Morituri

Robert Crain, a wealthy German engineer and pacifist, fled to India under a forged Swiss identity after being conscripted into the Wehrmacht. English Colonel Statter leverages the Allies’ need for materiel to pressure him into seizing a rubber shipment. Despite Crain's reluctance, he agrees, hoping the mission might spare lives and hasten the end of the war.

Crain is supplied with fake documents and the cover of Standartenführer Hans Keil, a high-ranking SS officer. He boards the Ingo, the German merchant ship carrying cargo to Nazi-occupied Bordeaux, ready to disable the scuttling charges. His mission depends on maintaining his bogus identity under constant scrutiny.

Once aboard, Crain secretly searches for the scuttling charges while under watch from the ship's officers. He works to neutralize the explosives without tipping off Kruse or Mueller. His careful progress creates a fragile thread of trust with Kruse as suspicion tightens around him.

To deflect suspicion, Crain uses the cover and the implied threat of sabotage to persuade Kruse that he is secretly protecting the ship. Mueller, a humane captain, remains wary but allows Crain some leeway. The situation remains precarious as the ship presses toward its destination.

A Japanese submarine surfaces to meet the Ingo and transfer Esther and other prisoners. The submarine carries two German naval officers who recognize Crain’s forged identity, intensifying the danger. Esther, a German-Jewish captive, remains defiantly hostile to every German she encounters aboard.

Alone with Esther, Mueller becomes openly anti-Nazi during a drunken outburst, shocking Kruse and unsettling the loyalties aboard. The outburst gives Kruse a pretext to question the captain’s fitness for command. Crain senses the risk and recalibrates his plans accordingly.

Crain tries to recruit Esther to join his mutiny plan, but she is disgusted by what she sees as Crain’s lack of commitment to the anti-Nazi cause. Her hesitancy adds moral complexity to the plot and to Crain’s own resolve. The mutiny begins to take tentative shape as alliances form and dissolve.

Crain’s forged SS identity draws closer scrutiny when the two German naval officers radio Berlin with concerns about his credentials. They give Crain less than 24 hours to complete the mission before his cover collapses. The clock ticks loudly as the risk of exposure rises.

Crain organizes a mutiny and seeks support from the American prisoners aboard. They agree to help only if Esther is allowed to have sex with them, and she reluctantly accepts the deal to gain leverage. The mutiny plan now depends on a fragile coalition of unlikely allies.

Just before the mutiny can erupt, Kruse receives the message that Crain’s SS identity is false and arms the loyal officers. The mutineers are quickly overwhelmed, and they are ordered to surrender at gunpoint. Esther is thrown to the deck as the tension detonates into tragedy when Kruse shoots her.

With the pursuers closing in, Crain detonates the scuttling charges he had not yet disabled to prevent the ship's capture. The ship is not sunk immediately, but the plan to leave it operational is thwarted. Crain’s actions salvage a sliver of control over the situation for Allied interests.

Barrels of lard in the hold rupture, expand, and act as a temporary stopper that helps keep the Ingo afloat while the crew abandons ship. The scene marks a grim but necessary endurance as the vessel survives the mutiny and escape. The ship’s fate hangs in the balance as it drifts toward an uncertain rescue.

The wounded Kruse drowns as the anti-Nazi sailors intervene, and Crain and Mueller remain the only two aboard. Crain asks Mueller to radio the Allies for rescue, and the captain unexpectedly agrees. The ending leaves Crain and Mueller bonded by a fragile, uneasy alliance as they await Allied help.