VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA-THE LAST BATTLE

 

THE LAST BATTLE

Writer-ROBERT HAMNER

Dir-FELIX FEIST

 

TEASER         

Karl Deiner is Admiral Nelson's passenger mate on board a jet he is taking to Washington DC. He makes small talk to Nelson who feels like a regular commuter. Nelson, at first, is aggravated by the small talk. A stewardess tells Nelson he must eat--it's one of the rules. The plane descends as Karl switches Nelson's sugar in his coffee for a drug which makes him go to sleep. Later, the stewardess takes his tray. Karl gets up, signals another man, and both take out guns. The other stops the stewardess from calling for help (who was she going to call anyway?). The two men put a parachute on Nelson and two on themselves. They open the door to the sky and push Nelson out and jump out after him. Who pulls Nelson's cord? It may have been set on automatic or something.

 

ACT ONE

We hear the VOYAGE theme as Seaview is on the surface. Lee tells Chip about Nelson missing. Seaview is going to Norfolk. Exterior camp set, which is quite good, is where Nelson is-some kind of concentration camp.  A German man watches a film of Hitler addressing the German populace in the 1940s, including the Hitler Youth. Nelson, on a couch, awakens to the sounds Hitler's speech. Nelson recognizes the German man--Colonel Alfred Schroder--a war criminal. He came to find his hiding place on this forgotten edge of nowhere. Nelson fully realizes what Schroder has done and attacks him but is easily knocked aside. He tells Nelson not to show his moral indignation in this way---Nelson's been drugged and dragged half way across the world--it is two days after the plane trip. Schroder allows the fellow passenger, Colonel Karl Deiner to enter. There is stock music as the screen closes and they take Nelson around the camp outside this building. Schroder explains that give the Germans a little timber, barbwire and, "We do what we know how to do best."  He survived a 30 year manhunt for him...he lived like an animal but survived the wartime. He hid in sewers. Nelson comments, "You people always seem to survive."  When Schroder asks if Nelson wants to hear his plans, Nelson says, "I've got a hunch I couldn't stop you from telling me."  The film was the first anniversary of the German Reich. Nelson admits he didn't understand the speech--it was in German and he doesn't know it. Schroder says it is the language of poets to which Nelson says, "Not always."  The Reich was supposed to last 1000 years, World War II is considered to be just a minor engagement in a larger battle. Schroder was entrusted to rebuilt the Reich, a 4th Reich from the ashes of the 3rd. Schroder claims the future of the world lies in its oceans--he will make Nelson head of all maritime projects. They take Nelson to other prisoners. The first is Dr. Gustav Reinhardt. Nelson says,  "You're supposed to be dead."   Gustav answers,  "I am. We all are."  Schroder crashed an airliner to get this psychologist here--"fortunes of war, Admiral."  The next man is Anton Miklos, a nuclear scientist who vanished without a trace. Nelson once attended Miklos's Oxford lecture on new ways of exploding the neutron.  Benjamin Brewster is next--an electronics expert--supposed to have been buried in a skiing accident. Schroder tells them someday he will Nelson who is really buried there--when he is convinced a little knowledge is not a dangerous thing.  Last is Alejandro Tomas, a three time Olympic decathlon star. Nelson knows him, too--he says, "I read the Sports pages."  Tomas will be the father of new supermen. Gustav says to Nelson, "We are the new master race. Welcome aboard." 

 

ACT TWO

Seaview surfaces. Chip gives Lee a top priority message in the nose. There is no news and even Washington's top agents cannot find anything. Anton points out the tower to Nelson. Benjamin comments that even David had a sling. Nelson thinks the best weapon they have are their brains. Schroder appears and tells them that they should plan their escape when Corporal Vent is on the tower--he's a terrible shot but makes a good meal. He taunts Nelson about the escape plans, then leaves. Nelson tells the others Schroder's conceit is as if his side won the war, not lost. Gustav gives a commentary on the opposite sides of Schroder's mind--brilliant and yet nervous, too. He wants to control their minds and will break them one by one. Tomas wants to get his hands around Schroder's neck but that wouldn't stop him, one of the others would simply replace him, Benjamin says. Nelson agrees--he has an idea. They are on an island miles from shipping lanes. Nelson figures they have to bring the outside world to them. Night, Tomas cuts wires near the tower while the others plan  to tap into the electric fence. Nelson uses his heel to band in the sending key device and they have their own radio station. The stock music is tense and well done. Sparks tells Lee he has monitoring all short wave bands, then all bands. He tries international bands. Almost dawn as Nelson continues to try. He tells the others they will try every night. Sparks calls Captain Crane--he is picking up something: a CW signal-the Seaview code. Sparks will use the radio direction finder. Crane tells him to send a reply, "The Calvary is on its way."  Nazi Headquarters--their antenna makes them aware Seaview is on its way and is one day away. Nelson is brought to Schroder in the morning and told he expected him to set up a radio in three days time but they did it in one day. Schroder tells Nelson he is a small pawn on the chessboard--bait to get Seaview here. He shows Nelson the reply Lee gave. Nelson goes to hit him but stops when Schroder tells him there is not much reason to keep him alive--Seaview will serve the 4th Reich--sailing to sea at a point between Moscow and Washington DC--within nuclear range. Two missiles will fire at each city. The retaliation will cause a nuclear holocaust and he will gain the whole world. Nelson couldn't understand why anyone would want that? Schroder is willing to let the major powers destroy each other after he triggers the war. From the ashes, he will build the 4th Reich. Nelson, taken off guard by this, pleads to him, "That'll cost millions of lives. You must have some feelings, some emotions."  This fails and Nelson is made to leave by the guards. Schroder sieg hails the map of the world and Hitler's bust.

 

ACT THREE

Nelson tells the others. Karl comes in and takes out the light bulb and the makeshift radio. Benjamin blames Nelson and the two get into a heated fight which almost becomes physical. Gustav stops them by telling them Schroder wants to divide and conquer. Nelson admits he shouldn't have taken offense so easily but the walls may have ears. Seaview is on the way and Schroder crows all he can about this. Outside in the morning near the shower stalls, Nelson, Benjamin, Gustav, and the others plot. Nelson asks Gustav to give a rundown on what Schroder might be thinking. Gustav reasons the Colonel is waiting for a countermove so instead they have to give him a counter-counter move. Gustav expects Schroder expects something brave like storming the main gate. Nelson says they have to give him it--and use it as a diversion. First, they must find out how to stop the trap that is going to be sprung on Seaview. The south side of the island, the Nazis cleared the channel; supplies are brought in on the side they are at so the channel must be for Seaview's capture. Tomas returns with no shirt on, finishing his wash. Anton tells Nelson the last time a man tried to escape he was tortured for four days and then killed. Tomas will find out what is going on despite that. He sneaks past the guard, hits him and throws him against the fence, starting an alarm. He shoots at the tower and gets under the fence but then meets Schroder and Karl outside the fence. Schroder doesn't care about the guard--Tomas tells them all about the two step plan of the Admiral's!

 

ACT FOUR   

Schroder's radio room must be where the controls to the antenna and the trap on Seaview are. Nelson asks the men if anything strange had been brought to the island. Anton figures that when he was in the workroom, he heard about a cargo of huge steel nets--the trap for Seaview. Nelson wants to blow up the controls but Benjamin says it is impossible. He turns to Anton to make the explosive, telling him it would be the same as a large scale detonation only smaller--exploding energy. They will need a shell to contain the release and clay or mud might do. They also need a detonator. Benjamin tells them he will get them the spark. They need a base nitrate for the explosive itself. NOTE: There is a cross in the room on the far corner. Seaview stops one half mile from the island near a built channel. Schroder and Karl track it. Chip, in scuba gear, returns to the Control Room and tells Lee the lagoon is too shallow and guns cover it. Lee is following Schroder's every figuring of what he will do. Reefs block the East and West. Chip suggests blasting the lagoon but Crane vetoes that, "No, the Admiral wouldn't stand a chance."  Nelson plants explosives and runs back. The three older men divert so Nelson and Tomas can get past to the HQ. Whoever gets in will blow it apart. Schroder stops Nelson and Tomas. Tomas reveals himself to be the traitor--Schroder tells Nelson that the younger man couldn't resist their persuasions--his mind is not like the others. Sabotage, traitors--all the weapons of war, Schroder tells Nelson, who punches Tomas, telling him he is the worst of all of them. Tomas falls but when Nelson is brought back, he seems to have a slight smile on his face. Seaview enters the channel. Chip and Lee see it on the TV, Chip smiling (yes, that's right, Chip smiles). Tomas, Karl, and Schroder watch Seaview on their radar screen and TV. Schroder wants to be the one who personally turns the switch to trap Seaview. Tomas is still holding the home made bomb, one of many the prisoners made. Rounded up, the prisoners watch the HQ. Nelson says, "Now, now."  The radio room blows up. Seaview is on the surface and all is over now. In the nose, Nelson and Lee talk. Nelson had checked the barbwire fence himself. Tomas couldn't have gotten outside or over it. Nelson sabotaged Tomas's bomb using a timer made from his wristwatch. Chip arrives with news of the other prisoners. Reinhardt's blood pressure is a bit high but the other prisoners are all right. Lee says, "Once those steel nets would've been over the Seaview, we'd have been effectively trapped---he could have played cat and mouse with us."   Nelson says, "He would've played cat and mouse with the whole world."   Lee says, "You mean whatever would've been left of it."   Nelson says, "Yeah, whatever would've been left of it."

 

REVIEW: Normally Nazis restarting World War II or rising up from the ashes of World War II and starting WWIII and the New Reich are pretty predictable. This one was not. Schroder and Karl were two of the most vilest villains ever and Schroder seems to actually outsmart Nelson most of the time. The dialogue is tense and even if a bit talky, not too much. It is never a boring episode, almost like a game of chess. This episode seems to have been shot in the set of another FOX movie, maybe STALAG 17 or VON RYAN'S EXPRESS.