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Britannic (film)

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Britannic
UK DVD cover art for Britannic
Directed byBrian Trenchard-Smith
Starring
Country of originUnited States
United Kingdom
Original languagesEnglish
German
Production
Executive producersDavid Forrest
Stephen P. Jarchow
Beau Rogers
ProducerPaul Colichman
Running time93 minutes
Production companyFlashpoint
Original release
NetworkFox Family Channel
Release10 January 2000 (2000-01-10)[1]

Britannic is a 2000 spy television film directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith. The film is a fictional account of the sinking of the ship of the same name off the Greek island of Kea in November 1916; it features a German agent sabotaging her while she is serving as a hospital ship for the British Army during World War I. It stars Edward Atterton and Amanda Ryan, with Jacqueline Bisset, Ben Daniels, John Rhys-Davies, and Bruce Payne as costars. It first premiered on cable network Fox Family and was then broadcast in the United Kingdom on Channel 4.[2]

Trenchard Smith says the film was the best of the three disaster movies he made around this time. It got him the job directing Megiddo: The Omega Code 2.[3]

Plot

In Southampton in 1916, HMHS Britannic, a sister ship of the Titanic, has been refitted as a hospital ship for Allied soldiers fighting in the Gallipoli Campaign. Among the nurses who are to serve aboard her is Lady Lewis (Jacqueline Bisset), who is being delivered to Greece via Naples, where her husband has become Ambassador for Great Britain. Traveling with her is Vera Campbell (Amanda Ryan), an operative of British Intelligence posing as Lady Lewis' governess. She is unnerved by the voyage, having survived the Titanic's sinking four years before, losing her husband in it as well. She reports her mission to Captain Bartlett (John Rhys-Davies) who is dubious that a woman can do such a job.

A German spy has boarded the Britannic posing as her chaplain, Chaplain Reynolds (Edward Atterton), and soon discovers that she is secretly carrying a large amount of small arms and munitions bound for Cairo. Under the articles of war, Reynolds considers his actions against her to be legal and initiates a series of sabotage attempts to either take over or sink her, including inciting the Irish stokers, all members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, to mutiny.

Each sabotage attempt is foiled by Campbell - with the eventual co-operation of the Britannic's crew. Unaware that she is responsible, Reynolds finds himself growing attracted to her whilst the voyage continues. As they spend time together, they fall in love and she has sex with him before discovering his true identity. Campbell confronts him in the engine room where he tells her he is going to sink the ship.

Reynolds blows a hole in the Britannic's port side bow. The ship tries sailing for Kea island seven miles away but the beaching operation causes her to sink even faster. Campbell discovers that William, one of Lady Lewis's children, has disappeared. Reynolds helps her and they manage to get William to a lifeboat before it is lowered. Another massive explosion causes Reynolds to be trapped in a flooding room. Campbell helps him escape and they make their way through the ship, swimming through flooded rooms, vents, grates, and corridors, eventually making it outside by swimming through a porthole and climbing aboard an empty lifeboat that was already lowered into the water, but still attached by its ropes to the davits.

Campbell and Reynolds notice a lifeboat filled with people getting pulled into the still spinning propellers. They watch in horror as the boat and its occupants are smashed to pieces by the spinning blades. Reynolds ties Campbell to a line thrown to them from a nearby lifeboat. Despite her protests that they both can be pulled to safety, he throws her into the sea after kissing her. Soon after, the lifeboat's ropes break and it begins to also get sucked into the propellers. Reynolds decides to commit suicide, staying aboard the lifeboat as it is smashed by the blades. A few moments later, the Britannic rapidly rolls over, causing her funnels and deck machinery to tumble into the sea as she sinks beneath the waves. A British battleship, HMS Victoria (which earlier helped the Britannic fend off a U-boat attack), arrives to rescue the survivors. Reflecting on her experience, Campbell quotes the poem "Roll on, Thou..." from Childe Harold's Pilgrimage by Lord Byron.

Cast

References

  1. ^ "Britannic - TV Movie". TV Tango. Retrieved 7 September 2012.
  2. ^ Hope, Nicholas. "Underwater Cameraman Credits". bubblevision.com. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  3. ^ Trenchard-Smith, Brian (11 August 2001). "HOLLYWOOD SURVIVOR". Daily Telegraph.
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