by the Bedfords radar when it finally pokes its snorkel above the surface. It was not seen first by the sonarman because he is having exhaustion-induced delusions. Schrepke reminds Finlander that his orders are just to escort the sub out of Greenland's waters, but Finlander sends a message ordering the sub to fully surface and identify itself. When the order is ignored, Finlander runs over the snorkel. Munceford and Schrepke protest that Finlander is forcing the sub to fight, and Finlander orders Ralston to arm an anti-submarine rocket. He reassures Munceford and Schrepke that he will not fire first, but when he says that "if he fires one, I'll fire one", the fatigued Ralston just hears "fire one" and launches the rocket. Before it is destroyed, the submarine launches four nuclear torpedoes. Although Finlander orders evasive maneuvers and countermeasures, the torpedoes continue to home-in on the Bedford. Finlander silently leaves the bridge, followed by Munceford, who frantically pleads for him to do something. The captain looks away sheepishly, and the Bedford and her crew are vaporized in an atomic blast, resulting in a mushroom cloud. Cast Production Writing The story reflects several real Cold War incidents between the NATO and Soviet navies, including one in 1957 when the USS Gudgeon, a submarine, was caught in Soviet waters and chased out to sea by Soviet warships. Although none of these real-life incidents ended as catastrophically as the Bedford incident, the story illustrated many of the fears of the time. The screenplay by James Poe follows the novel fairly closely, but Poe wrote a different ending. In the novel, the Soviet submarine does not fire back at the Bedford before being destroyed. The shocked Finlander receives word of his promotion to admiral. Commodore Schrepke, realising the incident will spark World War III, sabotages one of the remaining ASROCs and destroys the ship. Munceford, the sole survivor, is found by Novosibirsk, the submarine's mothership. Filming Although some shots in the film were recorded at sea, The Bedford Incident was mostly filmed at Shepperton Studios in the United Kingdom. The "USS Bedford" is a fictitious guided missile destroyer, and the role of Bedford was mostly played by a large model of a Farragut-class destroyer. Interior scenes were filmed in the British Type 15 frigate ; the Troubridge'''s novel, forward-sloping bridge windows can be seen in some shots, as can British military equipment, such as