Summary of Crimson Tide movie:

Detective Alonzo Harris (Training Day) is the commanding officer (2nd in command) to Lex Luther (Superman) on a U.S. nuclear sub. CNN is spouting overhyped news about “RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA” so their mission is to deter the rebel insurrection from launching nukes at the United States, if it comes to that.

They get an EAM that says the rebels have hacked the nuclear codes, so they go to red alert (SQ1). The next EAM says that the Russians are fueling the nuke rockets and can launch them in one hour, so the U.S. sub has to fire 10 nukes first, in a pre-emptive strike. But they get in a fight with another sub and while a new EAM comes in, the sub is slightly damaged and the message it is incomplete.

Lex Luther was to nuke the Reds, but Alonzo Harris wants to wait and get the rest of the last message. At this time there is a mutiny where the captain is relieved and locked in his quarters. But Tony Soprano (The Sopranos) and Aragorn (Lord of the Rings) free the captain so we have a literal nuclear standoff between the captain and the 2nd in command. At the last minute the final EAM message is retrieved and it says “stand down, just kidding, fake news, don’t shoot, it’s over, CNN was wrong again”, etc. and nuclear war is averted.

The moral of the story:

There are tens of thousands of nuclear weapons spread throughout a dozen countries. A nuclear war would wipe out most life in the northern hemisphere. (Pres. Hillary?) We’ve dropped 2 bombs and over 2000 bombs have been tested since they’ve been invented. (Side effects?) America and other countries have plans for a pre-emptive strike, which would lead to MAD, or Mutually Assured Destruction (David Adair?) which means if nuclear war starts, everyone will be finished. Do you want to play a game? This is not a game. Don’t ever believe CNN.