Juggernaut

Juggernaut is a 1974 British crime suspense film starring Richard Harris, Omar Sharif, and Anthony Hopkins. The film, which was directed by Richard Lester, was largely shot on location aboard the TS Hamburg in the North Sea. It was inspired by real events aboard QE2 in May 1972 when Royal Marines and Special Boat Service personnel parachuted onto the ship because of a bomb hoax. In the film, Richard Harris leads a team of Naval bomb disposal experts sent to disarm several large barrel bombs that have been placed aboard an ocean liner crossing the North Atlantic. Meanwhile, ashore, the police race against time to track down the mysterious bomb maker, who calls himself "Juggernaut", who will agree to a ransom in order to reveal the information that will disarm the bombs. Plot The ocean liner SS Britannic is voyaging through the North Atlantic with 1200 passengers on board when the shipping line's owner Nicholas Porter in London receives a call from someone with an Irish accent styling himself as "Juggernaut", who claims to have placed high explosives aboard which are timed to explode and sink the ship at dawn on the following day. The drums are booby-trapped in various ways, and he warns that any attempt to move them will result in detonation, and offers that technical instructions in how to render the bombs safe will be given in exchange for a ransom of £500,000. As an indication of his seriousness, he sets off a demonstration attack with small bombs behind the ships funnel, which injure one crewman. Unable to order an evacuation of passengers via lifeboats due to rough seas, the shipping line's management is inclined to yield to the ransom demand, however British government officials inform the company that if it does so they will withdraw the company's operating subsidy in line with the Government's policy of non-appeasement of terrorism. Instead, a Royal Navy officer, Lt. Cmdr. Anthony Fallon, leading a bomb-disposal unit, is dispatched, arriving on the scene by air transit and parachuting, to board the ship and defuse the barrel-bombs before the deadline. Meanwhile, back in London, Supt. McCleod, whose wife and two children happen to be holidaying on board the ship, leads Scotland Yard's investigation to capture the criminal master-bomber.