Development and writing In 1993, the
United States Navy allowed studio executives researching the movie to embark aboard Trident submarine from Bangor, Washington, with the Gold Crew. Those embarked included
Hollywood Pictures president of production Ricardo Mestres, director
Tony Scott, producers
Don Simpson and
Jerry Bruckheimer, screenwriter
Michael Schiffer, and writer Richard Henrick. While aboard, the Navy allowed the film crew to videotape
Floridas Executive Officer, Lieutenant Commander
William Toti, performing many of the same actions (Executive Officer's response to fire, flooding, missile launch sequence, etc.) that actor
Denzel Washington eventually performed as executive officer in the movie. The Navy had been led to believe that the movie's storyline was about a Trident ballistic missile submarine crew attempting to stop the ship's fictional computer from launching nuclear missiles and starting
World War III. In movie parlance, the Navy was told the story would be "
The Hunt for Red October meets
2001: A Space Odyssey." The Navy wanted the
Florida crew to prove to the studio executives that "there is no computer on a Trident submarine that can launch missiles; hence the storyline is implausible. Following the at-sea walk-through and missile launch demonstration,
Florida returned to port to drop off the studio executives. During that transit, Toti spent much time in the ship's
wardroom with the studio executives, walking them through the missile launch redundancy procedures. A few months later, the studio returned to the Navy with the revised storyline, and the Executive Officer, Lieutenant Commander Hunter (the character played by Denzel Washington), was now leading a mutiny against the commanding officer to prevent a missile launch. The film has uncredited additional writing by
Quentin Tarantino, much of it being the pop-culture-reference-laden dialogue, after he scripted Scott's previous film
True Romance (1993). Tarantino had an on-set feud with
Denzel Washington during filming over what was called "Tarantino's racist dialogue added to the script". A few years later, Washington apologized to Tarantino, saying he "buried that hatchet".
Filming Filming took place in 1994. In the end, the Navy objected to many of the elements in the script—particularly mutiny on board a U.S. naval vessel—and as such, the film was produced without the Navy's assistance. The
French Navy assisted the team for production with the use of the aircraft carrier . The dockside scene in which Captain Ramsey addresses the crew with
Alabama in the background and the crew then runs on board actually features . The sail ("conning tower") was a plywood mock-up since ''Barbel's
sail had been removed. Barbel
had been sold by the U.S. Navy and was in the process of being scrapped. The bridge set piece from USS Alabama
was eventually reused in Independence Day'' as 's bridge. Because the Navy refused to cooperate with the filming, the production company could not secure footage of a submarine submerging. After checking to ensure there was no law against filming naval vessels, the producers waited at the submarine base at
Pearl Harbor until a submarine was put to sea. After a submarine (coincidentally, the real USS
Alabama) left port, they pursued her in a boat and helicopter, filming as they went. They continued to do so until she submerged, giving them the footage they needed to incorporate into the film.
Music The musical score for
Crimson Tide was composed by
Hans Zimmer and employs a blend of
orchestra, choir, and
synthesizer sounds. It includes additional music by
Nick Glennie-Smith, who also conducted the orchestra, and the choir was conducted by
Harry Gregson-Williams. It was released on physical formats on May 16, 1995, by
Hollywood Records. Within the score is the well-known naval hymn, "
Eternal Father, Strong to Save". The score won a
Grammy Award in 1996 for
Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television, and Zimmer has described it as one of his personal favorites. ==Release==