This briskly directed, made-for-cable hostages-at-sea picture is less a nail-biting thriller than a smartly paced, patriotic action movie. Cautious secret service agent Vince Kellogg (Joe Lando), has had a falling out with his thrill-
seeking brother, Thomas (Rob Estes), an ATF specialist. Vince seems to hold Thomas responsible for the rock-climbing death of their other sibling, Jack, but an international crisis will soon require the brothers to set aside their differences. Unbeknownst to American intelligence, terrorists have shanghaied the Chinese nuclear submarine Li-Jiang, just as Vince starts his assignment
guarding US President Elinor Shaw (Carmen Duncan) while she undertakes a diplomatic junket on the QE2. Not everyone approves of American-Chinese detente, and Thomas finds a shore-based bomb earmarked for the boat that proves to be a diversionary tactic. Before the floating peace conference can swing into high gear, political extremists commandeer the ocean liner in order to secure Taiwan’s independence. They're led by Maggie Chang (Marie Matiko), heretofore known only as a kick boxing film star. A movie publicity tour gave Maggie entree to this historic conference on the QE2; the radical Maggie hopes to vindicate her late father, an outspoken academic who opposed Taiwan’s reunification with Red China. Maggie is willing to sabotage the Global Zero Alert conference if she has to, and in the meantime she holds the world leaders hostage and heads
for a rendezvous with her partner, who now controls the Li-Jiang’s missiles.
Vince and the QE2’s security chief, Brittany Cooper (Rachel Blakely), work to quitely undermine the takeover, and Thomas risks his life to rescue Vince and President Shaw, executing a halo jump from a helicopter and boarding the boat.
Thrill-seekers accustomed to a steady diet of Tom Clancy will find much to like in this military-hardware adventure. The villains are sadistic psychopaths; the heroes are resourceful and Yankee ingenuity ensures that a pro-American outcome is inevitable. --Robert Pardi
