Down Periscope is a 1996 comedy movie starring Kelsey Grammer as the captain of a rust-bucket submarine called the USS Stingray who is fighting for his career. Rob Schneider provides comic support as the uptight executive officer, and Lauren Holly costars as the Navy's first female submarine crewmember.

Plot

Lieutenant Commander Thomas Dodge (Kelsey Grammer), a capable (if somewhat unorthodox) US Navy officer, is about to be denied command of his own submarine for a third time because of his unconventional ways (not to mention a widely known tattoo on his penis reading "Welcome aboard!'). Failure to secure a command will result in him being dropped from the command program, and he is particularly opposed by Rear Admiral Yancy Graham (Bruce Dern). Vice Admiral Dean Winslow (Rip Torn) finds the perfect use for Dodge, however, when Winslow launches a war-game to test the Navy's defenses against enemy diesel submarines. For this purpose Dodge gains command of the rusty WWII era Balao-class diesel sub, the USS Stingray. Adm. Winslow gives Dodge the order to "think like a pirate" and advises that if he can win the war-game, including sinking a mock target in Norfolk harbor, Winslow will consider Dodge for command of a nuclear submarine.