Submerged // 15min // Drama // 2014 // UK
Director: Darren Mapletoft
Writer: Michael Holley
Producers: Michael Holley, Darren Mapletoft
Cast: Darren Bransford, Lucinda Kennard
During the 1950s the British Navy conducted a series of teleportation experiments using submarines. When one such experiment goes badly wrong, submariner Billy Bourne wakes from dreaming about ‘Baby’, his sweetheart, to discover he is alone onboard his submarine.
Unable to locate the sub’s position and with instrument readings hard to decipher Billy discovers the top secret plans that have led to this situation. He tries to work out how to escape but to no avail, finally calculating how much oxygen he has left. Time is not on his side if he is to dance with ‘Baby’ once again. He tries using the radio but gets static in return. He seals off sections of the sub to prolong his time and attempts to escape through hatches and torpedo launch tubes. With oxygen running low he begins to accept his fate. Billy shaves, cooks and puts on the Captain’s uniform. He puts a favourite romantic song on the record player and sits down to a specially prepared meal of boiled egg. Opposite him sits a shirt with a picture of ‘Baby’ attached. Billy struggles both physically and mentally as he dances with the shirt, losing himself in the music he dreams. The dream is broken by voices coming through the radio. He rushes to it but his final glimmer of hope is just his own messages from earlier bouncing back to him. Billy is broken. Billy lies on his bunk struggling for the last of the oxygen. As his eyes close images of ‘Baby’ dancing on the beach, encouraging him to join her, invade his final thoughts. He begins to crawl from the bunk towards the Con Tower. He struggles up the ladder to the hatch. The hatch begins to open, the picture of ‘Baby’ falls from his grasp as sand begins to flow in through the hatch. With one final push Billy escapes the submarine and crawls through the sand until he emerges on a golden sandy beach under a bright blue sky. He stands tall and looks out to the sea. There in the distance, dancing in the surf is ‘Baby’. He runs towards her. They embrace.