Ice Station Zebra (novel) - Film Adaptation

Film Adaptation

The novel was later very loosely adapted into the 1968 John Sturges film of the same name starring Rock Hudson. The most obvious changes involved the names of the novel's characters:

• The nuclear submarine Dolphin became the USS Tiger-fish (SSN-509).
• The British spy Dr. Carpenter was renamed David Jones, portrayed by Patrick McGoohan.
• Commander Swanson was changed to Commander Ferraday, portrayed by Hudson.

Additional characters were added, including a U.S. Marine platoon trained in Arctic warfare:

• Soviet defector Boris Vaslov, portrayed by Ernest Borgnine
• Marine Captain Leslie Anders, portrayed by Jim Brown
• 1st Lt. Russell Walker, portrayed by Tony Bill

Much of the novel's characterization involving the submarine's crew was jettisoned in favor of these new cinematic creations. Also all characters from the Ice Station Zebra in the novel were removed. They were claimed to have died in the fire, notably two main villains who had caused the fire in the first place. Also removed were all references to Dr. Carpenter's brother.

Beyond the name change, the film's submarine has a design similar to the first nuclear-powered submarine, the Nautilus, rather than the more streamlined, teardrop-shaped vessel, either the contemporaneous Skipjack or Permit design, that was described in the novel. In the movie, the fire on the drift Ice Station was explained away as accidental.

Unlike the film, the novel shows little overt Soviet interest in recovering the lost spy satellite other than a spy ship disguised as a fishing trawler waiting outside Holy Loch when the Tiger-fish sets sail. The novel's climax of a fire on board the submarine is replaced with the nearly fatal flooding of the forward torpedo room prior to the film's intermission. The film's new climax involves a superpower confrontation between Soviet paratroopers and the American marines at Ice Station Zebra itself, but concludes on a much more ambiguous note than the novel, reflecting the perceived thaw in the Cold War following the Cuban Missile Crisis.