Juggernaut (film)
Encyclopedia
Juggernaut is a 1974 British
thriller film. It was produced by David V. Picker Productions and released in 1974 by United Artists
. The film was directed by Richard Lester
, who took over after directors Bryan Forbes
and Don Medford
each left the project in pre-production.
On taking over the film, Lester completely rewrote the script
with writer Alan Plater
, as he recounts to biographer Andrew Yule. Producer/Writer Richard Alan Simmons, unhappy with the new script, had himself credited as Richard DeKoker on the finished film.
The film was shot mainly aboard a real cruise ship
. had recently been sold by its German owners to the Soviet Union
and renamed . Before the Soviets began operating the ship for paying passengers, they chartered
it to the film company.
The Black Sea Shipping Company livery carried by the Maxim Gorkiy was altered, the Soviet Union's hammer and sickle
emblem in the funnel and bow replaced by the logo of the fictitious Sovereign Line, and the ship was renamed the Britannic. Advertisements were run in British papers, soliciting extras who would take a lengthy cruise in the North Sea
for free, but with the knowledge that the ship would actually seek out the worst possible weather, as the story demanded seas too rough for the lifeboat
s to be lowered, trapping the passengers on board.
Because the charter of the ship was negotiated as oil prices skyrocketed in February 1974, the Soviets ended up losing money on the deal.
), receives a phone call from a man with a lilting Irish accent who refers to himself only as Juggernaut
.
Juggernaut claims to have placed seven barrels of amatol
(high explosive) aboard the Britannic that will explode and sink the ship by dawn the following day. The barrels are booby-trapped and any attempt to defuse them will result in an explosion. Details of how to render the bombs safe will be sent in exchange for a ransom
of five hundred thousand pounds sterling.
To show he is serious, Juggernaut arranges a demonstration, a series of small explosions on the Britannic's bridge that seriously injure one crewmen.
Porter is all for paying the ransom and saving the 1,200 passengers on board (the seas are too rough to abandon ship). However, officials of the British government inform Porter that if he pays the ransom, they will withdraw his company's operating subsidy.
Instead, a bomb disposal expert, Lt. Cmdr. Anthony Fallon (Richard Harris
), and his team must parachute into the Atlantic, board the Britannic and defuse the barrels before the deadline. Meanwhile, Supt. John McCleod (Anthony Hopkins
), whose wife and two children are on board the Britannic leads the efforts on land to find Juggernaut.
After an attempt to defuse one bomb by robot
fails, Fallon goes to his backup plan. Fallon's team will defuse one barrel each. Fallon will go first, informing his men of each move. If he fails and the bomb explodes, his men will know what went wrong. However, if two more bombs go off, the ship will sink.
combat divers were parachuted near the ship.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
thriller film. It was produced by David V. Picker Productions and released in 1974 by United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
. The film was directed by Richard Lester
Richard Lester
Richard Lester is an American film director based in Britain. Lester is notable for his work with The Beatles in the 1960s and his work on the Superman film series in the 1980s.-Early years and television:...
, who took over after directors Bryan Forbes
Bryan Forbes
Bryan Forbes, CBE is an English film director, actor and writer.-Career:Bryan Forbes was born John Theobald Clarke on 22 July 1926 in Queen Mary's Hospital, Stratford, West Ham, Essex , and grew up at 43 Cranmer Road, Forest Gate, West Ham, Essex .Forbes trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of...
and Don Medford
Don Medford
Donald Muller , known professionally as Don Medford, is an American television director who directed over 75 TV series between 1951 and 1989, and who also directed three movies....
each left the project in pre-production.
On taking over the film, Lester completely rewrote the script
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
with writer Alan Plater
Alan Plater
Alan Frederick Plater, CBE, FRSL was an English playwright and screenwriter, who worked extensively in British television from the 1960s to the 2000s.-Career:...
, as he recounts to biographer Andrew Yule. Producer/Writer Richard Alan Simmons, unhappy with the new script, had himself credited as Richard DeKoker on the finished film.
The film was shot mainly aboard a real cruise ship
Cruise ship
A cruise ship or cruise liner is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are part of the experience, as well as the different destinations along the way...
. had recently been sold by its German owners to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and renamed . Before the Soviets began operating the ship for paying passengers, they chartered
Chartering (shipping)
Chartering is an activity within the shipping industry. In some cases a charterer may own cargo and employ a shipbroker to find a ship to deliver the cargo for a certain price, called freight rate. Freight rates may be on a per-ton basis over a certain route or alternatively may be expressed in...
it to the film company.
The Black Sea Shipping Company livery carried by the Maxim Gorkiy was altered, the Soviet Union's hammer and sickle
Hammer and sickle
The hammer and sickle is a part of communist symbolism and its usage indicates an association with Communism, a Communist party, or a Communist state. It features a hammer and a sickle overlapping each other. The two tools are symbols of the industrial proletariat and the peasantry; placing them...
emblem in the funnel and bow replaced by the logo of the fictitious Sovereign Line, and the ship was renamed the Britannic. Advertisements were run in British papers, soliciting extras who would take a lengthy cruise in the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
for free, but with the knowledge that the ship would actually seek out the worst possible weather, as the story demanded seas too rough for the lifeboat
Lifeboat (shipboard)
A lifeboat is a small, rigid or inflatable watercraft carried for emergency evacuation in the event of a disaster aboard ship. In the military, a lifeboat may be referred to as a whaleboat, dinghy, or gig. The ship's tenders of cruise ships often double as lifeboats. Recreational sailors sometimes...
s to be lowered, trapping the passengers on board.
Because the charter of the ship was negotiated as oil prices skyrocketed in February 1974, the Soviets ended up losing money on the deal.
Plot
A cruise liner, the SS Britannic, is in the middle of the Atlantic when the owner of the shipping line, Porter (Ian HolmIan Holm
Sir Ian Holm, CBE is an English actor known for his stage work and for many film roles. He received the 1967 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor for his performance as Lenny in The Homecoming and the 1998 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his performance in the title role of King Lear...
), receives a phone call from a man with a lilting Irish accent who refers to himself only as Juggernaut
Juggernaut
A juggernaut in colloquial English usage is a literal or metaphorical force regarded as mercilessly destructive and unstoppable.Originating in ca...
.
Juggernaut claims to have placed seven barrels of amatol
Amatol
Amatol is a highly explosive material made from a mixture of TNT and ammonium nitrate. Its name originates from the words ammonium and toluene...
(high explosive) aboard the Britannic that will explode and sink the ship by dawn the following day. The barrels are booby-trapped and any attempt to defuse them will result in an explosion. Details of how to render the bombs safe will be sent in exchange for a ransom
Ransom
Ransom is the practice of holding a prisoner or item to extort money or property to secure their release, or it can refer to the sum of money involved.In an early German law, a similar concept was called bad influence...
of five hundred thousand pounds sterling.
To show he is serious, Juggernaut arranges a demonstration, a series of small explosions on the Britannic
Porter is all for paying the ransom and saving the 1,200 passengers on board (the seas are too rough to abandon ship). However, officials of the British government inform Porter that if he pays the ransom, they will withdraw his company's operating subsidy.
Instead, a bomb disposal expert, Lt. Cmdr. Anthony Fallon (Richard Harris
Richard Harris
Richard St John Harris was an Irish actor, singer-songwriter, theatrical producer, film director and writer....
), and his team must parachute into the Atlantic, board the Britannic and defuse the barrels before the deadline. Meanwhile, Supt. John McCleod (Anthony Hopkins
Anthony Hopkins
Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins, KBE , best known as Anthony Hopkins, is a Welsh actor of film, stage and television...
), whose wife and two children are on board the Britannic leads the efforts on land to find Juggernaut.
After an attempt to defuse one bomb by robot
Robot
A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
fails, Fallon goes to his backup plan. Fallon's team will defuse one barrel each. Fallon will go first, informing his men of each move. If he fails and the bomb explodes, his men will know what went wrong. However, if two more bombs go off, the ship will sink.
Cast
- Richard HarrisRichard HarrisRichard St John Harris was an Irish actor, singer-songwriter, theatrical producer, film director and writer....
as Lieutenant Commander Anthony Fallon - Omar SharifOmar SharifOmar Sharif is an Egyptian actor who has starred in Hollywood films including Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago and Funny Girl. He has been nominated for an Academy Award and has won two Golden Globe Awards.-Early life:...
as Captain Alex Brunel - David HemmingsDavid HemmingsDavid Edward Leslie Hemmings was an English film, theatre and television actor as well as a film and television director and producer....
as Charlie Braddock - Anthony HopkinsAnthony HopkinsSir Philip Anthony Hopkins, KBE , best known as Anthony Hopkins, is a Welsh actor of film, stage and television...
as Superintendent John McLeod - Shirley KnightShirley KnightShirley Enola Knight is an American stage, film and television actress. She has been nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, in 1960 for The Dark at the Top of the Stairs and in 1962 for Sweet Bird of Youth....
as Barbara Bannister - Ian HolmIan HolmSir Ian Holm, CBE is an English actor known for his stage work and for many film roles. He received the 1967 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor for his performance as Lenny in The Homecoming and the 1998 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his performance in the title role of King Lear...
as Nicholas Porter - Clifton JamesClifton JamesGeorge Clifton James is an American actor. He is probably best known for his role as the bumbling Sheriff J.W. Pepper alongside Roger Moore in the James Bond films Live and Let Die and The Man With The Golden Gun and his role alongside Sean Connery in The Untouchables .-Personal life:James was...
as Corrigan - Roy KinnearRoy KinnearRoy Mitchell Kinnear was an English character actor. He is best remembered for playing Veruca Salt's father, Mr. Salt, in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.-Early life:...
as Social Director Curtain - Caroline MortimerCaroline MortimerCaroline Mortimer is a British actress.Caroline Mortimer was the daughter of the novelist Penelope Mortimer from her first marriage to the journalist Charles Dimont and the stepdaughter of the playwright Sir John Mortimer...
as Susan McLeod - Mark BurnsMark BurnsMark Burns was an English film and television actor.Burns was born in Bromsgrove in the county of Worcestershire and educated at Ampleforth College, North Yorkshire...
as Hollingsworth - John StrideJohn StrideJohn Stride is an English actor best known for his television work during the 1970s. Stride was born in London, the son of Margaret and Alfred Teneriffe Stride...
as Hughes - Freddie JonesFreddie JonesFrederick Charles "Freddie" Jones is an English character actor.Jones was born in the town of Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, the son of Ida Elizabeth and Charles Edward Jones. He became an actor after ten years of working as a laboratory assistant with a firm making ceramic products,...
as Sidney Buckland - Julian GloverJulian GloverJulian Wyatt Glover is a British actor best known for such roles as General Maximilian Veers in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, the Bond villain Aristotle Kristatos in For Your Eyes Only, and Walter Donovan in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.-Personal life:Glover was born in...
as Commander Marder - Jack WatsonJack Watson (actor)Jack Watson , was an English actor who appeared in many British films and television dramas from the 1950s onwards....
as Chief Engineer Mallicent - Roshan SethRoshan SethRoshan Seth is an Indian-born British actor, who appears mainly in British and American films. He is known for his critically acclaimed performances in the films Gandhi, Mississippi Masala, Not Without My Daughter, My Beautiful Laundrette, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Such a Long...
as Azad
Origin of story
The film was inspired by a real event in May 1972 in which the QE2 suffered a bomb threat that turned out to be a hoax. Royal Marine Special Boat ServiceSpecial Boat Service
The Special Boat Service is the special forces unit of the British Royal Navy. Together with the Special Air Service, Special Reconnaissance Regiment and the Special Forces Support Group they form the United Kingdom Special Forces and come under joint control of the same Director Special...
combat divers were parachuted near the ship.