ReviewHunter Killer film review: Gerard Butler, Gary Oldman in old-fashioned submarine adventure
- A cat-and-mouse game of intrigue set amid the cold war, this film has strong echoes of a James Bond movie
- While its story, of a US submarine sent to rescue a Russian president deposed in a coup, sounds cliched, this is surprisingly good fun
3.5/5 stars
Back in the 1980s, there was Wolfgang Petersen’s German-made Das Boot, still the greatest submarine movie. The following decade Hollywood responded with Crimson Tide and The Hunt for Red October. But since then there have been few notable films set below the ocean’s surface.
So Donovan Marsh’s Hunter Killer, based on the novel Firing Point by George Wallace and Don Keith, feels something of an anomaly.
With Gerard Butler as Joe Glass, captain of the Hunter Killer sub USS Arkansas, rapper Common as a decorated admiral and Gary Oldman chewing scenery as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, it does not sound promising, admittedly. But this is an unexpectedly old-fashioned adventure that feels like it’s been fired straight from a cold war missile launcher.
The premise revolves around a Russian political coup, as Durov (Mikhail Gorevoy), the rogue Minister of Defence, upstages President Zakarin (Alexander Dianchenko). With the Americans ensnared by Durov’s scheme, as he tries to draw them into a war to cover his own actions, the decision is made for a Navy SEAL team to rescue the Russian president and be met by the USS Arkansas.