If the Russians believe that the Americans have the ability to stop a nuke launch from an enemy via the Dark Star program then isn't the KGB's plan a little flawed?
China is going to be completely screwed when the US retaliates and they can't mount any type of attack.
I think they said they "may" be capable, but not yet.
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The Russians were selling the Chinese their older subs, like this one. Also they said the special new technology device they put on the sub gave them the capability of mimicing the radar(?) signatures of any type of vessel they chose.
Semper Contendere Propter Amoram et Formam
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I thought the the plan is plausible within the realm of the movie:
1. Even if Dark Star is aimed and operational against the Russians, doesn’t mean it’s currently set up against the Chinese. Also, even if it does, it wouldn’t prevent the Americans from retaliating with nuclear weapons against the Chinese resulting in an all-out Chinese-U.S. war, which what the plan was all about.
2. While it was not mentioned in the film clearly, my guess is that the Oznas were basically planning a one-way suicide mission - activating the Phantom as a Chinese vessel, fire the missile, hunted down by Americans and likely get sunken hence taking the secrets with them. It’s eluded to briefly when it’s mentioned in the film ‘we’re getting close to the American Fleet’. In other words, someone must recognize their noise signature as Chinese for the plan to work.
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"How different would that signature have been given that the Chinese used Russian submarines?"
They could have easily used a distinctively Chinese submarine noise signature, e.g. not a former Soviet made one.
Frankly we can speculate all we want, but the biggest challenge with Phantom is that so many twists and fractions of informationa are mentioned all over the place, but are only partly (if any) explored. The entire ‘Dark Star’ thing, which was supposedly a such a key driver to this operation, is only mentioned for two minutes.
It’s a hunting movie, which further illustrates the missed opportunity to be a great movie.
I would love to hear from the Producer, who seems to be hanging in the forum, further explanations about the plot twists.
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The film specifically revealed that the scheme was the work of a small extremist faction of the KGB who went rogue. It was an irrational plan, because it was a plan made by irrational fanatics.