (and their gear is actually realistic)
- Submarine communications (different kinds)
- Battle stations procedures
- Nuclear launch authorisation procedures
- Navigation instrument's calibration
- Dipping sonar
- Depth charges
- DICASS sonobuoys
- Torpedo wires

In fact the movie is so technical that without previous background it would be impossible to understand a large part of it. They had great experts working on this. Of course it's not without it's flaws and some elements were a bit too "arcady" but it didn't detract from the experience.

To put it bluntly, mandatory watch for anyone registered or lurking on this forum! I'm pretty sure you won't be disappointed if you are interested in contemporary submarine warfare!

Was quite surprised to see only two posts in this thread, I guess it must be due to the fact that it's quite difficult to get your hand's on this movie. I sure hope some of you do see it when/if it's on VOD services. Would be great to actually discuss it with someone!

[Aktungbby]

To put it bluntly, mandatory watch for anyone registered or lurking on this forum!

Prolands! A LITTLE Le chant du Loup TO UNLURK A LURKER??!! I MARVEL AT WHAT BRINGS A OUR LONG TIME 'SILENT RUNNERS' TO THE SURFACE; THANKS FOR POSTING! OF COURSE THE BEST SUBMARINE MOVIE OF ALL TIME IS STILL MY FAVORITE:

[Onkel Neal]

This looks really good! On Netflix and hopefully soon, Amazon.
https://www.netflix.com/title/81027187

[Prolands]

Oh my very spoily this trailer. I had a lot of fun just watching it without any previous background (but then again i never watch trailers on purpose). Only thing i knew was "its a French movie about modern subs" which is an instawatch anyway for me.

Oh and Aktung thanks for the recommendation, havent seen that one yet. Generally im a bit rusty with WW2 stuff. Feels like theres been a bit of content recently for uboat fans (be it movies, series and games) but theres been a bit of a draught in modern sub genre. Wolf's Call scratched that itch real good

[Dakar23]

It's a very interesting and different movie. Very good.

[bsub]

In the movie they have some terms that are not explained.

Perhaps someone can help -

What does TUUM stand for?

What exactly are "magic points"

What is CIRA

Also -

Could an underwater swimmer survive that deep without being crushed by the weight of the water.

[jaop99]

Originally Posted by bsub

In the movie they have some terms that are not explained.

Perhaps someone can help -

What does TUUM stand for?

What exactly are "magic points"

What is CIRA

Also -

Could an underwater swimmer survive that deep without being crushed by the weight of the water.

TUUM= looks like is the modern version of the old AN/WQC-2, or Gertrude, is an underwater telephone to be used in short distances

I don't know why they need a "magic point" to launch a ballistic missile against a country that is thousand miles away, anyway, could be a place where there is no sensors, or out of satellite coverage, or something similar

I forgot the part when they use CIRA acronysm in the film

The last question is yes but almost impossible, they first equalized the external pressure, then opened the external hatch, the problem is that you can't go up quickly because you have to release the extra air in the lungs and descompress in order to avoid the extra nitrogen and inert gasses in your body, usually you can do that at less than 80 meters with stops at differents depths to avoid decompression sickness

http://www.scubadiverinfo.com/2_divetables.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decompression_(diving)

[Therealmouss]

Originally Posted by bsub

In the movie they have some terms that are not explained.

Perhaps someone can help -

What does TUUM stand for?

This is the french underwater digital telephone system ( built by thales)

What exactly are "magic points"

there are just underwater navigation point, when you navigate underwater you use inertial navigation, the longer you stay below the bigger the innacurracy is, and when you launch a SLBM you need to know where you are exactly, to give you the smallest CEP on impact




What is CIRA

centre d'interprétation et de reconnaissance acoustique (CIRA)
thats where we store all accoustic signatures of all the ships, pretty secured place....

Also -

Could an underwater swimmer survive that deep without being crushed by the weight of the water.

No clue never tried :-)



The Film itself is pretty good, a few ridiculous scene ( RPG against an helicopter...) but overall good acting and good scenario

not as good as red october , but way better than hunter killer :-)

thib

[Blaise]

Originally Posted by bsub

In the movie they have some terms that are not explained.

Perhaps someone can help -

What does TUUM stand for?

What exactly are "magic points"

What is CIRA

Also -

Could an underwater swimmer survive that deep without being crushed by the weight of the water.

The accuracy of a submarine-launched ICBM is determined by several factors, one of which is the precision to which the submarine's own position is known at the time of launch. Submarines can't detect GPS while underwater and the errors in the boat's inertial navigation system have a noticeable effect. One solution is to go to place (such as a seamount) whose position has been mapped to high precision and stored in a database in the submarine. While not necessary, the use of a 'magic point' will noticeable improve the accuracy of the missile launch.

[nikimcbee]

Originally Posted by Dakar23

It's a very interesting and different movie. Very good.

Ditto. Just watched it. Very good story, totally different.

[US IRON]

RE
< Magic points are an interesting idea. I am not sure how a boomer could know its position over sea floor terrain without using an active sensor to "look">

I know zero about real world submarine navigation and I suppose it is classified, but Inertial Navigation Systems INS have been around for decades. It was standard on the 747 and other airliners before Satellite GPS. Using sensitive gyroscopes and acceleromotors (force sensors) which calculate distances, velocities and accelerations a submarine would know its position fairly accurately without need of any external references, except some initialisation point when setting the system initially and checking its accuracy. On aircraft the initialisation point on startup is the gate which is a known coordinate. Maybe they utilise magnetic fields as well?

I expect all submarines would have back-up systems like this to cross-check with other more accurate systems. I have no-idea what a magic point is.

[Onkel Neal]

‘The Wolf’s Call’: French Submarine Flick Provokes Thought On Undersea Warfare And Nuclear Deterrence

French military thriller The Wolf’s Call (or Le Chant du loup) pulls off a difficult trick: it invites the viewers to think about how complicated systems such as submarines armed with nuclear missiles are supposed to work in a crisis, while making you empathize with characters entangled in that system’s remorseless logic and strict protocols.

...the movie establishes that France is deploying troops in response to a Russian seizure of the Finnish Aland Islands, the de-militarized site of past territorial disputes but not currently a source of tension.


The film’s treatment of ‘going stealth’ may seem exaggerated, but there’s real-world evidence it’s not: in 2009, the French SSBN Triomphant collided underwater with the British nuclear-armed submarine Vanguard, with neither detecting the presence of the other prior to impact.

[Kapitan]

it looks good for a fictional action film, but the French don't exactly have the best SSN's or SSBN's i've been on the Rubis and to say it was a disappointment was an understatement.

A friend of mine did a FOST on the Perle (Rubis class) in his words the only good thing about the boat was the wine.