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Ice Station Zebra

1968 film by John Sturges

Ice Station Zebra is a 1968 film about a Cold War confrontation in the Arctic over some very valuable film.

Directed by John Sturges. Written by Alistair MacLean, Douglas Heyes, Harry Julian Fink and W.R. Burnett, loosely based upon MacLean's 1963 novel of the same name.
It's a race for the secret ... or TOTAL DESTRUCTION!taglines

Commander James Ferraday

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  • We operate on a first name basis. My first name is Captain.
  • [after reading the name of the person who authorized the mission] All right sir, I'm impressed. Not enlightened, but impressed.
  • One of my men is dead! Three of them are badly hurt and my ship damn near wiped out. Now you take another look at those orders. I'm in command of this submarine and I am not sticking another torpedo up that spout or taking another chance making another damned move until I know exactly what we're doing and why!
  • To Commander Ferraday: This is a nuclear submarine. None of us have been aboard any kind of sub before. Commander Ferraday: Rest easy! I have!

David Jones

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  • The Russians put our camera made by our German scientists and your film made by your German scientists into their satellite made by their German scientists.

Boris Vaslov

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  • They say - a bull in the ring dies a much better death, than a steer in a slaughterhouse. A bull has a chance.

Col. Ostrovsky

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  • Commander Ferraday, this is not the time or place to play with words. You have undoubtedly discovered by now that the capsule will explode if opened. I believe your expression is: booby trap.

Dialogue

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Admiral Garvey: Jim, just how much do you know about Ice Station Zebra?
Cmdr. Ferraday: Just what's been in the papers, sir. Drift Ice Station Zebra: British civilian weather station over the North Pole. They're in some sort of trouble, apparently.
Admiral Garvey: Trouble, yes. They've been sending out distress signals; but, too weak and garbled to make much sense. Something has gone wrong up there, that's for sure.
Cmdr. Ferraday: Those men up there must be pretty important.
Admiral Garvey: They're not the reason you're going. They're just the excuse.
Cmdr. Ferraday: Well then, what is the reason sir?
Admiral Garvey: Oh, I can't tell you that. But I can tell you this: it is important - vitally.
David Jones: Where were you stationed, Captain, before you were picked up in transit?
Capt. Leslie Anders: Asia
David Jones: Ah, then you haven't been on the ice before either.
Capt. Leslie Anders: No, Sir. A bullet goes just as fast up here as it does down there.
David Jones: Not quite. An insignificant difference, perhaps, but I think you'll find the operational characteristics of the M-16 indicate that a bullet will decelerate as much as 40 feet per second per second faster in these climate conditions. It's denser air, you know.
Cmdr. Ferraday: There's one thing that cannot happen on board a submarine by accident... is both ends of a torpedo tube open to the sea at the same time!
David Jones: You cross-connect the hydraulic manifold to the outside door mechanism so that the indicator reads shut when the door is actually open. The same sort of electrical cross on these two panels, and the open position reads green when it should flash red. Then you plug up the inlet to the test cock with chewing gum, sealing wax, anything... just so that it shows a dribble. And then you open the tube, and good night.
Cmdr. Ferraday: It wasn't sealing wax. It wasn't chewing gum. It was epoxy glue. And all of a sudden you know a whole damn lot about submarines.
David Jones: I know how to wreck them, and I know how to lie, steal, kidnap, counterfeit, suborn and kill. That's my job. I do it with great pride.
Boris Vaslov: It seems almost benevolent.
Cmdr. Ferraday: In that state, yes. Confined, controlled, shielded. But it is nuclear fission and it hates being confined even more than you do.
David Jones: May I ask, Captain, when we expect to reach the ice barrier?
Cmdr. Ferraday: Yes, you may ask.
David Jones: Jones. Bad name. Bad connotations. I once killed a man called Jones. Though not for that reason, of course.
Cmdr. Ferraday: That's not your name?
David Jones: Isn't that obvious? It's a - it's a code cover name. Brilliant deception, don't you think? Jones.
Boris Vaslov: You have a distrustful character.
David Jones: I have no character. I assume one.
[Colonel Ostrovsky's paratroopers and the Americans are preparing to part ways]
Col. Ostrovsky: My men and myself will be picked up within the hour.
Cmdr. Ferraday: And we'll be on our way. We're a long way from home.
Col. Ostrovsky: We both are, Commander. Dasvidania.
David Jones: Until you - meet again.
Cmdr. Ferraday: Yes - until we meet again.
David Jones: Dasvidania.

Taglines

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  • It's a race for the secret ... or TOTAL DESTRUCTION!
  • "Ice Station Zebra"... Remember The Name—Your Life May Depend On It!
  • An American nuclear sub.. a sky full of Russian paratroopers—and a race for the secret of Ice Station Zebra!

Cast

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