5 Most Rewatchable Submarine Movies Of All Time

Submarine movies can be tense, sweaty affairs that take a lot out of the viewer. A film like Wolfgang Petersen's 1981 masterpiece "Das Boot" might be a near-perfect movie in itself, but its relentless depiction of the boredom and brutality at sea is also one that you don't just pop in when you feel like rewatching a familiar film after a long day at work.

Still, fans of the submarine genre may very well want to have a few movies in their rewatch list — ones that they can comfortably just put on whenever they feel like it, and count on being entertained regardless of how many times they've seen the film before. For this purpose, we've gathered a list of five submarine-themed movies that manage to walk the thin line between their claustrophobic subject matter and an entertainment factor that makes them inherently watchable, so you don't mind revisiting them over and over again.

James Cameron has proved time and time again that whenever you put his filmmaking sensibilities in the proximity of large bodies of water, the end result is magic. Cameron keeps coming back to the ocean because of his real-life interest in ocean conservation and exploration, which he has turned to box-office magic in projects like "Titanic" and the "Avatar" movies. However, he was already at it back in the 1980s with "The Abyss." Here, Ed Harris stars as Bud Brigman, a deep-sea oil drilling foreman who's thrust into a dangerous and fantastical situation when a group of NAVY Seals and his estranged wife, Dr. Lindsey Brigman (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), join his crew for a dangerous recovery mission. And they encounter extraterrestrial entities.

Technically, much of the movie takes place on a deep-sea underwater drilling platform called Deep Core instead of a submarine proper. Still, since the plot involves the rescue of a mysteriously destroyed submarine and there's plenty of submersible vehicle action involved, "The Abyss" is a more than fitting entry for this list. After all, the film is patented James Cameron ocean fare, which means that things don't get more impressive and tense than this. Besides, just like many other Cameron spectacles, "The Abyss" might as well be basically custom-designed for multiple rewatches, thanks to the plethora of iconic scenes and interesting characters that keep even the idlest of eyes occupied.

"The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" is Wes Anderson's 2004 dive into the world of underwater exploration. Bill Murray leads an ensemble cast of typically Andersonian proportions as the titular oceanographer. Zissou is consumed by his need to avenge the death of his friend and partner Esteban du Plantier (Seymour Cassel) by hunting the jaguar shark that killed him. As you can probably guess, his mission doesn't go quite as planned, and the situation devolves into a collection of complicated hijinks before the credits roll.

While it's not generally considered one of the best Wes Anderson movies, "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" is packed with details that warrant multiple rewatches. The movie is a feast for the eyes, even though it should be noted that you absolutely shouldn't go in expecting any semblance of realism when it comes to its depiction of underwater life. The absolutely eye-popping submarine scenes present the world beneath the waves in a wonderfully exaggerated and gorgeous light, which pairs well with the usual pastel tones of Anderson's works.

With Owen Wilson, Cate Blanchett, Anjelica Huston, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, and many others playing the eccentric cast of characters on and around Zissou's mission, "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" combines classic Anderson visuals and whimsy with a plot that's a truly unique combination of "Moby Dick" and Jacques Cousteau's underwater adventures.

In 2026, Mark "Markiplier" Fischbach pivoted from YouTube content creation to the big screen with his massively successful film adaptation of David Szymanski's indie video game "Iron Lung." Markiplier's "Iron Lung" adaptation has been a super hit that has made over $50 million at the global box office — a huge win against its reported $3 million budget. But that's all just numbers. For the purposes of this list, what you need to know is that "Iron Lung" is interesting enough to be viewed over and over again.

Even on the scale of submarine movies, "Iron Lung" is as grim as they come. Here, pretty much the whole universe is doomed after the mysterious disappearance of stars and planets that can support life. Humanity's only hope for survival lies on a mysterious moon that's covered by an even more mysterious ocean of blood. So, a prisoner called Simon (Fischbach) is locked inside the rickety submarine that gives the movie its name. His orders are to explore and to hopefully find something that will help humanity explain and even survive its predicament. Simon finds plenty of things, alright — but his discoveries are ambiguous at best and deadly at worst.

The movie combines the claustrophobia of submarine exploration with copious gore, paranoia, and mystery. It stubbornly (but enticingly) refuses to fully elaborate on its secrets. The end result is a strangely mesmerizing film that can be rewatched plenty of times without losing its allure. This is just as well, too, seeing as Markiplier's online popularity basically guarantees plenty of rewatch parties all over the world.

Jonathan Mostow's U-571 is an interesting combination of an undercover mission movie and a submarine thriller — and delivers on the underwater tension to the tune of sound editor Jon Johnson winning an Academy Award for his stellar work. In this entertaining World War II movie, Matthew McConaughey plays Lieutenant Andrew Tyler, whose personal disgruntlement with his superior, Mike Dahlgren (Bill Paxton), has to be pushed aside when their submarine is commanded to locate the damaged German submarine U-571 and board it while pretending to be a German rescue party. The target of the mission is to bring back the vessel's Enigma cipher device, which could turn the tide of the war.

Thanks to an unfortunate turn of events, the American submarine is lost, forcing Tyler and the remaining crew members to take control of U-571. They rescue two people from the water, American crewman Eddie Carson and Günther Wassner (Thomas Kretschmann), the U-571's captain who's masquerading as a low-ranking crew member. The events that follow are effectively every submarine movie trope rolled into one compact package, with the interesting overarching theme of Tyler's perceived inability to lead a submarine crew as a cherry on top. While you should absolutely not quote the events of the movie within the earshot of a war historian any time soon, "U-571" is a very fun way to spend a couple of hours, as well as a perfect casual rewatch. 

What's more rewatchable than a submarine movie? A submarine movie that is also a heist movie, a disaster movie, and a touching drama with comedic undertones. These are the ingredients that the 2014 film "Black Sea" is made of.

When submarine expert Robinson (Jude Law) loses his job at the Agora company, his life falls apart. Estranged from his family and left with nothing, he embarks on a desperate mission to acquire enough funds to make something out of himself and his family. He plans to gather a multinational crew to take a submarine into the Black Sea and salvage $182 million in Nazi gold from a sunken U-boat. The intention is to distribute the spoils equally among everyone involved, but as tends to be the case in situations like this, some people soon start thinking that they deserve a larger share than the others — and if that wasn't enough, the whole mission starts feeling a lot like a setup.

Law is accompanied by a laundry list of talent from Ben Mendelsohn and Scoot McNairy to Tobias Menzies and Jodie Whittaker. Thanks to them and the intense story, "Black Sea" is a combination of interesting character dynamics and nail-biting underwater adventure. It's a great rewatch for fans of heist movies, submarine action, or simply any of the actors involved.