The Wolf's Call

The French submarine Titan - Le Titane (Titanium) in the original French version - is sent near the Mediterranean coast of Tartus, Syria to stealthily recover a French Special Forces unit operating in the area. The submarine sails under the command of Captain Grandchamp and Executive Officer (XO) D'Orsi. However, during their mission they encounter an unidentified sonar contact. The sonar expert of the submarine, Chanteraide — nicknamed "Socks", and serving as "golden ear", the officer specialized in underwater acoustics — first classifies the contact as a wounded whale, but it quickly turns out that the contact is an unknown submarine transmitting their position to an Iranian frigate and a maritime helicopter operating in the area. The helicopter launches depth charges in what seems to be an unprovoked act of aggression which, however, is a valid defensive measure as the Titan is in fact violating sovereign Syrian waters while recovering an invasion force that has already engaged in combat and killed Syrian nationals. After evading the barrage, the Titan surfaces, and the captain shoots down the helicopter with a Panzerfaust 3. They recover the Special Forces unit and return to base.

When the Titan returns to base, the radio announces that Russia is invading Finland's Åland Islands, and that the French President has decided to send a naval task force to the Baltic Sea in support of Finland. Moscow then threatens nuclear retaliation against the French Republic. Chanteraide, trying to identify the unknown contact in Syria, discovers that it is in fact a Russian Timour III ballistic missile submarine, supposedly dismantled. Meanwhile, Grandchamp is promoted for his actions to command Formidable - L'Effroyable (The Dreadful) in the original French version - while D'Orsi takes over command of Titan. The next day, the French military command detects a Russian R-30 nuclear missile being launched by the Timour III from the Bering Sea, prompting the French President to order the Formidable to launch its nuclear missiles against Russia in response.

In the command bunker, Chanteraide, while listening to the record of the launch, finds an anomaly: the missile is too light, because it was launched without a nuclear warhead. Reporting this to the admiral in command of the Strategic Oceanic Force (codename: ALFOST), he's present when the US Secretary of State calls the ALFOST to report a critical intel: the terrorist organisation Al-Jadida obtained the decommissioned Timour III and launched an empty missile at France, tricking the French into the irrevocable procedure to launch a nuclear counterstrike from the Formidable. The ALFOST and Chanteraide then enter the Titan to stop this nuclear launch by all means necessary.

Grandchamp prepares to fire the nuclear missile, following procedure and eliminating all outside communication while maintaining the submarine in stealth mode. After D'Orsi is rebuffed in his efforts to communicate with Grandchamp via underwater telephone, he attempts to approach Formidable in person. He is killed when Grandchamp launches torpedoes at Titan to prevent their attempts to foil his missile launch. While the timer to missile alignment counts down, Titan simultaneously launches their own torpedo at Formidable. While Chanteraide breaks down under the pressure of targeting his ship, the ALFOST is able to use his experience commanding Formidable to predict Grandchamp's evasive actions. Titan's torpedo hits Formidable's bridge, impacting just seconds before Formidable's torpedo similarly hits Titan. Grandchamp is able to release ballast air and throw the torpedo enough off target to prevent direct impact, although the control room is devastated. Formidable's torpedo directly hits Titan which begins to sink.

Grandchamp orders the evacuation of the carbon monoxide filled control room and denies appeals to issue an SOS call, intending to follow orders and launch the missile first. As Chanteraide and the ALFOST, the sole survivors of the impact, escape the burning area of the ship, Chanteraide makes a last call to the Formidable over underwater telephone. Chanteraide recalls Grandchamp's prior trust in him, and begs him not to arm the missile, before saying goodbye in the face of his impending death on the stricken Titan. With his dying breath, Grandchamp removes the nuclear targeting board, preventing the missile from being launched. The ALFOST is able to evacuate Chanteraide via the escape hatch, but is unable to do so himself. Chanteraide is rescued and is seen at the memorial for the fallen French sailors, and reunites with his girlfriend Diane.

Some scenes in the film are photographed in actual French submarines.[4]

• François Civil as Chanteraide/"Socks"
• Omar Sy as Commandant D'Orsi
• Mathieu Kassovitz as Admiral Alfost[note 1]
• Reda Kateb as Grandchamp
• Paula Beer as Diane
• Alexis Michalik as Executive Officer of the SSBN Formidable
• Jean-Yves Berteloot as CIRA Commander
• Damien Bonnard as Navigator of the SSBN Formidable
• Marc Ruchmann as Officer of the SSBN Formidable

The reviewer Anthony Kao from Cinema Escapist states that the film's military sequence depict a "more muscular France" with "French hard power" acting as part of a "more militarily assertive Europe", noting that these political storylines are influenced by director Antonin Baudry having "previously served as a high-ranking French diplomat." Kao states that even though the film has an "...ambitious plot that spans multiple vessels, naval bases, and countries, it never gets weighed down or overly hard to follow", which contrasts from the typical French art film that North American audiences associate with that country, which is usually "esoteric and inaccessible."[5]

Reviewer Brenden Gallagher from The Daily Dot calls the film "tense submarine warfare for Tom Clancy fans", a reference to Clancy's submarine classic The Hunt for the Red October. Gallagher calls The Wolf's Call "...pulse-pounding action and military intrigue on a level you just don’t see from Hollywood filmmaking anymore" that is, while being "familiar and predictable", still a "well-constructed" movie. He states that while the film's $22 million production budget is much lower than a similar US film would get, the French film does well within its budgetary constraints.[6]

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 85% based on 13 reviews, with an average rating of 6.10 out of 10.[7]

• The Wolf's Call at IMDb