The new eight-part series is a sequel set immediately after the events depicted in the best-selling novel by Lothar-Gunther Buchheim and Wolfgang Petersen's 1981 Oscar-nominated film. While the original exclusively followed the claustrophobic and increasingly brutal world inside a World War II German U-boat, this series focuses not just on the German perspective, but on the experiences of the French Resistance and Allied forces on land and at sea. The production also expands to look at rising resistance in the U-boat port of La Rochelle. Through it all, Buchheim's original message remains as relevant today as ever: blind fanaticism pushes young men into pointless war.