The Superdeep

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In 1984, Anna Fedorova, a Soviet epidemiologist, authorized skipping pre-human tests for a vaccine to meet government deadlines; her research associate, Dr. Zotoff, voluntarily tested it on himself and died. Anna attempts to resign in shame, but her superior, GRU Col. Morozov, persuades her to continue.

On New Year’s Eve, Anna, having succeeded in her research, is celebrating with loved ones when she gets a call from Morozov, telling her that they will leave shortly for the Kola borehole in Murmansk, which is not only a dig site as the public believes but also hosts a subterranean laboratory in a kilometers-deep layer of permafrost. Sounds of an unknown origin were recorded deep beneath the surface; shortly after, twenty people went missing. Their clandestine mission is to retrieve samples of a suspected disease outbreak that has been kept hidden by the site's head, Dr. Grigoriev.

Anna and Morozov, with a squad of soldiers led by Maj. Mikheev, fly to the ice-covered facility. Upon landing, a man in a lab coat approaches, pursued by onsite soldiers, and is shot several times with minimal effect. He detonates a hand grenade, destroying himself with only minor damage to the helicopter. Anna takes samples from the body, but they decay quickly in the cold. While examining the evacuating staff, a man warns Anna that they are being lied to and that the lower levels are Hell. Mikheev takes an interest in Anna, regularly trying to guess her accent.

The team meets Deputy Head of Research Peter Kuznetsov, who has denounced Grigoriev. The latter demands guarantees that the remaining employees sealed in the lower levels during the evacuation be rescued; having sealed all other access and changed the elevator codes, they are forced to go with him. During their descent, Grigoriev dons an oxygen mask and depressurizes the elevator cabin, incapacitating the team while he escapes into the "Resort" residential module with the elevator key; without it, they cannot reach the bottom-most "Sahara" research module.

Searching Resort, the team finds the site's engineer and doctor, Nikolay and Kira, both left behind during the evacuation. Anna tests them in Kira's lab and finds no infection. Encountering Grigoriev, he begs them to leave via the shaft, but refuses to give up the key. The soldiers shoot Dr. Grigoriev, who flees to Sahara using the elevator. Because the shaft's air is 200 degrees, some soldiers led by Egorov put on heat suits to pursue Grigoriev. Olga, a Sahara lab assistant without protective gear, emerges from the shaft and is taken to the lab for tests while Egorov's men descend.

Olga shows signs of fever but declares that she feels cold. Her back is covered with mold-like growths, ones not observed when she emerged. Grigoriev announces over the intercom that he has no choice but to seal everyone within the facility and detonates the module's pressure pump, leaving Resort to collapse within an hour. Returning to the lab, Anna and Mikheev find the walls covered in a black mold, with Olga half-melted to the floor but somehow alive; she releases a cloud of spores that infects Mikheev. Anna dons a gas mask and narrowly fends off a mutated Kira. Realizing the mold dies at low temperatures, Anna uses a fire extinguisher to decontaminate herself.

Anna tells Morozov that the mold is an aggressive parasite: the permafrost keeps the colony from spreading, so it needs a warm host to expand. Morozov reveals that he cannot call for rescue; determined to procure a biological weapon for the Soviet state, he elects to bring the worsening Mikheev to the surface against Anna's protests. Egorov frantically radios that his men are under attack and to not open the doors. The three remaining soldiers attempt a rescue, but only two return, encountering something "big" and unaffected by gunfire. The third then appears, missing an arm and pursued by an unseen entity, before slitting his own throat. Mikheev and the last two soldiers stay behind to fight whatever is chasing them while Nikolay rigs the elevator to descend to Sahara.

The four survivors find Sahara frozen, discovering an entire wall covered in the twenty missing infected scientists, all melted together, but killed by the cold. Grigoriev has taken the key out into the boiling-hot exterior and sabotaged the heat suits, so Morozov volunteers to retrieve it, but does not return within the allotted time. Anna enters the scorching heat herself, witnessing the colossal fungal super-organism at the heart of the outbreak and taking the key from the dying Morozov. Peter takes it at gunpoint and wounds Nikolay, wanting the fame of discovering the mold. Reaching Resort, they are attacked by a large organism comprised ofscreaming infected hosts all melted into one mass, which absorbs Peter. Anna hides in the cafeteria's freezer, cooling herself to stealthily obtain the key and escape with Nikolay, only to discover a mutated Mikheev melted into the elevator floor. He begs Anna not to let the infection reach the surface, but Nikolay, intent on escaping, attacks her for the controls. Mikheev partially frees himself and fatally stabs Nikolay in the neck to save Anna: she tells him she is Yugoslavian and kisses him. Now infected, she drops the elevator, but is dragged off by a hazmat team before it plummets. In a repeat of earlier events, once outside, Anna steals a grenade and attempts to blow herself up in the cold, killing herself and the last of the parasite as one of the surrounding soldiers sneaks behind her with a sedative; the screen cuts to black as the grenade primes.

Other members of Mikheev's unit include Ilya Ilinykh as an unnamed Sergeant, Vladimir Kolida as a radio operator, and Evgeniy Tscherkashin as a sniper.

Critical response

The Superdeep has an approval rating of 29% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 14 reviews, and an average rating of 4.1/10.^[4]