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What the Americans did not know (again, intelligence failure) was that each of those boats carried among other armaments two nuclear torpedoes, and that the Soviet command/control protocol for nuclear release bore no semblance of similarity to ours. Those young submarine commanders had complete autonomy to initiate nuclear warfare on their own against the USA if they felt threatened by an act of war. Our harassment of their subs in international waters to enforce an illegal blockade was an act of war, but fortunately for us all six Russian sub commanders acted prudently and held their fire when the POTUS acted foolishly
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Yes, this part was fascinating, too. They definitely glossed this over in the movie.
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Running out of air, the Soviet submarine was surrounded by American warships and desperately needed to surface. An argument broke out among three officers aboard B-59, including submarine captain Valentin Savitsky, political officer Ivan Semyonovich Maslennikov, and Deputy brigade commander Captain 2nd rank (US Navy Commander rank equivalent) Vasily Arkhipov.
An exhausted Savitsky became furious and ordered that the nuclear torpedo on board be made combat ready. Accounts differ about whether Arkhipov convinced Savitsky not to make the attack or whether Savitsky himself finally concluded that the only reasonable choice left open to him was to come to the surface.
During the conference, McNamara stated that nuclear war had come much closer than people had thought. Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archive, said, "A guy called Vasily Arkhipov saved the world."
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