As Princess Serutan once remarked, the ending is a very delicate time. Wrapping up their plots properly is a great challenge for even the best B-movies scriptwriters, especially since even they aren’t that good. One time-honored method to make that task a little simpler and smoother is drawing just a tiny little bit of inspiration from one of the great classics. The alternative is a complete rip-off, which is preferable especially when time is short.
In many cases transplanting the ending from a greater work onto a B-movie plot works quite seamlessly, in this case it’s slightly more of a stretch – since, unfortunately, none of the main characters had introduced themselves as “Ishmael” at the beginning. (Which goes to show, by the way, that planning ahead is not always totally unimportant when writing a movie script). Fortunately, the German colonel had never been introduced by name, so he might as well be named Ishmael. Col. Ishmael von Schnitzelfusskrankengescheitmeier, or something like that. Yeah, he died a while ago, but he obviously got better…and then re-enlisted in the Nazi Navy, apparently, because he’s wearing his uniform again.
Of course he’s wrong about the identity of the ship on the horizon – the Tirpitz was a battleship, so it wouldn’t be cruising, deviously or not. So either that’s a battlecruiser on the horizon, or the Tirpitz deviously shipping. It’s important to be precise. >_>
More on Monday.