ABC's the Last Resort: Really brings the crazy

[Onkel Neal]

After viewing the Yahoo edition of the new show, all I can say is wow, there's a whole lotta crazy here.



In the span of 44 minutes

• Boomer sub ordered to fire nukes
• Boomer captain questions orders
• Deputy Secretary relieves Boomer Captain of command
• XO and now acting captain questions order
• Navy SEALS barge into the conn to pistol whip the crew
• Other US sub fires Tomahawk on Boomer
• US nukes Pakistan
• Lots of people get yanked off the phone by ominous Fed-types
• Boomer captain commandeers island and NATO station
• Boomer captain fires nukes at DC (and the XO goes along with that)

The really nutty part: at the end, the Captain suggests the rebuild their dream society on the island.

I like action movies, I like sub action movies, but Crimson Tide has been done and Last Resort does not do it better. There are so many actions taken that simply beggar belief--how fast can a nuclear sub commander go rogue? If he had been planning to go rogue for years, well, maybe the moves that Captain Marcus Chaplan makes would stand up to scrutiny. But otherwise, it's really a stretch to think an American captain would nuke DC. Don't they know about the Smithsonian?

There are sub-plots, like the super-hot female officer struggling to earn respect in a man's world; the GQ Seal who goes all Lord of the Flies as soon as his boots are dry; and the unspoken bond between the Captain and his XO that defines loyalty. But the sum of its parts is still Network TV, and not the Breaking Bad/LOST/Mad Men variety. Last Resort stumbles with an eagerness to establish the storyline that would be better served over several episodes. I mean, in the pilot nukes have been fired, islands stormed, government's toppled with intrigue, and people shot--where do they plan to go from here? It's gonna be quite a step down to keeping peace in the town and ensuring a treaty to keep liquor imports coming.

Watch for yourself, comments welcome!

Neal
SUBSIM


Owwww!





This is Captain Marcu...oh hell, you know who I am--I've said it 23 times already.





Brink hell, we're knee-deep in it!





Push the damn button already! It's my turn next.




There's still time for a little of this.





At last, at last...






Bet you don't see that every day on Gilligan's Island.




Hey baby, I've got your thermonuclear right here.






Another "oh crap!" moment coming up.





Pakistan gets it in the balls.




We've thought of everything. Glad the US don't got no stealth bombers, that would suck for us.

[Cybermat47]

What the...

[Daggothus]

{Disappointed groaning}

[TorpX]

This is why I don't watch much television anymore.

[RamRod]

Leave it to ABC to finally get women into the sub fleet.

I suppose with the concept of an unstable Presidency and military top command resigning, it is not inconceivable that a submarine commander would ask for conformation of a back-channel launch command. I sure hope he didn't nuke too many ships off the coast of Washington.

But I suppose it is still a little far fetched. Isn't the ABC nuclear fleet leadership program like a six-week course now? I doubt anyone with training as in-depth as that would succumb to doubt with confirmed launch orders in hand!

[Oberon]

So, pretty much exactly as we expected it would be then:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=195251

[nikimcbee]

Originally Posted by Oberon

So, pretty much exactly as we expected it would be then:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=195251

Denny Green already reviewed it:

(note: has bad language)

[Yamato_NF]

Looks like there will be an episode 2 and onward...
Kinda makes you agree with the crew/captain... Like he said at the end:
"what happened to the nation I grew up in?"

Yamato_NF

[RamRod]

Also, I thought it was very apropos that you placed the snapshot of the active launch missile tube directly below the snapshot of the girl straddling the guy in bed.
Followed of course by the actual missile launch!

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by RamRod

Also, I thought it was very apropos that you placed the snapshot of the active launch missile tube directly below the snapshot of the girl straddling the guy in bed.
Followed of course by the actual missile launch!

[Cybermat47]

Originally Posted by RamRod

Leave it to ABC to finally get women into the sub fleet.

Oh, please. Us Aussies have had them for ages.
That explains why foreign men are joining our submarine force

[Kloef]

Anybody have a link to this crap?, i'm just curious but the yahoo link is not available in my country

[Red Brow]

I collect old US Sub movies. Beginning with Frank Capra's 1928 silent movie called 'Submarine' we see some drama/action scenes that became standard in such films by WWII. One that became standard was the 'ole torpedo rolls off it's torpedo-rack routine' that would crush a torpedo man. This usually follows some heavy jarring of the sub, such as a collision with a ship or a Japanese depth charge attack. Another routine was an intense conflict between seamen - in the case of Capra's film it was a love triangle between one of the sub's officers and his buddy who was a naval ship salvage expert.

In the early WWII movie 'Crash Dive' these routines were fleshed out further. Not only did the torpedo roll off its rack to crush a sailor, but when the captain went below to check it out he was injured in the head and was knocked out for sometime. The love triangle was intensified by having both suiters for the ladies hand in marriage brought into the same submarine as the Captain and his 2nd in command, a 'conflict team' that would even make a very slight appearance in Das Boot, and would become standard in nearly all American sub movies right up until Crimson Tide. In 'Hunt for Red October' the CIA company man Jack Ryan would come aboard the Dallas to take the roll of the Captain's opponent at least for a short stint.

This second movie would really establish several other needed formula scenes, such as a sub going to the bottom of the deep ocean, but only encountering perhaps 200 feet of water depth. Of course this was all portrayed in what looked like large aquariums or fish tanks. 'Crash Dive' also established the sub-movie tradition of an officer or captain that was wounded and left on deck as the sub submerged in a crash dive. Here too was established the said man's seeming last words: "Take her down! Take her down! (i.e. forget me)" This same formula even appears decades later in the movie U-571, though there the captain is about to drown in the ocean and is yelling his commands for his second in command to submerge the hijacked U-boat.

Another formula scene that developed later during WWII was the transformation of the 'love triangle conflict' into one about how the captain would not allow his second in command to be given his own sub until he either grew up or learned how to sacrifice his men when the action called for it. This reappears in U-571.

If you want a movie about a WWII sub that avoids all these formulas, watch 'Submarine Attack' about an Italian sub that sinks a Danish freighter.

[Onkel Neal]

You know your material,nice analysis

[Cybermat47]

Also, Red Brow...
WELCOME
TO
SUBSIM!