A top-secret Soviet spy satellite -- using stolen Western technology -- malfunctions and then goes into a descent that lands it near an isolated Arctic research encampment called Ice Station Zebra, belonging to the British, which starts sending out distress signals before falling silent. The atomic submarine Tigerfish, commanded by Cmdr. James Ferraday (Rock Hudson), is dispatched to save them.
Rock Hudson captains an American nuclear submarine in this stolid adaptation of the Alistair McLean novel about international satellite espionage. A hammy Patrick McGoohan and Ernest Borgnine join the crew as the submarine heads to a British weather station in the Arctic that has stopped responding to communications and our adventure picks up as we try to discover the spy in their midst who tries to sabotage the submarine and the mission. Despite the millions spent on the effects and some Oscar-nominated underwater photography, it's terribly wooden and slow. By the time the end does come, I had kind of given up as the plots and sub-plots were all tripping over each other. At almost 2½ hours, it's way too long too.