Russian submarine crew in Spy

crawfordboon

Firstly can I say I attended the TSWLM screening at the iMax in London yesterday - the film has never looked more beautiful or epic and it will be hard to watch this or any other movie again on a smaller screen (iMax has the UK's largest).

One thing occured to me during the screening - we don't see the captured Russian crew during the breakout of the UK/US submarine crews, and the subsequent battle with Stromberg's forces. But when we cut to the Russian submarine later, the 'Captain' (I assume the bearded guy is the captain, as this scene is paralled by us seeing the captain in the UK submarine moments earlier) speaks with a Russian accent. Could it be that the Russians turned against their government and agreed to man the sub?

Perhaps they didn't realise that Moscow was to be a target (they certainly didn't realise that Bond's new coordinates were those of their fellow submarine!).

Shady Tree

I was there too for that IMAX screening and I pondered the same question as you, as I had during previous viewings.

I'm sure we're meant to accept that the bearded guy is one of Stromberg's people; I don't thing I'd go along with your 'defection' theory! Overall, then, five different submarine crews will have passed through the Liparus: the three captured crews - UK, USSR, US - and Stromberg's own two crews, which, it is true, would have been recruited internationally!

In terms of the film-makers' decision not to throw the Soviet crew into the mix for the action climax, I guess they thought it would have been just too complicated having the Ruskkies dashing around the Liparus in the middle of the battle as well as everyone else! In this respect TSWLM contrasts with YOLT, where both the American and Russian astronauts form part of the breakout inside Blofeld's volcano. ("In Russia we say cosmonaut!")

In terms of the story, if we set aside your 'defection' theory, what plausible explanations are there for the absence of the captured Russian submarine crew aboard the Liparus? I'd hate to think that they were incarcerated in a separate chamber to the US / UK crews and were never released: this would have meant that they would have all remained trapped during the battle and gone down with the super-tanker! Either that, or (unlike Captain Carter) the Russian captain hadn't cooperated sufficiently quickly with Stromberg's command to disembark with his crew once his sub had been captured - in which case the consequence for these Russians would have been 'extermination' at the outset! (Stromberg's line, "I'm not renowned for my patience!" was famously parodied in 'The Young Ones' where Alexi Sayle repeats it and Rik Mayall retorts: "Oh, I take it you're not Doctor Kildare, then!")

Walther PPK

When Bond enters the holding area for the crew of HMS Ranger he tells Captain Talbot to release the Russians and American sailors and then make for the armory. As the captives make their escape thier is a small group of men in off white colored uniforms seen in the backround of the scene I am assumeing these are the Russians submarine crew as the Americans wear Navy blue uniforms and the British wear light blue except for Talbot and the first officer who wear white shirts with black and gold striped shoulder boards. I think it is a Russian who hands Bond a new magazine of 9mm ammo for his Sterling SMG when he runs out,during the battle scene. I noticed that this sailor wears white and has a blue scarf with white stripes on it. I remember reading once some wear that most branches of the Russian military had a striped garment as part of their uniforms during the Cold War period. Also someone in white later seen on board the USS Wayne as leaves the exploding super tanker.

Shady Tree

Thanks, Walther PPK. There's nothing to beat attentive textual analysis when resolving questions like this.

In Christopher Wood's novelisation of his own screenplay we learn that the Russian captain and his crew are among those who break out from the brig to join in the battle. Bond asks: 'What about losses?'

"Carter's face clouded. 'Heavy. They really poured it into us coming out of the brig. About thirty dead and half as many again injured. The Russian captain bought it in the assault on the magazine.' Carter shook his head in admiration. 'Those guys fought like wildcats.'" (p.161)

'Allied' admiration for Russian sacrifices in the fight against a common enemy is, of course, something familiar to historians of the Second World War - and in the context of this allusion it's not irrelevant that Stromberg himself appears to be German.

crawfordboon wrote:

But when we cut to the Russian submarine later, the 'Captain' (I assume the bearded guy is the captain, as this scene is paralled by us seeing the captain in the UK submarine moments earlier) speaks with a Russian accent.

If one of Stromberg's submarine captains is a Russian, the other looks and sounds like a stereotypical WWII German officer. Following the SPECTRE format, Stromberg and his heavies are politically 'independent', but in many cases their characteristics still seem to be composited from stereotypes of 'traditional' WWII and Cold War enemies.