This movie could have been more than what it is. Ed Harris plays a burned out captain of a Soviet missile submarine during the Cold War and he is on his last command. The captain has occasions of hallucinations including those of dying men and of blood. And, to boot, a new sailor is on board and the official papers on him declare he died at sea in the past so hence the title of the movie. Are the men on the sub in danger of working on a haunted submarine with a phantom aboard?

However, the captain seems to be haunted by a few regrets more than anything and on top of this he has to deal with a KGB representative that has an agenda of his own. Despite a good performance by the steady Ed Harris, and a pretty good plot, the movie is marred by strong language and violence including a character’s throat being slit. For these reasons, we are unable to award it our Dove “Family-Approved” Seal.