In Enemy Hands (film)

The movie begins with old film footage of World War II with a narrator explaining that Germany produced hundreds of U-boats to control the Atlantic. In 1942, groups of U-boats known as wolfpacks sank over a thousand Allied ships. The Germans began winning the war and if they continued to succeed in destroying the Allies, the Germans will conquer all of Europe. In 1943, Roosevelt and Churchill declared that stopping the U-boats was their main priority. With new technology and the United States committed to the war, the Allies begin destroying the U-boats and bringing an end to the wolfpacks.

In June 1943, Lt. Cmdr. Randall Sullivan (Caan) talks about his upcoming mission with Admiral Kentz (Berkeley). Kentz asks about Sullivan's COB Nathan Travers (Macy) and says he's a good man and Sullivan could learn something from him and bids Sullivan farewell. Meanwhile, Travers prepares to leave home as his wife Rachel (Holly) makes him promise to come home safe. Two months later, Travers is on board the fictional USS Swordfish (based on the real submarine USS Swordfish in World War II), captained by Sullivan where they do constant drill exercises. Meanwhile, the fictional U-429 (based on the real U-429 submarine), captained by Jonas Herdt (Schweiger), momentarily survives a depth charge attack by an American destroyer and sinks it. After playing chess with his First Watch Officer Ludwig Cremer (Kretschmann), Jonas receives a message from home that Hamburg got bombed, where his daughter's school was destroyed and there were no survivors, implying that she died. On the Swordfish, XO Teddy Goodman (Gregg) becomes increasingly sick with a rash on his stomach, which the doctor believes is meningitis, a contagious disease that can be fatal in some cases. Unknown to the crew, Sullivan has a rash on his arm, showing that he's contracted meningitis as well. Meanwhile, another U-boat, the U-821, sinks the British merchant vessel Achilles. Since there hasn't been any U-boat activity in the area for a while, the Swordfish, the closest Allied vessel, goes to investigate.

Radio operator Virgil Wright (Huntington) hears music played by Glenn Miller coming from the U-821, and Sullivan prepares the crew to attack. The U-821 detects the two torpedoes fired from the Swordfish and it dodges them, getting into attack position in the process. When Goodman finally dies from his sickness, Travers takes his place, allowing the Swordfish to fire a third torpedo and destroy the U-821, but the delay caused by Goodman's death allows the U-boat to locate the Swordfish and fire a torpedo before being destroyed. The torpedo explodes near and damages the Swordfish, killing most of the crew and forcing the Americans to surface. Travers, Sullivan, and six other crew members: Wright, engineers Abers (Sisto), and Ox (Gallagher), and torpedomen Miller (Somerholder), Cooper (Giovinazzo), and Romano (Morgan) abandon ship and are taken prisoner by the U-429. The Germans split them up into two groups: Travers, Ox, Cooper, and Miller in the bow and Sullivan, Wright, Abers, and Romano in the stern. Wright nurses Sullivan and discovers his rash, where Abers recognizes it as meningitis and the group realizes that if the Germans don't kill them, the disease will. Days later, when the Germans prepare to attack an American destroyer, the fictional USS Logan (based on the real USS Logan), Travers and his group break free and fire one of the torpedoes off course, but the Germans alert the control room and the Americans are once again restrained. When the torpedo detonates, the Logan is alert to the U-boat's presence. The Logan attacks the U-429 with depth charges that makes Sullivan's group break free as well, where Sullivan protects his crew by fighting off a German guard and succumbs to his illness in the process. Meanwhile, the meningitis spreads and kills two thirds of the German crew, including Romano of the American crew. Later on, Travers has an hallucination of Rachel, who reminds him of his promise to come home.

With no other choice, Jonas decides to have Travers' men work with his crew in order to save them all by going to the US coast and be taken into custody. As both crews reluctantly work together, Jonas explains to Travers that he saved Travers' men in defiance of the standing protocol of capturing only the captain and COB of an enemy ship. He personally saved all of them because he's grown tired of the war and he felt strong for himself by saving lives instead of taking them. Jonas says if they come across either enemy, they must guarantee their men will go home. During their travel to the US coast, Klause (Heger), the U-429's quartermaster, becomes disillusioned with Jonas working with the Americans and orchestrates a mutiny, along with two other crew members, Lieutenant Bauer and the U-429's radio operator Christophe. Abers and Wright subdue Christophe, who makes a distress call to other U-boats, and engineer Hans (Thorsen) knocks out Bauer to save Ox. Klause unsuccessfully attempts to use the last bow torpedo to blow up the boat and he literally stabs Jonas in the back until Travers uses a chain from a chain hoist to snap his neck, killing him. With his dying breath, Jonas gives command of the boat to Cremer. The crew encounters the Logan again and tries to make contact with the destroyer, but they're attacked by the U-1221, another U-boat that responded to the distress call. The other U-boat fires several torpedoes in an attempt to sink the U-429, while the Logan is alert once again to the ensuing battle. Enduring heavy damage as they evade every torpedo attack, two German crew members try to convince Cremer to fight back, but he refuses to fire on his own countrymen. Abers and Travers convince Cremer to fight, only for him to reveal they only have one torpedo left in the stern. After passing on top of the enemy submarine to align the stern tubes with it, the crew uses the last torpedo to destroy the U-1221, but it doesn't detonate. The U-1221 fires another torpedo at the U-429 but doesn't cause any serious damage. Before the torpedo explodes, the Logan locates the U-1221 with its sonar and fires its guns into the water, destroying the U-boat. When Travers makes contact with the Logan, Captain Samuel Littleton (Ellis) orders Travers to take the Enigma. Travers falsifies that they're sinking and disconnects with the Logan, keeping his promise to Cremer to never let the U-429 be captured. The crew floods the boat and are rescued by the Logan.

Returning home, Travers argues with Kentz about the Germans saving their lives. Kentz says the Germans are still the enemy but he'll do his best to have them taken care of. Travers and Rachel are reunited and they go visit Cremer in a POW compound, where Rachel thanks Cremer for saving her husband's life. Travers gives him cigarettes and tells Cremer it's good to see him as Travers leaves and Cremer watches on.

• William H. Macy as COB Nathan Travers
• Til Schweiger as Captain Jonas Herdt
• Scott Caan as Lieutenant-Commander Randall Sullivan
• Thomas Kretschmann as 1st Watch Officer Ludwig Cremer
• Lauren Holly as Rachel Travers
• Connor Donne as Lieutenant Bauer
• Clark Gregg as Lieutenant Teddy Goodman
• Carmine Giovinazzo as Cooper
• Sam Huntington as Virgil Wright
• Jeremy Sisto as Abers
• Ian Somerholder as Miller
• Branden Morgan as Romano
• Patrick Gallagher as Ox
• Chris Ellis as Captain Samuel Littleton
• Rene Heger as Klause
• Sven-Ole Thorsen as Hans

• When the film was shown on Albanian television, it was given a title that translates as Underwater Prison in English, and had similar titles in some other countries' TV schedules U-429: Underwater Prison in Armenia.

• In Enemy Hands at IMDb
• In Enemy Hands at Rotten Tomatoes