U-571 is a World War II action drama about a U.S. Navy submarine captain
on a mission to steal a decoding device from the German sub that houses
it, a device that enables the Nazis to communicate positions of Allied
shipping on the Atlantic. The contraption must be snatched in a such a way
that the Germans are unable to transmit information to their own side lest
Germany simply change the code. The most absorbing part of the film occurs
when the Captain Dahlgren, shipping out on a fleabag of a sub disguised as
a Nazi vessel, sends a party of impersonators out on a raft to board the
opposing U-571, taking command after a furious exchange of gunfire only to
see his own craft go under. Unfamiliar with the German labels (only one
man aboard can read the language), the Yanks do the best that they can,
holding their breath as a German plane hovers over them undecided about
whether to strafe the Americans or to accept them as Germans.