This film may open with a CND peace march but things don't stay peaceful for long; one of the marchers is shot through the mouth by a sniper using a crossbow! It appears he may have been undercover as the security services clearly believe that a terrorist organisation is using a peace organisation called The People's Lobby as a front. In order to infiltrate the group it is arranged for SAS Captain Peter Skellen to be thrown out of the regiment so he can pretend to be sympathetic with the groups' cause. His approach is as subtle as a brick; he goes to an event put on by the lobby, walks up to its leader; Frankie Leith and proceeds to seduce her! He tells her that he is ex-SAS and she thinks he could be of use to them despite the objections of other members. By the time it comes for them to strike she is less sure but as the group has taken his wife and baby daughter hostage she is she he will do as he is told.
Their immediate target is the house of the US Ambassador; he his hosting a dinner attended by the British Foreign Secretary, the US Secretary of State and the general in charge of Strategic Air Command... Frankie believes that with these hostages the authorities will have no choice but to give in to their demands. She informs the authorities that if the hostages are to survive a nuclear missile must be fired at the submarine base at Holy Loch... as the Secretary of State points out she is clearly insane. With such a crazy demand it is only a matter of time before the building is stormed by the SAS.
This isn't a great film but it is a lot of fun; early action nicely introduces the key characters and grabs the viewers attention but after that is slows down somewhat until the terrorists get round to seizing the Ambassador's house. Things then get tense until it is time for the raid and that is the sequence that really makes the film worth watching. SAS Troopers abseil down from their Scout helicopters and land on the roof; these troops then lower themselves to the balcony before entering through the windows; meanwhile two more troops crash trough the windows and shoot terrorists while dangling beneath a helicopter! This action may have been a little exaggerated but anybody who has seen the news footage of the SAS raid on the Iranian Embassy will find it easy to believe. Lewis Collins was just right in the role of Skellen and Judy Davis was great as Frankie. The films main weakness was clearly the terrorists' demand; nobody would seriously believe they could force anybody to fire a nuclear missile and these characters all seem to think the plan will work... not one suggests it might not work! Still there is enough action to forgive this fault.
Their immediate target is the house of the US Ambassador; he his hosting a dinner attended by the British Foreign Secretary, the US Secretary of State and the general in charge of Strategic Air Command... Frankie believes that with these hostages the authorities will have no choice but to give in to their demands. She informs the authorities that if the hostages are to survive a nuclear missile must be fired at the submarine base at Holy Loch... as the Secretary of State points out she is clearly insane. With such a crazy demand it is only a matter of time before the building is stormed by the SAS.
This isn't a great film but it is a lot of fun; early action nicely introduces the key characters and grabs the viewers attention but after that is slows down somewhat until the terrorists get round to seizing the Ambassador's house. Things then get tense until it is time for the raid and that is the sequence that really makes the film worth watching. SAS Troopers abseil down from their Scout helicopters and land on the roof; these troops then lower themselves to the balcony before entering through the windows; meanwhile two more troops crash trough the windows and shoot terrorists while dangling beneath a helicopter! This action may have been a little exaggerated but anybody who has seen the news footage of the SAS raid on the Iranian Embassy will find it easy to believe. Lewis Collins was just right in the role of Skellen and Judy Davis was great as Frankie. The films main weakness was clearly the terrorists' demand; nobody would seriously believe they could force anybody to fire a nuclear missile and these characters all seem to think the plan will work... not one suggests it might not work! Still there is enough action to forgive this fault.