The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming is a 1966 American Cold War comedy film directed and produced by Norman Jewison for United Artists. The satirical story depicts the chaos following the grounding of the Soviet submarine Спрут (pronounced "sproot" and meaning "octopus") off a small New England island. The film stars Alan Arkin in his first major film role, Carl Reiner, Eva Marie Saint, Brian Keith, Theodore Bikel, Jonathan Winters, John Phillip Law, Tessie O'Shea, and Paul Ford.

Plot

One September morning, a Soviet Navy submarine called Sprut draws too close to the New England coast when its captain wants to see North America and runs aground on a sandbar near Gloucester Island, off the New England coast, with a population of about 200 people. Rather than radio for help and risk an embarrassing international incident, the captain sends a nine-man landing party, headed by his zampolit Lieutenant Yuri Rozanov, to find a motor launch to help free the submarine. The men arrive at the house of Walt Whittaker, a vacationing playwright from New York City. Whittaker is eager to get his wife Elspeth and two children, -year-old Pete and 3-year-old Annie, off the island now that summer is over.