The crew are American, but they also carry two British intelligence officers, who are the only people aboard who know of Russia’s devastating nuclear strike. Instead of leveling with Captain Banks, the British government orders them to trick the Americans into launching their payload. This seems like a dubious course of action, which understandably leads to complications. Unfortunately, the mermaid-like stowaway excels at exposing and exploiting such deception.
Nobody understands how she infiltrated the boat, but the naked woman is quite distracting for some of the sailors. She also seems to have a knack for literally getting inside men’s heads, through her eerie New Agey song. Again, the Brits, Brandon and Bradford, seem to understand who and what she is better than the Americans. At least Brandon feels somewhat guilty about all the secrets he keeps, since he has fallen for Ensign Nunnas, the medic. Nevertheless, he still needs those missiles to launch quickly, if he wants to save London from Putin.
Frankly, the techno-geopolitical aspects of Raul’s screenplay are a bit smarter than most genre films, but it is clear nobody associated with the film had any real-life experience with nuclear submarines. Still, Bailey manages to build quite a bit of suspense whether they can successfully launch in time.
Ironically, the mermaid, who expresses centuries old hostility to the male gender, acts as an unwitting ally to Putin, who has weaponized rape in the Ukraine and supported a rogues gallery of misogynistic Islamist thugs, such as Ramzan Kadyrov. Nunnas might have mentioned that fact when facing “Her,” but maybe that is asking for too much candor and global awareness in a film like this.
Weirdly, the film’s big Macguffin often works against it. Still, as grind-em-out VOD movies go, this one is considerably more interesting than the dozens or so others also releasing this week. Worth considering when it reaches Tubi (on 12/27), What Lurks Beneath first releases this Friday (12/13) on-demand.
