The Reckoning

Mick convinces Hazlitt to persuade the board to develop computers, overturning the directors' rejection. He believes this strategic shift will save the company and boost his own status. The moment occurs in the morning during a tense business discussion.

Rosemary calls to tell him his father is dying; he initially wants to leave, but Hazlitt pressures him to finish a report. The conflict between personal duty and corporate ambition tightens around him. This scene sets up the personal costs of his ascent.

Mick drives his Jaguar to Liverpool to visit his childhood home and discovers his father, John Joe, has already died. He notes bruises on his father's face and body and questions everyone present to learn what happened. The journey marks a turning point as he faces a mystery behind his father's death.

At the Irish social hall, Cocky Burke tells Mick that English Teddy Boys attacked his father after singing an Irish rebel song, suggesting a heart attack as the cause. Cocky urges Mick to take revenge rather than involve the police. This conversation plants the seed of vigilante action in him.

During a police disruption at the hall, Joyce helps Mick slip away. She is a nurse connected to his father's doctor, and later she and Mick visit his former house where they make love. The night blends personal reckoning with his quest for vengeance.

Back in London, Mick and Hazlitt preside over a successful board meeting, solidifying his position at the company. He then goes home and propositions Rosemary, signaling his intent to have control over both career and marriage. The sequence underscores the tension between ambition and domestic life.

The next day, Mick, buoyed by a sense of power, goes out drinking and returns home in a rage, punching Sir Miles Bishton at a party. The incident foreshadows his unraveling personal life. Rosemary leaves him soon after, further destabilizing him.

Hazlitt is suspended, and Moyle returns to steer the company. In the midst of corporate maneuvering, Rosemary leaves Mick, marking a personal setback that echoes the broader power struggle. The mood shifts from triumph to insecurity as the board reconfigures.

After a magistrate rules his father's death accidental, Mick drives back to Liverpool, checks into a seedy hotel, and arranges an alibi. He borrows a local company car and heads to the social hall, where he confronts Jones—the attacker—and savagely beats him with a pipe. The act secures his sense of justice, albeit through violence.

At dawn, Mick checks out and learns that police have been looking for him. He bids an affectionate goodbye to his mother, who tells him the cops have visited. The scene underscores the personal cost of his choices.

Back in London, Mick seduces Hilda, Hazlitt's secretary, and extracts information that damages Hazlitt's standing. He uses the information to bolster Moyle's confidence in promoting him. The maneuver reveals a growing ruthlessness in his ascent.

In a boardroom moment, Moyle tells Mick he will replace Hazlitt with him, recognizing his leverage. Moyle assumes Mick will want to keep Hilda, but Mick dismisses her as untrustworthy. The exchange seals Hazlitt's downfall and cements Mick's rise.

Reconciled with Rosemary, Mick and she ride along a motorway; he exhilarates at driving past a barrier and nearly colliding with a truck, declaring that if he can get away with that, he can get away with anything. The final image crowns his moral compromise with a dangerous thrill.