Admiral Edgar Sheppard is in the South China Sea on a private boat. He takes out a submarine distress beacon, activates it, and drops it into the water. The submarine USS Concorde is nearby and picks up the signal. The crew can't identify it, and the computers start corrupting. The reactor heats up and Commander O'Neill captain realizes that they have a computer virus onboard and it's an attack. He orders the crew to fire on the source of the signal, but the operator warns that the firing systems could be corrupted as well. The captain gives the order, and the torpedo explodes in the tube. In a matter of minutes, the Concorde sinks with all but three of the crew.
At an airfield in San Francisco, Jim gets into a fighter jet and picks up his pre-recorded briefing. It informs him that of the Concorde's destruction two days ago. The loss has been kept from the press, and the survivors confirmed that the Concorde blew apart when the captain launched an attack on a radio beacon that infected the sub with a computer virus. The IMF believes that Etienne Reynard, an arms dealer, is going to purchase the virus from the man who has the virus. The team's job is to determine the creator and get the virus.
Later at the apartment, Jim explains that they've intercepted Reynard's telephone calls and discovered that he's gotten top-secret Naval intelligence on the Concorde's sinking. Reynard is going to Hong Kong in two days, and they figure that he'll meet the virus supplier. Grant takes a photo of Nicholas and inserts it into a newspaper to make it look like they're friends. He then explains that if they know the program then they can find the destination. The IMF has identified a nearby house as the source of the sale, and then they'll be able to identify the supplier.
Two days later, Reynard arrives in Hong Kong. Jim poses as a souvenir salesman and introduces himself to Reynard. He puts a sticker on Reynard's case, and Reynard discovers that he can't remove it. When Reynard disembarks to the terminal, Grant and Shannon watch from an office. Nicholas comes off the hovercraft as well and passes through customs. When Reynard passes through, Shannon spots Sheppard nearby and identifies him as Reynard's contact. Grant notifies Nicholas, then identifies Sheppard as an admiral with the US Navy and the head of digital warfare. He confirms that Sheppard wears contact lenses.
When Reynard goes through Customs, the guard dogs react to the sticker, which has a tomcat scent which attracts the dog's attention. The Customs agents take Reynard to their superior. Meanwhile, Sheppard grabs Nicholas, who says that he's Reynard's backup.
The Customs officers put Reynard's case through an x-ray scanner. The sticker has a fake gun and hand grenade x-ray image on it, and Reynard claims that he was set up. Meanwhile, Shannon and Grant go in posing as Interpol narcotics officers and say that Reynard is a decoy for drug smugglers. They take Reynard out to the car where Jim is waiting, gas him unconscious, and Jim and Shannon drive away with him. Nicholas and Sheppard get into the waiting limo, and Max and Grant follow him in a van. Nicholas activates a tracker so that his teammates can follow him.
The limo arrives at the house, and Nicholas and Sheppard go inside. Meanwhile, Max and Grant sneak onto the grounds.
Sheppard meets with the other buyers and introduces Nicholas.
Grant and Max split up.
Sheppard explains that they've all received their shipments of beacons for free, and each beacon is ready to transmit the virus. If they use the beacons without the antidote formula in their ship's systems, the virus will destroy their ships as well. They will bid on the antidote so that they can safely use the beacons.
Grant goes to the house's satellite dish and hooks up a pre-recorded video. Meanwhile, Max breaks into the sprinkler house and hooks up a tank of anesthetic gas. Grant activates the video, which has Shannon doing a fake broadcast announcing that O'Neill is one of the three survivors. The guard sees it and tells Sheppard, and Sheppard turns on the broadcast to stimulate their interest. Shannon says that two chemical tankers have collided near Hong Kong, sending a cloud of lethal gas downwind. Nicholas says that it's heading toward them.
Grant meets with Max and they turn on the anesthetic gas while donning masks. The buyers look out and see the guards pass out, and assume that the gas cloud has arrived. Sheppard says that someone deployed the virus without the antidote, and demands to know who it was. Everyone but Nicholas runs out, and Sheppard assumes that he's the infiltrator. Meanwhile, the buyers and the remaining guards pass out.
Sheppard demands answers from Nicholas, and then starts to pass out. He crushes the floppy disk with the antidote, and Nicholas dons a rebreather from his case. He calls Jim and informs him of the antidote's destruction, and Jim says that they'll move to second stage. Grant and Max come in dressed as Navy pilots, and take Sheppard away. They put a mask on him and he wakes up to see all of the "dead" guards and buyers.
Grant and Max take Sheppard out via a helicopter to a submarine off of the coast and lower him down. They take him in and Max--posing as the exec--welcomes Sheppard aboard the Detroit. They take him to sickbay and give Sheppard oxygen, and Jim posing as the commander tells him that the death toll is in the thousands. Sheppard complains that his eyes are burning and Jim says that the chemical is trapped beneath Sheppard's contact lenses. Jim has Sheppard remove them, and Max doses Sheppard with ether. He gives the contacts to Grant, who swaps them with his own set that he can remote-control the opacity.
Shannon goes into the sickbay and sets the clock forward three hours. Sheppard wakes up and sees the clock, and discovers that the doors are locked. There are several corpses in the nearby beds, and Jim comes in and says that they're the survivors of the Concorde. He gives Sheppard his "cleaned up" contact lenses and explains that the bodies of the Concorde survivors may be contaminated because the sub's reactor breached. Only O'Neill is hanging on.
Nicholas prepares an O'Neil mask.
Max and Jim show Sheppard the supposed remains of the Concorde, and say that they're going to sink the burning tankers. Jim says that both tankers responded to a distress beacon, and Sheppard tells them to turn away. Grant, posing as a technician, comes in and says that they've detected a fallen aircraft in the distance. They go out on the conning tower and see the burning tankers. The ditched aircraft is nearby, and Max has the crew launch an inflatable to recover the pilot. Jim says that the aircraft is from a nuclear-powered Russian aircraft carrier, the Leningrad. The pilot is clutching the distress beacon, and Max tells Sheppard that his orders are to sink the tankers.
The crew bring the pilot--Shannon--and the beacon aboard the Detroit, She shouts that she picked up the beacon, and Sheppard tells Grant not to touch it. The Leningrad explodes and Sheppard is looking directly at it through the binoculars. Grant "blinds" Sheppard via the contact lenses, and Jim takes Sheppard below as the Detroit submerges. Nicholas dons the O'Neill mask while Jim takes Sheppard back to sickbay. Grant gives Sheppard partial vision, and then brings in the beacon. Sheppard fumbles for it, and Grant announces over the loudspeaker that they're going to fire torpedoes. "O'Neill" enters sickbay, apparently suffering from radiation sickness, as Sheppard yells that the sub's computers are contaminated.
Sheppard panics and stumbles through the sub's corridors as "O'Neill" yells that he can't stop it. The admiral gets to the bridge and Max says that they're firing manually because the targeting computers went haywire. "O'Neill arrives and agrees with Sheppard, and Max has Grant and Shannon take Sheppard to sickbay and lock them in.
"O'Neill" tells Sheppard to make peace with his maker, and Grant fires the torpedoes. Water pours into sickbay and the room floods. Sheppard gets the door open and stumbles out, and "O'Neill" follows him. The admiral gets to the bridge and Grant announces that the sub's rudders aren't responding and they're going down. Sheppard says that he can help them and he has the expertise to neutralize the virus. Sheppard enters the antidote into the virus, and Jim and the others casually walk out. Before he goes, Grant activates a recorder playing a prerecorded message of the sub continuing to sink.
Shannon gets the antidote that Sheppard has entered, and gives the disk to Jim.
Sheppard says that he's stopped the virus and demands that they get him out. The recorded message announces that the reactor is blowing up and Sheppard goes to the escape valves. "O'Neill follows him and yells that he's the traitor, and Sheppard gets into the valve and tells "O'Neill" that he did it but no one will live to accuse him. As he releases the valve, Sheppard boasts that the Navy turned against him by signing an arms accord, and he sank the Concorde to prove that he was right. The IMF records his confession, and Jim says that their job is done. Grant restores Sheppard's vision and leaves with his teammates.
The dials show that the valve has reached the surface. Sheppard gets out and finds himself in the Detroit. The bridge is filled with mannequins of the crew, that Sheppard thought earlier were real. Grant's pre-recorded announcement continues and Sheppard turns off the player. He goes to sickbay and discovers that the "contaminated corpses" are more mannequins. Sheppard looks around and finds Nicholas' discarded O'Neill mask.
Going up to the conning tower, Sheppard realizes that he's in a giant movie set. The film showing the Leningrad's destruction ends, and naval security arrives with Reynard in tow. They place Sheppard under arrest, and the team steps out to watch.
Written by Gadfly on Sep 2, 2018