Ice Station Zebra (1968)

USN nuclear sub USS Tigerfish must rush to the North Pole to rescue the staff of Drift Ice Station Zebra weather station.

Director:

John Sturges

Writers:

Alistair MacLean (novel), Douglas Heyes (screenplay)

Stars:

Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan

Nominated for 2 Oscars.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Rock Hudson	...	Cdr. James Ferraday
Ernest Borgnine	...	Boris Vaslov
Patrick McGoohan	...	David Jones
Jim Brown	...	Capt. Leslie Anders
Tony Bill	...	Lt. Russell Walker
Lloyd Nolan	...	Admiral Garvey
Alf Kjellin	...	Col. Ostrovsky
Gerald S. O'Loughlin	...	Lt. Cdr. Bob Raeburn
Ted Hartley	...	Lt. Jonathan Hansen
Murray Rose	...	Lt. George Mills
Ron Masak	...	Paul Zabrinczski
Sherwood Price	...	Lt. Edgar Hackett
Lee Stanley	...	Lt. Mitgang
Joseph Bernard	...	Dr. Jack Benning
John Orchard	...	Survivor

Storyline

Commander James Ferraday, USN, has new orders: get David Jones, a British civilian, Captain Anders, a tough Marine with a platoon of troops, Boris Vasilov, a friendly Russian, and the crew of the nuclear sub USS Tigerfish to the North Pole to rescue the crew of Drift Ice Station Zebra, a weather station at the top of the world. The mission takes on new and dangerous twists as the crew finds out that all is not as it seems at Zebra, and that someone will stop at nothing to prevent the mission from being completed.

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Plot Keywords:

north pole | submarine | espionage | weather station | spy | 

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Taglines:

It's a race for the secret ... or TOTAL DESTRUCTION

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Genres:

Adventure | Thriller

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Certificate:

G

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

23 October 1968 (USA)

Also Known As:

Ice Station Zebra

Filming Locations:

Submarine Support Facility Ballast Point, San Diego, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$8,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Filmways Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

148 min

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track Mono (35 mm prints) 4-Track Stereo (35 mm prints)

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

To do the orbital plane change from an equatorial to a polar orbit described by Jones (Patrick McGoohan) would require an enormous amount of fuel, certainly more fuel than could ever be carried on a practical satellite. Even the tiny orbital plane changes carried out during the Gemini and Apollo programs were extremely costly in fuel, and mission planning always sought to minimize the necessity of such maneuvers.

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Goofs

When Patrick McGoohan and Rock Hudson are in the lab, discussing the satellite, as Rock Hudson moves from right to left the shadow of the boom mike moves across the wall above him.

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Quotes

Cmdr. Ferraday: [after reading the name of the person who authorized the mission] All right sir, I'm impressed. Not enlightened - but impressed.

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Alternate Versions

Originally shown in theaters with an opening overture, which has been restored for the 2005 DVD release.

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Connections

Featured in Rock Hudson's Home Movies (1992)

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Soundtracks

Mission Accomplished
(uncredited)
Written and Performed by Michel Legrand Et Son Orchestre

User Reviews

Big buget, top cast, great music, super-wide screen - Wow!

Big-budget, all-star, action-packed adventure about an American submarine sent to the North Pole to retrieve a downed satellite which contains a roll of film. The Russians want it as badly as the Americans because the film contains high-orbit pictures of BOTH country's missile sites.

Rock Hudson is the sub commander, Patrick McGoohan is the cynical secret agent with a dry wit (a roll he made famous in two famous British TV shows, `The Secret Agent' and `The Prisoner'), Jim Brown is a hard-nosed Marine captain, and Earnest Borgnine is a Russian defector working with McGoohan and the Americans to retrieve the valuable film.

The special effects of the Russian jets could have been much better, even in 1968. But the fantastic exterior arctic sets create a stylized North Pole as appealing as the sets of Altair 4 in `Forbidden Planet'. Sure they don't look `real' -- but that's doesn't mean they don't look good. And brother, they sure look BIG. Furthermore, these sets don't just sit there, they actually DO neat stuff: hugh blocks of ice converge and threaten to crush the sub's conning tower, and the conning tower raises and lowers through cracks in the ice!

Dynamite score by Michel LeGrand. Sterling screenplay by Douglas Heyes, riddled with sharp dialogue that the fine cast delivers perfectly (I love it when McGoohan tells Hudson that the film invented by America's German scientists was put into the camera invented by Britain's German scientists and sent up in the satellite invented by the Russian's German scientists. Funny.

Based on Alistair MacLean's best-selling novel. A genuine techno-thriller that predated Tom Clancy's work. And it was originally released at Cinerama theaters! Gotta love it . . .