Under Siege(1992)

After Ryback (Steven Seagal) and Jordan (Erika Eleniak) find and free six present and former sailors – Tackman (Damian Chapa), Granger (Troy Evans), Calaway (Sandy Ward), Ramirez (Raymond Cruz), Flicker (David McKnight) and Johnson (Duane Davis) – from the room that they wound up getting locked inside of, Ryback briefs them on the situation regarding Strannix (Tommy Lee Jones), Krill (Gary Busey) and the former’s mercenaries and how they are planning to offload all of the ship’s Tomahawk missiles (eight of which are nuclear-tipped) from the Missouri onto a submarine (which is a foreign one manned by a European crew of pirates that is allied with Strannix, and once the Tomahawks are loaded onto the sub, Strannix and Krill plan to sell them on the black market to anti-American countries). The sailors agree to help Ryback put a stop to them, and they start off by sabotaging the weapons system on the ship, which will cause it to deactivate in 30 minutes. Just then, Krill gets Ryback’s attention over the P.A. and video system, and he shows him the sailors that he had earlier locked up in the forecastle and how he is slowly drowning them all through the use of the ship’s sprinkler system (which he is doing because he knows that Ryback will try to save them and he thinks that the mercenaries will easily be able to ambush him and kill him when he gets close to the forecastle). Ryback remarks to the others that they have to rescue those men, and when Granger points out that the villains might have a trap set up for all of them, Ryback points out that the villains are only expecting HIM. The sailors tell him that they have his back, then arm themselves and follow him.

As Ryback and company get close to the forecastle, they get the drop on the waiting mercenaries first, and as both sides wage a fierce gunfight, Flicker manages to turn off the water in the forecastle and save the trapped sailors. However, Strannix and Krill soon arrive at the location in the ocean where they are due to meet the submarine, and they drop anchor and wait for them. At the Pentagon, Admiral Bates (Andy Romano) gets in touch with Ryback over his earpiece and tells him that SEAL Team 5 is en route in a helicopter to take out the villains (accompanied by a gunship helicopter for support) and an air strike group from the Nimitz aircraft carrier will be serving as backup, and he must do whatever he can to aid in the arrival of the SEAL team. Ryback then pushes his way through the ship on his own and takes out more of the mercenaries, with Jordan following right behind him (feeling that being behind him is the only safe place for her), until he makes it to the deck, and we then see the two SEAL helicopters getting close to the Missouri. After Strannix’s goon, Pitt (Richard Jones), spots them coming in over the radar system, he makes ready to take them out with the anti-aircraft guns, but the weapons system finally deactivates and keeps him from doing that. The foreign submarine then arrives on the starboard side of the Missouri, and after Strannix contacts the captain and lets him know about the approaching helicopters, some of the pirates get out onto the deck armed with rocket launchers. They take aim at both helicopters and hit each of them with a rocket, which destroys them both. After getting confirmation on their destruction, Bates – feeling that they have lost their only chance to retake the Missouri – calls for the bombers on the Nimitz to conduct a full air assault on the Missouri that will destroy the ship.

As the enemy forces move all but two of the Tomahawk missiles down into the submarine, Ryback – with some help from Jordan – goes down below deck and creates a bomb, then sneaks off the ship alone and swims towards the submarine. However, just as Ryback reaches the starboard side of the sub, Strannix’s right-hand man, Daumer (Colm Meaney), spots him and warns the submarine’s captain and his crew that he is in the water. Despite sustaining a deep cut in his right shoulder blade when a pirate throws a grappling hook at him, he puts the bomb on the sub’s bowplane, where it soon explodes and damages it. Ryback then swims to the Missouri’s stern and climbs back up onto the deck, but he is soon found by Daumer. Fortunately, before he can kill Ryback, Jordan appears behind him and shoots him dead. After surveying the damage caused by the bomb, the pirates inform Strannix and Krill that the explosion has jammed their sub’s blowplane, which has now left it unable to submerge. The frustrated Krill tells Strannix that he will stay on the submarine and send it on its way in addition to supervising the repairs to the bowplane, and Strannix tells him that is going to make Honolulu “glow in the dark”. Before heading in the direction of the Missouri’s weapons control room, Strannix tells Krill that he will meet him and the submarine 15 miles due south in the captain’s motor launch, and Krill and the sub soon make their departure.

Jordan takes Ryback back inside and dresses his wounds, and they get back on deck and meet up with their fellow sailors when they show up soon after (minus Johnson, who died during their earlier attack). After Strannix learns from Pitt that he can’t get any weapon on the ship to work, he points his handgun in Pitt’s face and intimidates him into working harder to come up with a solution to the problem. As Ryback and company watch the submarine go, Ryback asks Granger if they can use the 5-inch guns on them, but Granger informs him that they can’t because they offloaded all of the armor-piercing rounds back in Hawaii, and the only thing that they have left are starbursts, which won’t penetrate the hull. Ryback then looks at the 16-inch guns and tells Calaway – who was a gunner’s mate during World War II – that the ship is still carrying shells for those. Ryback and company head back inside and first prepare a starburst for firing, and they shoot it from one of the 5-inch guns towards the submarine so Krill and the submarine’s crew will be lulled into a false sense of security. Sure enough, when Krill and the pirates see the starburst in the air, Krill tells the pirates that Ryback and his crew are just desperate and that there are no shells on the Missouri that can hurt them. Soon after, Ryback and the other sailors fire a shell from the 16-inch guns at the submarine, which lands near the sub and sends Krill and the pirates into a panic. They fix the bowplane moments later and head back inside the sub, but before they can submerge and escape, Ryback and his comrades fire another shell at them that successfully hits them, and the explosion kills Krill and the pirates and sends the sub and all of the Tomahawks in it down to the sea floor. Meanwhile, Pitt gets the Missouri’s weapons system back online and tells Strannix that, once they are done charging in a few minutes, they will have enough power to fire the two nuclear-tipped Tomahawks that they still have on board the vessel.

Ryback and company return to the deck to check out their success, but suddenly, Strannix – after ordering his remaining mercenaries out of the control room – fires the Tomahawks at Honolulu. After watching them fly off, Ryback tells Ramirez to bring him his SEAL magnaphone that he had earlier hid in the captain’s motor launch and take Jordan with him, and back at the Pentagon, Admiral Bates is informed about the launch of the Tomahawks and what their target is and that it will take 24 minutes for them to reach it. Since Bates knows that the missile’s self-destruct codes are on a control disk aboard the Missouri (which Strannix is in possession of), he tells his subordinates to scramble Navy and Air Force fighters from Pearl Harbor and send them to intercept the missiles. As his allies cross paths with and kill the remaining mercenaries (who were heading to the captain’s launch to wait for Strannix) and recover his magnaphone, Ryback goes down into the control room and soon gets confronted by Strannix. After being forced to surrender his handgun, Ryback looks at Strannix and recognizes him as a former commanding officer that he once served under. Strannix then shows him that he can’t deactivate or destroy the missiles unless he has the control disk, which he then shows off to him. Ryback soon kicks his handgun out of his hand, and then the two men have a knife fight that sees Ryback killing Strannix by driving his left thumb into his right eye, then ramming his knife down into the top of his skull and shoving him head-first into one of the room’s consoles. Ryback then takes the control disk out of his pants pocket.

Meanwhile, a Naval fighter jet catches up to and destroys one of the Tomahawks, but the other slips past all the jets and continues on towards Honolulu. Ryback gets in touch with the Pentagon again, and after telling them (off-screen) that he has the control disk, they tell him to plug it into his magnaphone (which Jordan and the others have brought in), and after he types in a two-digit code that causes his magnaphone to link itself with the missile, they read off a bigger code to him that, once typed in, will cause the remaining missile to self-destruct. He punches the code into the magnaphone, and moments later, the code activates and destroys the Tomahawk just as it is about to make impact with Honolulu. Bates’ advisor, Captain Garza (Dale Dye), then calls off the bombers from the Nimitz before they can reach the Missouri, and then Ryback and company get to the forecastle and break open its hatch to free the other sailors. Everyone meets up on deck, and as they all celebrate, Ryback shares a kiss with Jordan.

The Missouri reaches San Francisco Harbor safely, and a funeral service is held on the deck for Captain Adams (Patrick O’Neal), who was killed by Krill when the siege began. We see that Jordan is dressed as a member of the crew, and Ryback salutes Adams’ coffin wearing his ceremonial uniform.