A largely-forgotten Cold War blockbuster that was blasted for playing fast and loose with the facts and sank without a trace at the box office doesn’t exactly stand out as a movie with an indelible place in cinematic history, but K-19: The Widowmaker will nonetheless endure forever as a game-changer and trailblazer.
By signing on to direct the project, Point Break and The Hurt Locker helmer Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to ever wield the megaphone on a production with a budget of $100 million or above. As you can imagine, though, the knives were out for that very reason when the submarine thriller scored middling reviews, came nowhere close to recouping its costs from theaters, and ended up losing a sum in the $70 million range when all was said and done.
Harrison Ford heads up the cast as a sub captain ordered to take over the titular nuclear vessel and prepare it for any eventual outcome. However, when issues threaten a full-blown meltdown of the core, the potential death of every man aboard in a fiery explosion, and the threat of all-out war, he’s forced to choose between duty and loyalty.
The submarine subgenre is typically worth watching when done well, which might explain why The Widowmaker has resurfaced over 20 years after tanking to secure a spot on the iTunes worldwide watch-list, per FlixPatrol. Historical accuracy be damned; it’s Ford being gruff and grizzled opposite the equally-hardened Liam Neeson in a big budget adventure, which is evidently enough to convince subscribers to give it another shot.
