Hacker Cinema
The Wolf's Call
Le Chant du loup
2019 · Film · 116 min
Directed by Antonin Baudry
Shown from the perspective of a young submariner with unusually sensitive hearing and uncannily precise sound recognition. The fate of many often depends on his ability, and one time, whilst highly stressed, he makes a incorrect call which put his entire crew in mortal danger. Trying to regain the confidence of his comrades, he conducts an unauthorised investigation of an apparent plot which, it turns out, risks escalating into a nuclear apocalypse. Suddenly working under pressure with the fleet admiral, they must do whatever is necessary, even the unthinkable, to prevent a nuclear war, since a confirmed nuclear strike order cannot be countermanded.
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6 comments on Hacker News
+1!
I had little expectations toward that movie (I think it was just randomly airing on the TV and I watched it), but was very pleasantly surprised.
I'm a fan of Clancy's books (and movies based on them), and The Wolf's Call could easily be one of them.
If you like Red October, dont miss the french movie "Le chant du loup". Absolutely great for lovers of the genre: "The Wolf's Call" - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7458762/
I think it's a misconception that Microsoft has less morals. Their Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Eric Horvitz, was one of the key people behind America's 2022 nuclear weapons policy update which states that we will always maintain a human in the loop for nuclear weapons employment. (i.e., systems like WOPR are now forbidden under US policy.)
Here is the full excerpt of the part of the 2022 Nuclear Posture Review which was (more or less) authored behind the scenes by Microsoft's very kind and wise CSO:
We also recognize the risk of unintended nuclear escalation, which can result from accidental or unauthorized use of a nuclear weapon. The United States has extensive protections in place to mitigate this risk. As an example, U.S. intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) are not on “hair trigger” alert. These forces are on day-to-day alert, a posture that contributes to strategic stability. Forces on day-to-day alert are subject to multiple layers of control, and the United States maintains rigorous procedural and technical safeguards to prevent misinformed, accidental, or unauthorized launch. Survivable and redundant sensors provide high confidence that potential attacks will be detected and characterized, enabling policies and procedures that ensure a deliberative process allowing the President sufficient time to gather information and consider courses of action. In the most plausible scenarios that concern policy leaders today, there would be time for full deliberation. For these reasons, while the United States maintains the capability to launch nuclear forces under conditions of an ongoing nuclear attack, it does not rely on a launch-under-attack policy to ensure a credible response. Rather, U.S. nuclear forces are postured to withstand an initial attack. In all cases, the United States will maintain a human “in the loop” for all actions critical to informing and executing decisions by the President to initiate and terminate nuclear weapon employment.
See page 49 of this PDF document: https://media.defense.gov/2022/Oct/27/2003103845/-1/-1/1/2022-NATIONAL-DEFENSE-STRATEGY-NPR-MDR.PDF
Microsoft is also working behind the scenes to help convince China to make a similar declaration, which President Xi is considering. This would reduce the vulnerability of China to being tricked into a nuclear war by fundamentalist terrorists. (See the scenario depicted in the 2019 film The Wolf's Call.)
There's a great scene in Le chant du Loup (The Wolf's Call) a French 2019 submarine flick (at one point on Netflix) where the sonar guy hears a password typed and reconstructs it from the sound of each keystroke.
https://youtu.be/a9Gz7Bg07u8
This attack is about as realistic as the film: a parallel universe where million to one chances happen nine times out of ten.
If you like these scenarios I strongly recommend "Le Chant du loup" (The Wolf's Call) (no spoilers...). Awesome French movie.
I personally haven't seen Greyhound, but if you found this article interesting, the 2019 French film Le Chant du Loup is entirely about sonar crews on modern submarines. It's definitely a fun movie that seems (to an uninitiated) pretty technically accurate.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7458762/