Juggernaut

Nicholas Porter receives a call from a man calling himself 'Juggernaut' who claims to have placed timed explosives aboard Britannic. He warns the ship will sink at dawn unless £500,000 is paid and promises safety instructions if the ransom is met. He also hints at a countdown and threatens immediate detonation if tampered with.

As a show of seriousness, Juggernaut sets off small bombs behind Britannic's funnel, injuring one crewman. The attacker then threatens that any attempt to move the drums will trigger detonations. He offers technical instructions to render the bombs safe in exchange for the ransom.

With rough seas preventing a full evacuation, management considers paying, while British government officials insist on non-appeasement of terrorism. They warn that paying may jeopardize subsidies or policy, so the plan shifts toward neutralizing the threat. The decision becomes a public test of policy and resolve.

Royal Navy Lt. Cmdr. Anthony Fallon arrives at Britannic by air, parachuting aboard with his bomb-disposal team. He immediately begins the complex defusal operation, coordinating his men to work on multiple devices around the ship. The clock is ticking toward the dawn deadline.

Back in London, Supt. McCleod leads the investigation and rapidly unmasks the man posing as Juggernaut as Sidney Buckland, a disaffected former bomb-disposal officer. The breakthrough creates a parallel thread of the chase and potential contact with Fallon. The revelation links Buckland to the war-scarred mindset behind the threat.

An initial attempt to drill into a barrel-bomb backfires, detonating the device and damaging Britannic. The blast raises the stakes and confirms that the remaining bombs are still live and deadly. Fallon and his team must push forward with a tighter, coordinated plan.

Fallon divides his crew so each man tackles a different bomb simultaneously, with Fallon directing the sequence from a central radio link. He plans that if he falters, his second-in-command can step in and the operation can still continue. The approach is designed to maximize the chance of success before the dawn deadline.

Braddock, Fallon’s trusted second, accidentally triggers a hidden mechanism inside a device and is killed as it explodes. The explosion shakes the ship and devastates Fallon, who must confront the personal cost of the mission. The loss complicates the defusal plan and slows progress.

Distraught, Fallon tells Captain Brunel to advise paying the ransom to avoid further carnage. The captain refuses to give in to coercion, but the tension mounts as the dawn deadline approaches and the ship carries more at risk. The moral and strategic dilemma intensifies as defusal work continues.

Negotiations with Juggernaut break down, in part because Juggernaut senses a trap as the ransom is collected. Fallon remains under pressure to keep disarming despite the stalled talks. The clock continues to tick toward dawn with the ship’s fate hanging in the balance.

Police capture the bomber posing as Juggernaut in London, revealing Buckland to be the mastermind behind the threat. The capture establishes a clear link between the onshore investigation and the on-board crisis. Buckland’s capture also sets up Fallon’s later contact with him.

Buckland is escorted to a police situation room, where Fallon’s fate and the defusal plan become intertwined with the onshore inquiry. Buckland confirms he trained Fallon, deepening the personal stakes for the bomb technician. The two theaters of operation finally converge as critical information is shared.

Fallon has worked out the key defusal method, but does not know which wire to cut. Juggernaut calls to drop a crucial hint, and Fallon senses a ruse. The bomb-disposal team awaits a decisive cue as dawn nears.

Trusting his judgment, Fallon cuts the red wire, doubting the supposed blue-wire cue. The rest of the team follows suit, and the bombs fail to detonate. The ship and its two-thousand-plus passengers are saved as light breaks over the Atlantic.

With the crisis resolved, Buckland's role is fully uncovered and Fallon is linked back to the onshore investigation. The passengers begin to recover as the Britannic returns toward calmer waters. Fallon’s mission succeeds, but at personal cost, including the loss of a close ally.