Steven Seagal is imprisoned ex-Navy Special Forces, Chris Cody, called on to lead his old team(..also placed in federal prison for downing a dangerous sub with enough explosives to destroy countless lives;they were a casualty of a political system)into the den of an evil scientist who has created a laboratory designed to brainwash innocents, soldiers and anyone else he so wishes. A submarine is located near the compound of Adrian Lehder(Nick Brimble) who keeps his lab guarded and equipped with soldiers and other gun-toting brainwashed..this sub will be boarded by Cody and company once they secure a lost patrol sent in to take out the scientist. What Cody and his team are unaware of is that the soldiers they rescue are in fact brainwashed(..Lehder refers to them as his "Trojan horse") and commanded to down the submarine. Accompanying Cody is Dr. Susan Chappell(Christine Adams), who knows all about Lehder's work and has recovered a disc vital to the success of the brainwashing experiments. American agent, Fletcher(William Hope), betrays his country and lures Lehder to a Spanish city in political turmoil, as a revolution is beginning to build, with secret plans to gain his knowledge of the brainwashing experiments to use elsewhere. In this city, Montevito, a President is to be assassinated by his brainwashed girlfriend because he is concerned with a corporation's questionably unethical practices and Cody and the remaining team(..not killed in either the raid of Lehder's lair or the sub attack)will attempt to stop this from happening. It's all about halting the brainwashing, ultimately, and Cody will do his very level best to stop all who wish to see this dangerous weapon sold to the highest bidder.
If you were ever interested in what a Steven Seagal picture would be like directed by Anthony Hickox, then here it is, Submerged, which might disappoint those expecting an action thriller specifically set in a submarine. The brainwashing plot echoes The Manchurian Candidate, albeit set inside the Seagal movie, carrying the conventions within his type of genre. Also, of interest Submerged might be to Vinne Jones fans as he is one of Seagal's team, with plenty of quips which might amuse, getting to shoot and maim the bad guys. Alison King supplies the eye candy as Damita, the female Rambo of Seagal's team, actually winning an arm-wrestling contest against a bit brute, and provides a nice image of a babe firing off rounds from a machine gun..I would like to frame that in my house. Anyway, Gary Daniels and Ross McCall are American soldiers turned against their will into Lehder's brainwashed human weapons. The movie essentially has three set pieces, the raid on Lehder's secret lab compound, inside the submarine as it becomes Cody's team against the loose cannons they brought on board(..unknowingly as I established above), and the final half in Montevito. There is one big car chase, an opera house sequence where Cody must halt an assassination attempt, and the corporation headquarters where corrupt businessman, Sandrow(Luis Soto) has prepared all the necessary equipment and personnel for Lehder to work his magic. Plenty of firepower, explosions, and political intrigue, not to mention car crashes, and one doozy of a set piece involving a helicopter smashing into a building thanks to Cody's interference with Lehder's attempted escape. Seagal fans might also feel rather jaded towards a lack of hand-to-hand combat as Hickox's movie is more prone to showing an exchange of machine gun fire(..Vinnie gets to engage in fisticuffs, however, and seems to be having fun). Actually, Hickox submerges Seagal, often, in darkness(..such as the scenes on board the sub, in the opera house booth, and during night scenes)and shoots him almost exclusively close up.
2 out of 2 found this helpful