“If we are to avoid cremation we must act at once.”
The Seaview is a new state of the art nuclear submarine on tryouts in the Arctic Ocean. It is a very roomy submarine. It was built by scientist and engineering genius Admiral Harriman Nelson (Walter Pidgeon). The commander of the Seaview is Captain Lee Crane (Robert Sterling). On board is Dr. Susan Hiller (Joan Fontain). She is studying crew related stress. Also on board is Commodore Lucius Emery (Peter Lorre).
While on maneuvers giant ice bergs crack and sink. Yes, you are right, Ice don’t sink. When the sub surfaces they see that the sky is burning. They rescue a scientist Miguel Alvarez (Michael Ansara) and his dog. They find out that a meteor shower has pierced the Van Allen radiation belt causing it to catch fire. This threatens to increase the temperature of the world. Global warming is happening. Nelson is summoned to the UN.
The admiral and his team formulate a plan to stop the fire. He proposes firing a nuclear missile at a certain place and time into the belt. The resulting explosion should disrupt the fire extinguishing it. The plan is rejected by the UN. Dr. Zucco (Henry Daniell) proposes that they wait and see. He believes the fire will extinguish itself. The admiral leaves quickly and despite the rejection races to the coordinates required to send the missile.
The Seaview is racing against time. They need to deal with sharks, giant squid, mine fields, and a near mutiny. To add to that someone on board is a saboteur. Someone doesn’t want the Seaview to accomplish its mission. Or is it all in the Admirals head?
"Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea" was released in 1961 and was directed by Irwin Allen. Allen's movies are sort of the “bubblegum pop rock” style of the science fiction movie genre. Big budget, commercial, sometimes disaster, sometimes adventure, bigger than life movies. “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” is one of those. You can watch it with your family. It’s got a good beat with a Frankie Avalon song in the opening credits. Even Barbara Eden gets in the swing of things dancing on a Submarine.
Although the movie was not heralded by the critics. The movie going public loved it. Even if some of the science isn’t accurate, for 105 minutes it doesn’t have to be.
It is reported that Irwin Allen asked the Navy for advice to help in making the film, but the Navy refused because its nuclear program was just beginning in 1961 and was top secret. They didn't want any information getting to the Soviet Union.