The Detached Mission

The Detached Mission
Spanish poster, citing the NYT: “El "Rambo" Sovietico Arrasa… America Tiembla…”
Directed by	Mikhail Tumanishvili
Written by	Yevgeni Mesyatsev
Starring	Aleksandr Fatyushin Sergei Nasibov Nartai Begalin
Music by	Viktor Babushkin
Cinematography	Boris Bondarenko
Edited by	Svetlana Lyashinskaya
Distributed by	Mosfilm
Release date	1985 (1985)
Running time	96 minutes
Country	Soviet Union
Language	Russian

The Detached Mission sometimes translated as Solo Voyage or Solo Journey (Russian: Одиночное плавание, translit. Odinochnoye plavanie) and also known as The Russian Hero is a 1985 Soviet military action film, directed by Mikhail Tumanishvili. In official U.S. Navy parlance, the term "одиночное плавание" corresponds to "independent steaming".

The movie is set during the Cold War.

A television news journalist aboard the American aircraft carrier U.S.S. Nimitz explains the scenario of current fleet exercise of the U.S. Navy in the central Pacific Ocean. During a live broadcast from the bridge of the Nimitz, the correspondent points out a fleet of "Russian" (Soviet) warships on the horizon commanded by Vice Admiral Chernov.

At the same time, a plainclothed man, later identified as a CIA operative, meets U.S. Army Major Jack Hessalt, a crazed Vietnam War veteran, who is suffering wartime flashbacks and seems ready to dispatch on his own private crusade against the Soviets. The CIA man employs Hessalt to gain control over the U.S. missile facility in the Central Pacific and launch a false flag attack on a third-party ocean liner, sink it, and make it look like the Soviets have done that.

While the American and Soviet ships track each other in the Pacific, a Soviet frigate with a detachment of Soviet Naval Infantry aboard, under command of Major Shatokhin, is 1,500 miles to the south and prepares to return to their home base from a detached mission (independent steaming exercise).