LOGLINE
Trapped aboard a US nuclear submarine, a former priest turned navy engineer must stop a demon-possessed Soviet prisoner before she turns the Cold War hot.
COMPS
CRIMSON TIDE x EVIL DEAD
SYNOPSIS
1989. OFF THE EASTERN COAST OF THE SOVIET UNION
The crew of USS Michigan—a nuclear submarine—holds their collective breath. Outside the engine room, PETER, a former priest who traded faith for duty, listens patiently as his best friend SAL walks through “Operation Golden Chicken,” his crazy plan for how he’d seize control of the sub—a favorite pastime of bored submariners. Meanwhile, CIA agent GABRIELLE, out of place among the all male crew, and a team of NAVY SEALS return with their prize: ANYA, a teenager rescued from a top-secret Soviet facility.
Mission accomplished. But they’re not out of the woods yet. Soviet destroyers are on the hunt. Depth charges pound the hull as CAPTAIN SLAGER orders the USS Michigan into a desperate dive; barely escaping. In the chaos of the attack, Anya is gravely injured. Gabrielle, with the help of Peter and Sal, rushes Anya to the Med Bay where she dies on the operating table.
But Anya doesn’t stay dead for long. She comes snarling back to life and brutally attacks the Captain, leaving him clinging to life and throwing the crew into a panic. After an intense interrogation aided by Peter’s translation skills, Gabrielle realizes Anya isn’t Anya—not anymore. The CIA’s worst fears have been confirmed: the Soviets made contact with Hell and Anya has been possessed by an ancient demon with the power to control anyone she touches.
Anya breaks free and unleashes terror on the ship. Sailors go blank-eyed and do her bidding. Navy SEALs slaughter each other in narrow corridors. The sub becomes a steel tomb of flickering lights, screaming alarms, and blood-soaked floors as Anya builds her own crew of the possessed. But Peter doesn’t want to believe it. He can’t. Because admitting Anya is a demon means admitting that everything the church taught him, everything he left behind, could really be true.
As Anya tightens her grip, Peter, Sal, and Gabrielle work to hide the nuclear launch keys to keep her from starting World War Three. Anya captures Peter and Sal, forcing Peter to attempt an improvised exorcism that ends in a shocking betrayal when Sal reveals he’s been controlled by Anya the whole time. Sal hands over the keys before taking his own life at Anya’s command.
After narrowly escaping with the help of Gabrielle and with the sub rising toward missile launch depth under Anya’s control, Peter has one final, desperate gambit—Operation Golden Chicken. Peter floods the ship, sinking it toward the depths of the Mariana Trench and the site of a gateway to Hell. While Gabrielle battles controlled sailors on the command deck, Peter faces Anya in the bowels of the sub. As flood water rises, Anya grabs Peter—but he hacks off his own arm to break her grip on his mind. Anya falls into a flooded compartment that implodes from the crushing pressure, leaving nothing behind but a wisp of pink mist.
But it’s too late. The USS Michigan is doomed. Controlled sailors drop dead. Alarms howl as Peter and Gabrielle rig the nuclear reactor to overload, determined to blow up the ship to seal the gateway to Hell for good. They make it to an escape pod just as the Michigan explodes in the dark beneath them. As they rush toward the surface, a wounded and fading Gabrielle asks Peter to perform her last rites. He obliges, finding personal meaning in his faith again and giving her the comfort she needs. As the escape pod breaks the surface, they can’t help but laugh. Bloody, broken, but somehow still alive. For now.