Juggernaut (1974)

[Tigon Man]

Richard Lester's gripping thriller gets a welcome re showing this week at 4: 45 on Film Four on Monday 24th April and again at 2:25 on Friday April 28th.
Edge of the seat bomb threat drama with a top notch Brit cast including Freddie Jones, John Stride, Kenneth Cope and Anthony Hopkins and of course Richard Harris as the bomb disposal expert, sent in to diffuse the device.

[StoneAgeMan]

When you mentioned the title, my first image was of Roy Kinnear... and Roshan Seth, the Indian steward who breaks into a London accent when the going gets tough (he uses a mock Indian accent for the passengers, as he gets more tips that way). Oh, by the way, you de-fuse a bomb, whereas a gas will diffuse to spread out over a larger area.

[Tigon Man]

Both Roshan Seth and Roy Kinnear are wonderful in this. Kinnear as the beleaguered ships entertainment officer is especially touching in his scenes with Shirley Knight's lovelorn American Tourist.

[StoneAgeMan]

I remember seeing the film at the cinema. It was interesting for me to talk about with my Dad, as he had been a steward on liners before and during WW2.

[Professor Marcus]

One of the Sunday afternoon regulars 25 years ago! A very good film and with the great line from Roy Kinnear's steward - who when asked by a passenger if the sea will be cold if they have to abandon ship, replies "In my professional opinion... it won't be hot."

[zabadak]

What was that quote from Harris? Something like I may be stupid but I'm not bloody stupid

[Metro1962]

Juggernaut tells Fallon to "cut the blue", and suspecting a last attempt by Juggernaut at fulfilling his revenge, Fallon disobeys and cuts the red wire and survives. But he doesn't tell his team what he is doing beforehand, so if Juggernaut had in fact been telling the truth, Fallon would have blown up and the rest of the team would all have assumed cutting the blue would blow them up. They would switch to cutting the red, thus all blowing themselves up.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071706/...f_=tt_ql_trv_2

[StoneAgeMan]

Yep, that was the other lasting memory from that movie. Cut the "wrong" one, but don't tell anyone else first. Classic case of drama for the sake of drama, without thinking it through.

[Professor Marcus]

Yes, as mentioned in the two posts above: i always noticed this years ago. One of those things done for dramatic effect in a film that if done in reality would be incredibly stupid and could have catastrophic consequences!

[Rick C]

Sean Connery aka James Bond has a wire-cutting dilemma in the Fort Knox sequence in Goldfinger. I am sure there are countless war dramas with an unexploded bomb under a similar spotlight and then there are the rogue atomic devices in Seven Days to Noon and a Howard Duff doomsday picture although I'm not sure with these if it was a two-wire alternative or a simple cut-or-not-to-cut cliffhanger.