5 Most Realistic Submarine Movies You Need to Watch Next

We’ve already ranked our picks for the best submarine movies and the most underrated entries in the genre, but accuracy is a different matter. A director can make a gripping film without getting every technical detail right. Still, some submarine films deserve particular praise for trying to bring the realities of the silent service to the screen with unusual care. The five movies below have earned admiration from Navy veterans and continue to hold a special place among those who know what life beneath the surface is really like. From tense wartime dramas to quieter portraits of day-to-day service, these films made a serious effort to stay true to the facts.

Because we have not served aboard a submarine ourselves, we dug through firsthand accounts, expert commentary from Navy personnel, and insights from military historians to shape this list. That research led us to a few lesser-known submarine movies and forced us to reconsider others we might once have dismissed as wildly unrealistic. Expect some notable omissions and a few unexpected choices. In other words, don’t assume your favourite submarine film will automatically surface here. But if you’re looking for movies that get closer to the real experience of Navy service, you’re in the right place.

The titles are arranged alphabetically, though it just so happens that the film most often named as the most accurate submarine movie is also the first one on the list.

Author Lothar-Günther Buchheim served as a war correspondent for the Reich’s propaganda apparatus during the Second World War, but it took him more than 30 years to turn his time observing submarine crews into the fiercely anti-war bestseller “Das Boot.” When Wolfgang Petersen, later widely known to international audiences for the haunting 1980s fantasy classic “The NeverEnding Story,” brought the novel to the screen, he surrounded himself with people who understood the world he was depicting. Among the consultants was Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock, the real captain of U-96, whose input helped give the production its extraordinary technical precision.

At the time, “Das Boot” was the most expensive German film ever produced, and Petersen used that budget to pursue realism with obsessive focus. Naval advisers examined the submarine sets, while the production team drew on archival photographs, old newsreel footage, and original design blueprints to recreate the U-boat environment as faithfully as possible. The cramped passageways, the machinery, the valves tucked into the background — even details many viewers would never consciously notice — were built to match real submarine layouts.

Today, “Das Boot” is regarded as one of the defining submarine movies ever made, and Navy veterans frequently point to it as perhaps the most authentic depiction of submarine life put on film. The story heightens the danger through mechanical failures and the constant threat of wartime attack, but it also understands the slower, grimmer truths of service underwater: the endless routine, the confinement, the fatigue, and the uneasy awareness that the sea and weather can be as frightening as any enemy.

It is worth noting that Buchheim himself was not entirely pleased with the finished film. He believed it pushed the drama too far and that the real sailors were generally more emotionally controlled than Petersen’s version suggested. Even so, the moments of heightened melodrama are easy to forgive. As a military thriller built on claustrophobia, dread, and slow-building pressure, “Das Boot” remains almost unmatched.

Yes, you read that correctly: the poorly reviewed 1996 Kelsey Grammer comedy “Down Periscope” has been singled out by several Navy veterans as one of the most surprisingly authentic portrayals of submarine life. Critics were largely unimpressed — only 11% on Rotten Tomatoes responded positively — but beneath the broad gags and deliberately ridiculous comic chaos is a recognisable portrait of a crew living in close quarters. Its details about strained supplies, dreadful food, boredom, and the strange bonds that form among submariners have made it feel unexpectedly familiar to those who served.

Nobody was coming to “Down Periscope” expecting ultra realism, and it’s in that regard the movie strays from the facts. But when it comes to the broader aspects of workplace comedy, many with firsthand experience have said it’s well observed. On one Reddit thread, some veterans have even argued it’s closer to a documentary than countless serious naval thrillers. The characters may all be heightened archetypes, but many experts have stressed this isn’t too far from the truth. The nature of the job attracts a lot of socially awkward eccentrics, and the mundanity leaves you entertaining yourself in-between duties.

Multiple viewers also felt the portrayal of rivalry between high-ranking officers was particularly true to what they witnessed aboard. For all its high concept comedy, it understands what drives crew relationships better than most submarine movies.

“Hell Below” is the first of two romantic melodramas on this list, both centering on a love triangle where the two men fighting over a woman happen to be stationed at sea. And while this World War I drama was made in co-operation with the Navy, it does heighten the truth for the sake of classic Hollywood thrills. Lt. Comdr. Morris D. Gilmore, who patrolled the U.S. Atlantic coast during WWI, served as the technical consultant, informing the film’s design — the movie’s military realism was especially singled out for praise.

The film has largely fallen into obscurity, so there isn’t too much contemporary writing from official sources about what it gets right and wrong, so take this extensive Reddit thread from user IlluminatiRex assessing the movie’s accuracy with a pinch of salt. They highlight some errors including a newer S-Class model ship being used as a substitute for an older L-class vessel, as well as a plot depicting the crew in the Adratic and Mediterranean seas, two combat areas where U.S. submarines weren’t deployed during WWI.

They believe more accuracy is shown in the most taxing aspect of daily operations, such as the physical strain of reloading torpedoes, one of the most dangerous duties required in combat. Ultimately, even if the filming location wasn’t faithful to the time, the movie attempts make it look WWI specific, and the depiction of operations is accurate enough to still resonate with anybody who has served.

On the surface, this 1937 Lloyd Bacon-directed film is classic Old Hollywood fare; two sailors (Pat O’Brien and Wayne Morris) are best friends stationed together off the Panama coast, only fighting to get the attention of Ann Sawyer (Doris Weston). Beneath the sugary love triangle surface, you’ll find a surprisingly realistic depiction of U.S. Navy operations prior to WWII, made with the full co-operation of the Navy. It was so painstakingly researched that the final movie had to be approved by the Navy to ensure it didn’t unintentionally reveal military secrets.

This movie has largely been forgotten over time; there are no critic reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, and not enough Letterboxd user reviews to calculate an average rating. However, a small audience of submarine enthusiasts remain drawn to its depiction of procedural maneuvers and other operational duties members of the silent service were required to carry out. Letterboxd reviews all highlight that you’ll need a keen interest in those factors, as the love story at its core feels perfunctory.

It makes for an intriguing period piece when contrasting modern operations and feels oddly prescient due to a climactic action set piece (where the crew must use escape lungs to get out of their sunken boat) that foreshadowed the loss of the USS Squalus in 1939. An intriguing curio, but one only for those with a deep appreciation for the specifics in how service has changed over the years.

The most recent title on this list is “The Wolf’s Call,” a 2019 French thriller which has been highly commended for its commitment to realism. Directed by Antonin Baudry — who was originally a diplomat and speechwriter to former French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin — the film imagines a high-stakes international incident that risks a war with Russia. Baudry spent a month onboard an active French military submarine to ensure this didn’t draw from genre conventions, noting the differences in France’s naval operations. This helps distinguish the movie’s depiction from what you’d typically see in a Hollywood blockbuster.

With his previous profession in mind, “The Wolf’s Call” excels at capturing the minutiae of the administrative details, both on board and on land; it understands the daily operations procedures of all personnel involved, invoking all the appropriate jargon. It sacrifices some of this realism as the story becomes a traditional action thriller, with certain set pieces defying physics, and the depiction of sonar is heavily fictionalized for drama.

It makes up for this with its portrayal of crew life, especially the highly stressful role of a sonar expert (François Civil). The threat he is tasked with determining may be heightened, but the dynamics drawn and the attention to detail in this portrayal of submarine operations makes it easy to forgive. It becomes a conventional Hollywood-style blockbuster, but it puts effort in establishing greater authenticity before then.