Into the deep sea without any risk: the best submarine movies

Very few people have ever had the opportunity to be a submarine crew member. And those who did enter a submersible recently, paying 250,000 dollars for a visit to the Titanic, died in the endeavor.

Ordinary people do not get to board a submarine and experience the feeling of quietly moving through the deep sea. For such ordinary people, there are submarine movies. The key to this genre of film lies in how to depict the movements of people's minds in unusual situations.

Like many submarine films, 'The Enemy Below' is a war movie. It depicts the battle between U.S. Navy destroyers and German submarines, commonly known as U-boats, in the South Atlantic during World War II.

The destroyer's captain is Robert Mitchum, and the U-boat's captain is Kurt Jürgens.

It is a masterpiece in which these two excellent opponents recognize each other's prowess while using uneasy communication methods such as depth charge attacks and torpedo attacks. A message of human interaction can be read amidst all the powerful machinery.

'Run Silent, Run Deep' is a 1958 film that also depicts a World War II battle between American and Japanese submarines. This confrontation takes place in the Bungo Channel.

The submarine's commander is Clark Gable and his co-captain is played by Burt Lancaster. The two protagonists disagree about strategy, causing discord among the crew members.

There is a scene where the torpedo tube room of the submarine, which Clark Gable and others have boarded, is hit by a Japanese fierce depth charge attack and floods.

While they try to stop the flooding, the impact of the depth charge causes the anchored torpedoes to roll off, killing several crew members.

Strikingly, the captain orders the torpedo launchers to be filled with the bodies of the crew and whatever the survivors can find floating in the water. They do this to convince the enemy that the submarine has been sunk.

'The Boat' (Das Boot) is a 1981 West German film directed by Wolfgang Petersen. It was nominated for six Academy Awards and won two of them: Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.

An outstanding submarine movie about the German battles in World War II, 'Das Boot' was filmed in a full-size replica of a U-boat. From start to finish, it is very realistic.

The movie unfolds entirely inside the U-boat. The audience, sitting in the darkness of the movie theater, experiences the claustrophobia along with the protagonists.

After these examples of war movies, you may feel like getting to know something a bit lighter under water. So let's finish with 'Life Aquatic' (2004).

Wes Anderson's 'Life Aquatic' follows the adventures of ocean explorer Steve Zissou (played by Bill Murray) and his friends. Their submarine makes for the most exciting scenes.

Cate Blanchett and Angelica Huston are part of the cast. Here, they appear together with director Wes Anderson.

In the film, Steve Zissou's crew wears matching orange knit hats. This choice of costumes is a tribute to the French oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau. His trademark was a red knit hat.