In 1970, soon after taking off from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport toward Itazuke, the passenger plane Japanese Ride 351 is hijacked by members of Japan’s Red Army Faction, armed with guns, blades, and a bomb vest. The hijackers, who call themselves Ashita no Joe, demand to be flown to Pyongyang in North Korea so they can organize other Japanese dissidents into a revolutionary force aimed at toppling the Japanese government. Captain Takehiro Kubo notes that he and his copilot don’t know Pyongyang’s location or the air traffic control frequency, and he misleads the hijackers about how much fuel remains, claiming it isn’t enough to reach Pyongyang. The hijackers permit a landing at Itazuke for refueling and to obtain a map, but Japanese authorities hesitate to act for fear of endangering the hostages. A Japan Air Self-Defense Force fighter jet stalls for time, the elderly and vulnerable are released, and yet the plane is allowed to depart for Pyongyang with 106 Japanese hostages aboard.
Meanwhile, Nobody, the KCIA’s best fixer, is pulled into the crisis with a mission to secure the hostages and earn South Korea international credit. He recruits Lt. Seo Go-myung of the ROK Air Force, one of the few personnel trained in the RAPCON system, to pose as a North Korean air traffic controller and guide the hijacked plane toward Seoul. Seo and a North Korean Air Force counterpart race to use an emergency public frequency, but Seo is quicker, and the pilots switch to the South Korean frequency, steering the plane to Gimpo International Airport.
On the ground, Nobody arranges for Gimpo to be disguised as Pyongyang International Airport and brings in propaganda film actors to play soldiers and dancers for a North Korean welcome party. When Japanese Ride 351 lands, the hijackers quickly spot inconsistencies—a real American airliner among the hangars, an African-American officer at a window, and Louis Armstrong’s music on the radio—and the ruse falls apart, trapping the plane in a tense stand-off.
That night, Seo boards the plane to hear the hijackers’ demands. One hijacker wounds the lead hijacker to prove their resolve, explaining that if the flight does not resume to Pyongyang before noon the next day, the bomb vest will be detonated. Seeing officials scrambling to avoid responsibility by offering a Pyongyang option, Director Park Sang-hyeon weighs a delicate negotiation to secure the hostages’ release, while the hijackers dismiss the gesture as yet another ruse.
As the deadline draws near and the government braces for political backlash, Nobody convinces Japanese Deputy Minister Shinichi Ishida to volunteer as a hostage in exchange for the passengers’ freedom. The hijackers accept, and Japanese Ride 351 lifts off toward North Korea. In a later reckoning, Nobody tells Seo that the minister and pilots were returned safely and that the hijackers’ weapons were bogus, revealing that the Red Army Faction effectively hoodwinked both Tokyo and Seoul. South Korea’s leadership wants to veil the full extent of government involvement, leaving Seo without public recognition. Yet Nobody’s work is not in vain: he gains South Korean citizenship and a new name of his choosing—Choi Go-myung.
