Movie · 1968 · Action, Adventure, Thriller · 2h 29m · G · English
Curator score: 1.0/10 (13K ratings)
An American nuclear sub... A sky full of Russian paratroopers... A race for the secret of Ice Station Zebra!
Overview
A top-secret Soviet spy satellite -- using stolen Western technology -- malfunctions and then goes into a descent that lands it near an isolated Arctic research encampment called Ice Station Zebra, belonging to the British, which starts sending out distress signals before falling silent. The atomic submarine Tigerfish, commanded by Cmdr. James Ferraday (Rock Hudson), is dispatched to save them.
Ratings
Curator score: 1.0/10
IMDb: 6.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 44%
Metacritic: 49
TMDB: 6.3/10
Director
John Sturges
Production
Filmways Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Cast
Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan, Jim Brown, Tony Bill, Alf Kjellin, Gerald S. O'Loughlin, Ted Hartley, Murray Rose, Michael T. Mikler, Joseph Bernard, Jonathan Goldsmith, Sherwood Price, Lee Stanley, John Orchard, Jim Dixon, Ron Masak, Boyd Berlind, Craig Shreeve, Wade Graham
Curator Review
Verdict
A glossy, old-school Cold War adventure with real scale, handsome widescreen craft, and a serious sense of mission, but it’s also slow, overlong, and often more procedural than thrilling. If you like 1960s roadshow epics, submarine movies, and patient espionage setups, it has a lot to admire; if you want tight suspense or constant action, it may feel glacial.
Best for
fans of 1960s studio adventure epics
viewers who enjoy submarine and Cold War thrillers
people who appreciate widescreen production design and roadshow spectacle
fans of ensemble mission stories with a serious tone
Skip if
you need brisk pacing
you prefer lean, modern spy thrillers
you dislike long stretches of exposition and procedural movement
you want a movie that fully pays off its mystery with emotional depth
Overview
Ice Station Zebra is a very 1960s kind of spectacle: expensive, serious, and convinced that scale alone can create suspense. John Sturges stages the film with real composure, using the submarine setting and Arctic isolation to give the story a cold, sealed-in tension that suits the material well. The best stretches are less about action than about pressure, hierarchy, and the uneasy feeling that nobody is telling the whole truth.
Worth noting
Its strengths are mostly formal. The wide-frame compositions, the roadshow presentation, and the deliberate pace all give it a stately, almost ceremonial quality. That can be impressive when you’re in the mood for it, but it also means the movie often feels heavier than it needs to be, with a mystery that stays opaque for a long time and a script that doesn’t always generate enough momentum.
Bottom line
As a Cold War adventure, it’s more intriguing than exhilarating. The cast is sturdy, the atmosphere is strong, and the film has a certain old-fashioned confidence that makes it worth revisiting for genre fans. But it’s best approached as a crafted artifact of studio-era ambition rather than a lean thriller.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Bob Hovey (3★) · 290 likes
I watch this movie over and over. I don't go out. I pee in jars.
Rafael "Mister Movie" Jovine (2★) · 195 likes
RESEÑA EN ESPAÑOL AQUI
FIGHT! - THE TWO STURGES
Sturges moves away from the Western and heads into the cold Arctic and submarine territory as we follow a group of men assigned to rescue the inhabitants of the title research encampment after a top-secret Soviet satellite crashes nearby.
As I believe I’ve mentioned a few times before, submarine thrillers are a very tricky genre for me when it comes to enjoyment. There are some truly great ones like Das Boot,… more
matt lynch (3★) · 135 likes
Glacially paced lol
noir1946 (2★) · 88 likes
Ice Station Zebra is action nonsense beloved by twelve-year-old boys of all ages and sexes. Perpetual adolescent Howard Hughes supposedly watched it 48 times on his deathbed. In those circs, Howie, I’d watch something with lovely ladies. Anyway, ISZ looks better now than it did in 1968 when it represented how the studios were out of touch with current audiences and tastes. Also see Tora! Tora! Tora!, Krakatoa, East of Java, and others of that ilk.
The film is too… more
comrade_yui (4★) · 81 likes
more or less a perfectly directed film -- sturges takes full advantage of the wide panavision frame, conveys intrigue by juxtaposing carefully arranged groups of men vs. isolated shots of individual characters, with the wide master shots equaling harmony and close-ups/shot-reverse shots meaning disunity. he barely moves the camera at all before the intermission, creating a discrete world aboard the submarine, then once you're out of that vessel he starts doing more luxurious (but still restrained) pans and tracking shots.… more more or less a perfectly directed film -- sturges takes full advantage of the wide panavision frame, conveys intrigue by juxtaposing carefully arranged groups of men vs. isolated shots of individual characters, with the wide master shots equaling harmony and close-ups/shot-reverse shots meaning disunity. he barely moves the camera at all before the intermission, creating a discrete world aboard the submarine, then once you're out of that vessel he starts doing more luxurious (but still restrained) pans and tracking shots.… more