Becoming yet another statistic in the redundancy game, marine salvage expert Robinson (Jude Law) is persuaded to take a rusted ex-Soviet submarine to the bottom of the Black Sea in search of a sunken U-boat stuffed full of skeletons and Nazi gold.
Somewhere between Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and the Dirty Dozen, Robinson’s motley crew of ex-smokers, desperados and bankrupt Soviet submariners cruise around – radio-less and sonar-less – trying to avoid the Soviet fleet.
All is going to plan until disgruntled Keith Richards-lookalike and diver Frazer (Ben Mendelsohn) gets nasty. Facing a mutiny and unable to communicate with half his crew, Robinson’s luck worsens with the outbreak of fire followed swiftly by a plunge to the bottom.
Amid the claustrophobia, desperation and corporate greed of company ambassador Daniels (Scoot McNairy), Robinson and his ever-diminishing crew find that they’ve hit pay-dirt, quite literally. What follows thereafter is a fast-paced, often far-fetched, action adventure that turns every valve, seals every hatch and floods every compartment with life-and-death struggles.
Never one to quit while he’s behind, however, Robinson’s lust for revenge finally steers this leaking ship to its ultimate resting place.
Black Sea is one of those old-fashioned, rip-roaring adventures sure to please everyone. Acclaimed director Kevin Macdonald (State of Play, The Last King of Scotland) has thrown all hands to the pumps in this underwater epic, wriggling this way and that and omitting nothing bar the giant squid.