Captain Nemo and the Underwater City
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Captain Nemo and the Underwater City | |
|---|---|
 Promotional poster for the film |
|
| Directed by | James Hill |
| Produced by | Steven Pallos Bertram Ostrer |
| Written by | Pip and Jane Baker R. Wright Campbell |
| Starring | Robert Ryan Chuck Connors Nanette Newman |
| Music by | Angela Morley |
| Cinematography | Alan Hume |
| Editing by | Bill Lewthwaite |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release date(s) |  December 19, 1969 December 25, 1969 October 7, 1970 December 27, 1970 |
| Running time | 105 min. |
| Country | UK |
| Language | English |
| Preceded by | 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Mysterious Island |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Captain Nemo and the Underwater City is a 1969 British film, featuring the character Captain Nemo and some of the settings of Jules Verne's novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. It was written by Pip and Jane Baker and stars Robert Ryan as Nemo.
It is considered a follow-up film to the 1954 film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and 1961's Mysterious Island.[citation needed]
In this story, Nemo rescues a group of survivors from a sinking ship and takes them to his underwater city, a self-sustaining utopian colony with communitarian inhabitants. He will not allow them to leave his colony and return to civilization, but they finally escape in their urge for personal freedom.
[edit] Synopsis
The movie starts off with a ship caught in a storm. The vessel sinks. As several of its passengers begin to drown, divers bring them to the Nautilus. From there they are taken to a magnificent underwater city led by Nemo. In addition to its Utopian lifestyle the people also discover much of the city is made of gold. Two survivors begin to plot to steal some of the gold. Another survivor is an ambassador of the US government to Britain on urgent business, who desperately desires to continue his mission. Another of the party feels claustrophobic in the city and desperately wants to go back to the surface. However, for the safety of the city , Nemo tells the survivors that they cannot leave. The only survivors that accept this easily are a boy and his mother.
On their first day three of the survivors are shown the underwater farms of the city. They discover that a special machine produces Air, freshwater for the city. As a by product gold is also produced. As such, gold is basically worthless in the city. This makes the thieves determined to escape with as much gold as possible. In the process of all the access only one secret room is off limits. Later during the night, the final survivor is apprehended attempting to escape by stealing diving gear. Nemo lets him off easily. However the next day he makes a more desperate attempt to get away. His plan is simple - he will sabotage the key life support systems, which will cause the city to be destroyed. He does this believing Nemo will be forced to take them to the surface. However, Nemo responds to the danger by sealing off the room to save the city. The survivor drowns beating desperately against the glass as Nemo and three other survivors watch in horror, unable to save him without putting the whole city at risk. While Nemo is able to save the city, destruction still ensues. In the process the thieves are able to sneak into the room. They discover a second larger Nautilus.
