Credits
Distributed by
Focus Features (United States)
Universal Pictures (United Kingdom)[1]
Sierra/Affinity (International)[2]

Production companies
Film4 Productions
Cowboy Films
Etalon Film

Directed by
Kevin Macdonald

Written by
Dennis Kelly

Produced by
Charles Steel
Kevin Macdonald

Starring
Jude Law
Konstantin Khabensky
Scoot McNairy
Ben Mendelsohn
David Threlfall

Cinematography
Christopher Ross

Edited by
Justine Wright

Music by
Ilan Eshkeri


Synopsis
Robinson, a veteran captain of underwater salvage who is recently divorced and estranged from his young son, is made redundant by his firm Agora along with his friends Kurston and Blackie. A depressed Kurston informs them that he has come into possession of information that Agora had found the wreck of a Type VIIC[note 1] U-boat from World War II that sank off the coast of Georgia carrying a cargo of gold worth millions, but were unable to salvage it due to territorial disputes following the Russo-Georgian War. Robinson and Blackie meet with a mysterious man named Lewis, who agrees to fund their expedition to recover the gold in exchange for a substantial share of the profits and orders his executive Daniels to accompany the expedition. Robinson encounters a young man, Tobin, who claims to be a friend of Kurston and informs Robinson of Kurston's suicide. Robinson decides to take Tobin along on the expedition. A half-British, half-Russian crew is assembled with each man promised an equal share of the spoils. They travel to the Port of Sevastopol in Crimea and acquire an antiquated Foxtrot-class submarine. The Russians view the young Tobin as a bad omen, mistakenly assuming he is a virgin when he is in fact an expecting father. With only Blackie speaking both Russian and English, communication difficulties lead to mounting tensions that culminate in a fight in which Fraser stabs Blackie in the chest. In the chaos, a fire breaks out, causing an explosion that cripples the sub, killing Blackie and Gittens, a British crew member, and knocking Robinson unconscious. He awakens 18 hours later to find the Russians have taken over half of the boat, with the British in the other half. The damaged vessel lies on the sea floor and its drive shaft is unusable, but sonar scans indicate they are close to the old U-boat and may be able to salvage and appropriate its drive shaft, as the Soviet submarine was based on the U-boat design. Robinson discovers another Russian crewman, Morozov, speaks English. Fraser, Peters, and Tobin traverse the sea bed and to their delight discover the wreck of the U-boat. They recover the drive shaft and the gold but Peters is killed when he falls down a trench and his air hose is accidentally severed. The crew complete repairs and the sub resumes its journey. Before they surface, Daniels admits to Robinson that the men are heading into a trap; their previous employer Agora deliberately leaked the details of the U-boat's location to them via Kurston, who is in fact alive, in the hope that they would salvage the gold, leaving Agora to claim it after the men are captured by the waiting Russian Navy. Robinson decides to remain submerged and travel to Samsun in Turkey, necessitating a risky journey through a narrow trench to avoid their pursuers. Daniels, desperate for rescue, persuades Fraser to murder Zaytsev, the engine mechanic, thus forcing Robinson's hand since there are no longer enough men to safely operate the sub. A second explosion sends the sub back to the seafloor and pierces the hull. Fraser and the rest of the remaining crew try to repair the leaks but their efforts are futile. Before they can escape, a panicked Daniels locks a bulkhead, leaving three men to drown, but traps himself in the next compartment with his snagged clothing. Morozov closes the final bulkhead, leaving Daniels to drown and protecting Robinson, Tobin, and himself in the torpedo section where Robinson has hidden three escape suits. Robinson evacuates Tobin and Morozov and explains to Tobin that he will follow in the third suit using an emergency lever. Both men surface, whereupon Morozov informs the young Tobin that there was no emergency lever and that Robinson had chosen to sacrifice himself. Soon afterwards, the third suit appears, containing some of the gold and a picture of Robinson's family.