The Arctic Ocean is about 5.4 million square miles.
A mysterious undersea light destroys a submarine near the North Pole. This has not been the first ship lost in the Arctic recently. Governments around the world temporarily close the polar route and convene an emergency meeting at The Pentagon. Commander Dan Wendover (Dick Foran) is the captain of the atomic submarine Tigershark. He and Nobel Prize winner scientist Sir Ian Hunt (Tom Conway) are present at the meeting. The US Secretary of Defense tells Wendover that he is to take Hunt, Tigershark, and her crew to investigate and eliminate whatever is causing the tragedies.
Also on board are Lieutenant Commander Richard "Reef" Holloway (Arthur Franz) Tigershark's Executive Officer and Carl Neilson Jr. (Brett Halsey). Halsey is a scientist and a pacifistic. He and Holloway have a history. They don’t get along.
After searching the North Pole Tigershark eventually discovers a pattern to the disasters. Using the pattern the cause of the disasters is discovered. They see an underwater saucer-shaped vehicle with a light on its upper dome. One of Tigershark's scientists, Dr. Clifford Kent (Victor Varconi), shows a photo of a UFO, pointing out its similarity to this underwater object. The submariners began to realize that their quarry is extraterrestrial. The crew nicknames the saucer "Cyclops" because of its single light.
Eventually they intercept the saucer. The Commander fires on the UFO. The torpedoes do not explode. The space ship extrudes a gel-like substance within it. The captain orders that the Tigershark ram the alien saucer. The submarine's bow tip breaks through into the lower side of the saucer and becomes stuck. A pointy submarine into a round flying saucer? Pure phallic.
Neilson, Holloway and a small party takes the mini sub Lungfish, and board the UFO. Holloway instructs his men to cut free the submarine with blow-torches. In the meantime he explores the saucer. Holloway starts receiving telepathic messages from its sole occupant, an octopus-like creature with one large eye. Another Cyclops. The alien kills all the boarding party except Holloway. The creature tells Holloway that the ship is made of living tissue. The saucer is a living creature and is healing itself. The alien tells Holloway that it plans on bringing Holloway and several other specimens back to its home planet for further study. The aliens plan to modify themselves, based on what they learn about humans. Once finished, they will return to colonize Earth.
“The Atomic Submarine” is a low budget “B” movie released in 1959. It’s a little slow in spots, sometimes a little wordy but otherwise interesting. It’s different from the normal alien from outer space fare. The inside of the alien ship is stark and black. The alien puppet is nothing special but I’m OK with that. Some of the special effects are good and some are OK. I don’t know why it’s one of the lesser known science fiction movies. It’s certainly worth a look.
The Arctic covers eight countries: Canada, US, Iceland, Greenland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. Three types of ice cover the Arctic Ocean: polar ice, pack ice and fast ice. There are four species of whales in the Arctic Ocean and six seal species. This is also where Santa Claus lives.