The Rescue 1988

At a U.S. military base in South Korea, Adm. Rothman [James Cromwell] faces alarming news: a U.S. Navy submarine has become disabled in international waters near North Korea. A four-man SEAL team travels to the submarine’s underwater site to rescue the captain and plant explosives. The mission takes a dire turn when a North Korean helicopter intercepts their raft just as the charges detonate, and the SEALs are captured and imprisoned in a North Korean fortress. Meanwhile, back at the base, the SEALs’ children watch the news unfold, their families facing the possibility of espionage charges as they glimpse the tense trial headlines surrounding their fathers.

Learning that a rescue mission is being planned, Max [Marc Price], an electronics whiz, plants a listening bug in a conference room so that he and his friends Shawn [Ned Vaughn] and Adrian [Christine Harnos], whose fathers are among the captured soldiers, can listen in. In the conference, the word is that a rescue operation might be mounted, code-named Operation Phoenix, but the Secretary of State worries about provoking North Korea and its allies and dismisses the idea. Undeterred, Shawn passes a recording of the meeting to J.J. Merrill [Kevin Dillon], a rebellious teenager whose father was on the captured SEAL team. J.J. argues that they should try to carry out the mission themselves, and Shawn and Max secretly copy the formal plans.

Max secretly helps smuggle the group off the base to the harbor, where they are forced to steal a small boat. In the confusion, Bobby, Shawn’s younger brother, hides aboard as well. The crew slips into North Korean waters, reaching the village of Sang-Ri near the fortress where the SEALs are held. There they encounter Col. Kim Song of South Korean Intelligence, who had originally planned to assist with Operation Phoenix. Impressed by the teens’ courage but cautious about the odds, he warns that they would stand little chance without American Special Forces, and he offers to escort them back to safety—though his aid is contingent on time and risk. That night, the youths sneak out and press on toward the fortress, moving through a well and a maze of sewers to reach the base.

Inside, Shawn and Max uncover a stash of smoky canisters and grenades, while the rest of the teens press on. The group launches a bold plan: Shawn and Max trigger a diversion with spectacular fireworks intended for a Workers’ Day celebration to draw attention away from J.J. Merrill as he works to free the SEALs. Kim Song and his South Korean operatives arrive in disguise, reinforcing the team and helping to push through the guards. The four teens and their new allies fight their way back toward the well, eventually sliding down a long drain pipe to reach the village once more. They surge toward an airfield and seize a Bristol Freighter, which Adrian’s father pilots to carry them out. Kim Song stays behind to hold off the North Koreans and buy the others precious seconds to escape.

The plane surges toward the border as fighter jets scramble from the South Korean base, wary of a North Korean incursion. Bobby sticks his Bruce Springsteen Born in the U.S.A. T-shirt out of the top hatch, signaling to the pursuing jets that the passengers are American. With the aircraft near the border, it runs low on fuel, but Lt. Phillips [Timothy Carhart] manages to bring the Freighter in for a safer-than-expected landing back in friendly airspace. The mission ends in triumph as the teens reunite with their families, their daring rescue echoing in the headlines and the quiet relief of a community that had feared for its own.

In the quiet aftermath, the impact of the day lingers for the families and the teens who stepped into danger to defy the odds. The base reflects on the costs of war and the risks of civilian intervention, while the youths—forever marked by their improvised rescue—carry a renewed sense of responsibility. The tale blends high-stakes action with a grounded, human-centered look at how ordinary teenagers respond when their loved ones are pulled into a conflict they barely understand, driven by loyalty, courage, and a stubborn belief that sometimes a small group of determined individuals can change the course of a larger crisis.