This is a war story told like no other. Through personal experience, filmmaker Mel Halbach takes us through a journey on a nuclear missile submarine during the cold war days of Mutually Assured Destruction. Through interviews, stock footage and animation Halbach brings forth tales from the underworld where 140 shipmates lived underwater, seventy days at a time. Their mission: to participate in the destruction of the world. Mel's personal journey is woven with the contemporary stories of his shipmates - some reluctant to push the button. During patrol Mel describes how he and others smoked marijuana to keep their sanity under the cloud of launching an all out nuclear attack. This film has been on Mel's mind since his Sundance Lab internship in 1987.