Submarines That Never Really Were (2nd Bubble) Quiz

Answer: Nautilus

Jules Verne (1828-1905) wrote "Vingt mille lieues sous les mers" in 1969 and introduced the submarine Nautilus. In his 1875 novel "The Mysterious Island," the Nautilus was destroyed. Beginning in 1999, writer Alan Moore and artist Kevin O'Neill created a series of comics entitled "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" in which a rebuilt (larger) Nautilus figured.

There have been at least six film adaptations of the Verne's novel. The 1954 Walt Disney version was the most popular and received Oscars (in 1955) for both Best Art Direction and Best Special Effects. The name of the boat was an homage to American inventor Robert Fulton's submarine designed in 1793-1797 and tested in 1800. Fulton named his submersible after the marine mollusk Nautilus pompilius (the chambered nautilus).

Answer: Das Boot

Lothar-Günther Buchheim based his 1973 anti-war novel "Das Boot" on his own experiences on board a U-boat during WW II. In 1981, Günter Rohrbach produced a film adaptation directed by Wolfgang Petersen. Petersen wrote the script with which Buchheim was not happy.

There are several versions of "Das Boot" of highly varying lengths. The original German television mini-series was six hours long and is available on an edited 293-minute DVD. The American theatrical release was 145 minutes. In 1997, a "director's cut" was re-released which lasts 210 minutes.

Although there was an actual German Type VIIC submarine numbered U-96, both Lothar-Günther Buchheim's novel and Wolfgang Petersen's motion picture use it fictitiously.

Answer: Down Periscope

Kelsey Grammer, better known for portraying a psychiatrist on television, starred as the captain of an obsolete, rusty, leaking US diesel-electric submarine in this screwball comedy. As the captain of the USS Stingray, he introduces their new officer saying "Men, at ease. I'd like to introduce you to the newest member of our crew, Lt. Emily Lake. Emily is part of a pilot program to test the feasibility of women serving on submarines.

She's going to be our diving officer." A crew member responds, "Can she do a one-and-a-half inward back in the layout position?" Just a year after the film's release, Norway promoted a woman officer to command one of its submarines.

Answer: The Abyss

Canadian James Cameron wrote and directed "The Abyss" in 1989. He also directed "Terminator" in 1984, "Aliens" in 1986, "True Lies" in 1994 and "Titanic" in 1997. The crew, including Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and Michael Biehn, meet an alien who takes the form of water. Forty percent of the principal live-action photography was done underwater. The film won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.

"On the Beach" was released in 1959, "Fer-de-Lance" in 1974, and "Mystery Submarine" in 1963.

Answer: U-571

The historical premise of the film -- that Americans retrieved a Nazi Enigma code machine and code books -- is unsupportable in fact: British naval forces accomplished this feat. Although the United States Marine Corps is part of the Department of the Navy, not all Marines are comfortable aboard US naval vessels.

In the film, Marine Major Coogan ask "How far down does this ship go?" to which LCDR Mike Dahlgren replies "Oh, she'll go all the way to the bottom if we don't stop her." The motion picture soundtrack includes lots of bass tones below 25 Hz in the depth-charge scenes and has been suggested in audiophile literature as a means of testing the sub-woofers in one's home sound system.

Answer: The Life Aquatic

Steve Zissou, played by Bill Murray, says, in the beginning: "... in 10 days I'm going to set out to find the shark that ate my friend and destroy it. Anyone who wants to tag along is more than welcome." He gathers Team Zizzou to hunt down and kill the Jaguar Shark, which team includes his estranged wife and a co-pilot who might be his own son. Murray gained certification as a SCUBA diver during filming, spending more than forty hours on a breather.

A reporter asks Zissou about the special diving suits they are using, and he responds "Supposedly Cousteau and his cronies invented the idea of putting walkie-talkies into the helmet.

But we made ours with a special rabbit ear on the top so we could pipe in some music." Zissou's fictional ship is called the Bellafonte. Jacques-Yves Cousteau's ship was the Calypso. Harry Bellafonte was well known for singing calypso songs.

In the film, the Bellafonte carries the miniature submarine Deep Search in which the final confrontation occurs.

Answer: "The Russians Are Coming! the Russians Are Coming!" (1966)

Norman Jewison's movie was based on the novel "The Off-Islanders" by Nathanial Benchley (1915-1981). Nathaniel's father, Robert Benchley (1889-1945) was also a writer and a founder of the Algonquin Round Table in New York City. Nathaniel's son, Peter Benchley (1940-2006), wrote the novel and screenplay for "Jaws" (1975).

The film starred Alan Arkin, Carl Reiner, Eva Marie Saint, Brian Keith, Jonathan Winters and Theodore Bikel. Bikel, as the Russian captain of the sub, says to the locals, "What would the Russians be doing on United States of America island, with so many animosities and hatreds between these two countries? It is too funny an idea, is it not? No, we, we are of course ... Norwegians." The movie won the Golden Globe for Best Musical or Comedy Motion Picture.

Answer: SeaQuest DSV

Rockne S. O'Bannon created "SeaQuest DSV" which was renamed "seaQuest 2032" in its third and final (uncompleted) season. Roy Scheider starred as Captain Nathan Bridger for the first two seasons; he was replaced by Michael Ironside as Captain Oliver Hudson.

The programme also introduced a dolphin named Darwin who could communicate with the crew. Steven Spielberg served as an executive producer for the first two seasons. All three seasons were released to DVD. Several episodes were novelised. A comic book was produced, a video game created, action figures released, along with trading cards and a plastic miniature glue-it-together-at-home model of the submarine.

Answer: "Ice Station Zebra" (1968)

MacLean (1922-87) wrote action-adventure novels such as "The Guns of Navarone", "Where Eagles Dare", and "Breakheart Pass". The motion picture "Ice Station Zebra" was loosely based on his 1963 novel of the same name. About the incident which kills his torpedo officer, Rock Hudson (playing the captain of the submarine) explains to Patrick McGoohan (playing a British secret agent) "There's one thing that cannot happen on board a submarine by accident ... is both ends of a torpedo tube open to the sea at the same time!" The film also stars Ernest Borgnine and Jim Brown; there are no women in this movie.

Answer: On the Beach

Shute was living in Australia when he wrote "On the Beach" in which he imagined the slow death of all life in the Southern Hemisphere after "dirty" nuclear war in the North. The use of cobalt in the bombs exploded amplifies their long-term lethal effect.

The title refers to Navy slang for retired sailors. It also references T.S. Eliot's poem "The Hollow Men" which includes the line "In this last of meeting places we grope together and avoid speech, gathered on this beach of the tumid river." A remake of the movie in 2000 ends with a reference to Walt Whitman's poem "On the Beach at Night." The captain scuttles his submarine (the Scorpion) in the open Pacific before succumbing to radiation sickness or committing suicide by taking poison.