LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS Military Thriller Film

When a female Navy officer wrangles a slot as the only woman on a small U.S. submarine, she has to fight a traitor within and enemies without. (Nicholl Fellowship quarterfinalist.)

LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS is a woman driven to be the best: first in her class at the Academy, member of the Navy’s Olympic pistol team, martial artist, and tops at the Underwater Combat Simulator. Known as the Iron Maiden, she’s had to develop a hard shell to get there – a shell that hides a family secret – and makes her rub her crew, her boss, and everyone else in the Navy the wrong way.

So it’s not Mollie’s popularity that gets her a berth on the shakedown voyage of the Navy’s most advanced experimental sub, the Neptune. She’s the first woman to serve on a U.S. sub, but she had to use “pull” to get the slot – even though she’s the best person to conduct the trial run of the new weapons’ control system Patient Arrow III. After all, she designed it.

The captain of the Neptune, CAPTAIN GREGORY DEGAMA, is not happy when the Chief of Naval Operations, ADMIRAL DOUGHERTY, tells him that a woman will be on his sub’s first cruise. Nor is Degama’s executive officer, LT. COMMANDER RICHARD STEWART, happy when the news is passed on to him. Stewart is assigned to keep an eye on Mollie, and has to deal with the implications of having a woman in such close quarters with the men.

Two nights before they sail Degama performs his magic act at a local club. After his performance, he has a drink with two Russians, HENRY and JOSEPH. The men drink to a successful transaction. Degama asks, “You’re sure you’ll be able to meet me?” Joseph replies, “My cousin and I have connections everywhere, even in the Arctic.”

Mollie boards the ship the next day to review the installed weapons system before sailing. Stewart takes her to Degama’s cabin to check the instrument repeater panel. She discovers an extra circuit board, a key component of the new system, tucked into a hiding place. Is someone trying to smuggle it out of the country? How is she, the outsider distrusted by the entire crew, to prove this?

The Neptune launches from Groton Naval Base and it’s a pressure cooker on the new “man” who just happens to be a woman – double pressure on Mollie, focused on doing a good job and on learning to work with the crew – plus finding the traitor.

A disgruntled chief tries to assault her, but she easily puts him down. She decides the ignominy of his being beaten up by a woman is enough punishment and doesn’t tell anyone what happened. When the chief is carried back to his bunk, one of the other noncommissioned officers reveals Mollie’s secret – she’s Admiral Dougherty’s daughter, using her mother’s maiden name so no one can accuse her of nepotism.

Suddenly the Neptune heads for the Arctic Circle and an unscheduled rendezvous with a Russian ice station. Acting on intuition, Mollie grabs her chance and returns to the captain’s cabin, where she disables the extra circuit board.

Degama goes alone to the ice station, where Henry and Joseph await him. In exchange for a small package, he gives Henry and Joseph the weapons system circuit board.

As Degama returns to the ship the ice cracks under him and he drops into a crevasse. When he’s rescued by medic BROMBARD, the captain is in no condition to travel. Stewart makes the decision to leave him at the ice station for evacuation.

Yet just before the Neptune dives again Mollie decodes a message that leads her to believe the captain is at risk. She tells Stewart about the duplicate circuit board she found in the captain’s quarters and that she disabled it. She believes that the captain may have handed over the circuit board to the Russians, who have now had time to realize the card doesn’t function. Richard fears if they leave the captain at the ice station he may be killed.

Stewart, with Mollie along to speak Russian – and to shoot, leads a group of men back over the ice pack to rescue the captain. After a blazing firefight, they succeed in getting the injured captain back to the ship.

The captain asks for a stopover at the Paracel Islands, where he secretly meets with Henry and Joseph, who announce the circuit board has been disabled. Degama knows who must have done it, and he tells the Russians the Spratly Islands may afford an opportunity to make Mollie enable the board.

The ship sets off for its official mission – reconnoitering the hotly disputed oil-rich Spratly Islands. Mollie pulls rank on Stewart and leads the reconnaissance team on land. While Mollie and her team survey an abandoned Japanese sub base, Mollie is attacked and abducted.

Brombard stabilizes the wounded sailors and reports back to Stewart. Degama insists that Stewart order the men to return to the ship and leave Mollie. Brombard ignores the order, and he and his men set off to search for Mollie.

Mollie attacks Henry, Joseph and their two henchmen. She escapes into the jungle, stumbling upon Brombard and the other men.

Getting the sub underway, the crew finds the Neptune is under attack by two opponent subs. Mollie uses her skills to trap the two enemy ships into firing on each other.

Then Mollie investigates what Brombard told her – that the captain had a bag of diamonds in his pocket when he was rescued from the ice crevasse. Mollie confronts the captain and discovers the horrible truth – the diamonds were “to win her back.” Degama loved Mollie’s mother who married Dougherty. Degama has always believed that Mollie should have been his daughter!

The crew’s opinion of Mollie has changed. The Neptune’s chief petty officers praise Mollie. They have all served with her father and say it is an honor to serve with her.

And back at Groton Mollie has an emotional meeting with her father.

Note: The third act of this screenplay takes place in the South China Sea where China and other countries continue to fight over the hotly disputed Spratly Islands. Updates about this real-life ongoing dispute are often in the news, including when the U.S. Navy conducts right-of-passage maneuvers to keep the shipping channels open.