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The 1974 UA picture Juggernaut is a basic bomb-defusing thriller spiced with the twist that the bombs are on an ocean liner filled with passengers. Director Richard Lester reportedly came in at the 11th hour and rewrote the script, prompting writer-producer Richard Alan Simmons to have his name removed. But we love the final result - Juggernaut was hailed by critics as a superior entertainment. In a gloriously optimized new widescreen transfer, it now comes off as a nail-biter packed with top actors in interesting roles. It's such a good ride that we feel a loss when it's over -- we'd be ready for another hour with these characters, even if they were to just sit around drinking coffee and exchanging small talk. 
The story unfolds without a single slack scene. Scotland Yard Superintendant John McLeod (Anthony Hopkins, young and fresh) waves his farewells to his wife and children, who are leaving on the dazzling white cruise ship Brittanic. On board, the social director Curtain (Lester fave Roy Kinnear) works hard to cheer the passengers, but has little success because gale force weather is expected for the whole trip and the ship is rolling badly because its new gyro compensators aren't working. The crew is further inconvenienced by other half-completed refitting work. Captain Alex Brunel (Omar Sharif) has invited his lover Barbara Bannister (Shirley Knight) for the voyage; she's one of the few passengers not struck seasick. The officers on the bridge are impressed when news comes back that Bannister is sleeping in the Captain's cabin. Porter Azad (Roshan Seth of A Passage to India) helps out the seasick Mrs. McLeod by looking for her son, who is wandering below decks. Everything changes when a man who calls himself 'Juggernaut' contacts the ship's managing director Nicholas Porter (Ian Holm). For a payment of $500,000 dollars, Juggernaut will remotely neutralize seven bombs he has placed on the ship. Within a couple of hours, special Navy bomb squad expert Lt. Commander Anthony Fallon (Richard Harris) and his team are on a plane headed out to sea. Because the stormy conditions rule out using the lifeboats or approaching by sea, Fallon and his crew must skydive into the water like frogmen and drag heavy equipment containers to the ship's ladders. Back in London John McLeod runs about checking up on likely mad bomber suspects. Lives will be lost just getting the bomb squad on board. Fallon and his first assistant Charlie Braddock (David Hemmings) examine the seven oil drums containing the bombs and find that they have been rigged by an especially gifted expert. And only a couple of hours remain before Juggernaut sends everybody to the bottom of the Atlantic. 
Juggernaut is one of Richard Lester's best pictures and proof that his capabilities extend beyond '60s pop comedies and his slapstick Musketeers movies. Without affecting the film's serious thriller aspects, Lester weaves a thread of subtle humor throughout, from the mumbled comments of the crew to observations of how the passengers are affected by the rolling decks in the high seas. While Sharif and his crew work feverishly to secure the bombs -- which might be set off simply by the boat's pitching in the waves -- we see everyone involved making the best of the emergency. The porter Azad disguises his nervousness. Passenger Corrigan (Clifton James, the redneck "Sheriff Pepper" from two James Bond movies) is a mayor of an American city who notices that the ship is sailing in circles. Instead of getting hysterically unreasonable, Corrigan accepts that the First Officer must politely lie to him about what is happening. Nobody panics; we instead see the tension rise in passengers' faces as the ordeal wears on. It's perhaps hardest on social director Roy Kinnear, whose every effort to raise spirits falls totally flat. The tense scenes of negotiation and decision-making back in London are also played without histrionics. Company exec Ian Holm is appalled by the government's request that he not pay the extortion money, as a matter of principle. Cop Anthony Hopkins creates a complex character with little more than a series of concerned, exhausted faces. he tries not to let his feelings interfere, and initially doesn't even tell his associates that his family is on the Britannic. Attempts to trace Juggernaut lead to frustrating dead ends. |
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