Lt. Cmdr. Tom Dodge is assigned as Captain to the USS Stingray, an old diesel driven submarine that has seen better days.
Lt. Cmdr. Tom Dodge is assigned as Captain to the USS Stingray, an old diesel driven submarine that has seen better days. With a crew that consists only of weird guys (and a gal), he's headed against the atomic powered USS Orlando, with the mission to destroy a dummy battleship.—Thomas Meyer <[email protected]>
After repeatedly being passed over by the selection committee, Tom Dodge (Grammer), currently 2nd in command of the USS Orlando nuclear submarine, is finally assigned a sub of his own. RAdm Graham (Den), despite heavy lobbying of the committee and several examples of Dodge's unusual and non-conformist approach to command, fails to convince the committee to not award him his own command. Dodge's command, however, is of the newly recommissioned, and only diesel sub in the US Fleet, the USS Stingray. His first orders are to clean up and take out the Stingray, with the worst misfits for a crew that RAdm Graham could find, and complete a 2-part war game. Dodge makes a deal with Vice Adm Winslow (Torn) that he will be assigned a nuclear submarine if he successfully wins the war game.—Anonymous
Lt. Cmdr Tom Dodge (Kelsey Grammer) is one of the Navy's best, even if he is a bit unconventional. But to take command of his own ship, he must first prove himself in simulated combat. Dodge is shocked when he's put in command of the rusty and outdated USS Stingray. His crew consists of the Navy's worst misfits and troublemakers. And to add salt to an open wound, Dodge's old rival, Adml. Graham (Bruce Dern), will be supervising the opposing team, the crew of the more-up-to-code USS Orlando. Dodge must now prove that he and his crew are up to the challenge...—jwhale9382
Lt. Commander Thomas Dodge (Kelsey Grammer) is being considered for a third time to captain a submarine. He has been previously passed over because of his unorthodox command methods, a "brushing" incident with a Russian submarine, and a genital tattoo that he acquired afterward while drunk on shore leave. Another denial will result in Dodge's being dropped from the Navy's submarine command program. Rear Admiral Yancy Graham (Bruce Dern), who dislikes Dodge, speaks out against Dodge's promotion.
Vice Admiral Dean Winslow (Rip Torn), Commander, Submarine Force Atlantic, likes Dodge and his unorthodox methods. He taps the Lt. Commander to participate in a war game to test the Navy's defenses against attack from diesel-powered submarines that Russia has been selling off to America's adversaries. Dodge is given command of the World War II-era Balao-class diesel-powered submarine, USS Stingray, with orders to "invade" Charleston harbor without being detected, and if successful, to sink a dummy ship in Norfolk harbor using two live torpedoes.
Dodge is reluctant to participate, but he offers Winslow a wager: If he successfully completes the given tasks, Winslow will give him a nuclear submarine to command. The admiral agrees to seriously consider it if Dodge succeeds, telling Dodge to "throw out the book" and "think like a pirate" during the exercise.
Graham, whilst boasting about how he has never lost a war game, handpicks the "crew from hell" for Stingray: hot-tempered, uptight Lt. Martin Pascal (Rob Schneider) as the executive officer; crusty civilian naval contractor Howard (Harry Dean Stanton) as the chief engineer; rebellious Engineman 1st Class Brad Stepanek (Bradford Tatum); sharp-eared Sonarman 2nd Class E.T. "Sonar" Lovacelli (Harland Williams); compulsive gambler Seaman Stanley "Spots" Sylvesterson (Jonathan Penner); former college basketball player Seaman Jefferson "R.J." Jackson (Duane Martin); shock-addled Electrician's Mate Nitro (Toby Huss); and not-so-Culinary Specialist Second Class Buckman (Ken Hudson Campbell), as Stingray's cook. Lt. Emily Lake (Lauren Holly) is assigned by Graham to serve as the sub's diving officer, part of a "special program" to see if women can successfully serve aboard submarines.
Pascal is a paranoid, overbearing asshole and drives everybody nuts. Dodge tries to calm Pascal down, but he calls the crew the most incompetent in naval history and he thinks this posting will ruin his chances of advancement to command. Dodge declines.
Their opponent is Dodge's old sub the USS Orlando, led by Commander Carl Knox (William H. Macy). Carl locates the Stingray on his sonar with a single ping and pursues. Dodge surfaces the Stingray.Using unorthodox tactics and taking full advantage of an Atlantic storm (The Orlando cant see properly in the storm and from a distance the stingray looks like a merchant ship since Dodge put a lamp on top of the submarine and had it running on one screw only and had the entire crew singing drunken songs just in case the Orlando tried to listen in), Dodge and his crew are able to sneak into Charleston Harbor and set off signal flares.
Upset at losing the first part of the war game, Graham reduces the game's containment area by half without Winslow's authorization. Graham deploys 3 destroys and a frigate to corner the Stingray. Dodge orders an emergency dive to the bottom of the sea, to confuse their sonar. As Carl continues to hunt for the Stingray, Dodge has Lovacelli play his whale sound tapes to escape detection.
Failing to penetrate Norfolk Harbor, Dodge leaves the containment area, heads out to sea, and cuts off all contact with the Navy. Pascal openly accuses Dodge of hijacking his own boat and attempts to relieve him of command. Stingray's crew, fed up with his berating, refuses to support his action, so Dodge charges Pascal with attempted mutiny. On deck, wearing mock-buccaneer outfits and speaking like pirates, the crew and Lake look on as Dodge sentences the blindfolded Pascal to walk the plank (into the raised net of a waiting fishing trawler that will take him ashore).
Graham, hellbent on apprehending Dodge, assumes personal command of submarine USS Orlando, upon which Dodge had previously served as executive officer. Graham deploys 15 ships to guard the Norfolk harbor. Dodge employs an incredibly dangerous maneuver that involves carefully passing the sub through the active baffles of a commercial super tanker to avoid the sonar of the naval ships and aircraft protecting the approach to Norfolk (Lake is afraid of messing up the approach and asks Dodge to take over. Dodge intentionally does it wrong to get Lake to take control back again and get her confidence back). Stepanek steps up and helps control the flooding in the engine room during the maneuver.Orlando eventually locates and chases down Stingray. By the time his boat is "targeted", Dodge has already fired two live torpedoes at 900 yards (820 m) into the target ship at Norfolk, winning the war game for Stingray.
Returning to port, Graham is chastised by Admiral Winslow for trying to undermine Dodge's success and denied a promotion. It is revealed that Stepanek is Winslow's son. Winslow informs Dodge that he will now be given the command of a new Seawolf-class submarine, along with a "proper crew" to man her. Dodge respectfully requests that his entire Stingray crew be transferred with him, after which he dismisses his crew to begin a well-earned shore leave. As Dodge and Lake leave the dock, she poses a query now that they know each other: "What is this 'tattoo' I keep hearing about"?
