Original subtitles

-Jump Point Epsilon is secure. -Roger.

This is the captain.

A few minutes ago at 0900 hours

the fleet passed Jump Point Epsilon.

We are now in enemy space

and proceeding under standard acceleration.

For security reasons,

the objectives of this fleet have remained secret.

We're going after their home world.

I can now inform you that this ship carries the most powerful weapon

ever built by man, a sub-atomic warhead.

A doomsday bomb.

It took nearly all of Earth's resources to create this ultimate weapon.

As you know, humanity is at the brink of defeat.

Men of the Light Brigade, the tide has turned.

In six hours, a fleet of nine warships,

manned by 600 of the best young men

the United Nations of Earth can offer,

is going to launch a surprise attack

and will destroy the enemy's home world.

I'm proud to tell you the Light Brigade itself

will deliver the warhead that wins this war once and for all.

Know that God is on our side,

for our enemy is godless.

Know that the millions who have died will be avenged.

Know if we lay down our lives in the coming battle,

it won't be in vain,

for we will have ensured the very survival of humanity.

I would like to read you a passage from the poem for which this ship was named.

Captain, we've picked up multiple hits on radar!

Oh, sweet Jesus!

Sound general quarters!

[Man on Speaker] General quarters! General quarters!

-All hands to battle stations! -[alarm buzzing]

-What's happening? -We're under attack.

Increase speed to emergency flight.

Light speed. Let's get those control rods out as far as they go.

Prepare for maximum acceleration.

[Captain] Set a course for the enemy home world and lock it in.

[Man on speaker] Launch extra fires!

All batteries firing well.

They knew we were coming.

Incoming missiles! Brace for impact!

Engineering to bridge.

Engines at 110%,

at 1.5 gs acceleration.

[explosion]

[engines accelerating]

Chief, we've got containment failure.

I have to get to the next compartment.

Keep up this acceleration!

Aye, sir.

[screaming]

You try to help him!

Too late! Man your post!

But he's dying!

Get back!

You can't leave him there!

Man your post!

[screaming]

[Control Voice] There is nothing wrong with your television.

Do not attempt to adjust the picture.

We are now controlling the transmission.

We control the horizontal and the vertical.

We can deluge you with a thousand channels

or expand one single image to crystal clarity

and beyond.

We can shape your vision

to anything our imagination can conceive.

For the next hour,

we will control all that you see and hear.

You are about to experience the awe and mystery

which reaches from the deepest inner mind

to The Outer Limits.

Warriors may be forged in the fires of battle,

but heroes are discovered in the most unlikely of places.

[Radio] Light Brigade!

You're accelerating up. The entire...

I'm in engineering, wedge one.

The engineer is dead. What do I do?

Someone please respond!

Can anyone hear me?

Light brigade!

All the reactor rods down here are maxed out

and the hydraulics are offline.

Somebody tell me what to do!

Turn it off!

It's the comm link to command desk.

They can't hear it outside this ship.

Skokes.

Shine that over here, will you?

[servos whirring]

Pretty cool, huh?

What you probably heard was an Exeter fighter

trying to hail somebody on the command deck.

Well, why aren't they responding?

Maybe they can't.

Maybe they're knocked out. Maybe they're dead.

Oh, no.

What's our status?

It doesn't matter.

Just answer the question!

Our radiation badges are in the black.

That means we've taken a lethal dose.

We're gonna die.

Not in the next five minutes. And I need to know what happened.

The reactor vented radiation into the next compartment over.

You can see through the view port, everyone in there is dead.

This was our last chance.

We've lost the war now, haven't we?

I don't want to hear that. We've still got a job to do.

Yes, sir. I'm sorry.

I'm just really, really scared.

How long have we been at flank speed?

I don't know. I got knocked unconscious.

I don't know how long I was out.

I remember feeling kind of weightless

and then heavy all of a sudden. And then, I...

We're still accelerating.

So that should tell you something.

If they could have stopped us, they would have.

What are you saying?

That we got through?

Yeah, we got through. We're headed towards their home world.

We're on target, between five and six hours out.

That's not much time.

For what?

To complete the mission.

We could be the only two people left alive on this ship.

How can we complete the mission?

Keep the reactors online and the engines running until we reach the target,

or we die trying.

-Is that clear, cadet? -How are we...

I said is that clear?

Yes, sir.

[generator spinning up]

[groans] What happened?

The Brigade is still headed towards our target.

Do you hear me?

We can still use this bomb.

And the rest of the fleet?

We got the bomb. Nothing else matters.

[grunting]

-My leg! -Easy, easy.

Boromir, you hang in there.

I want you there to celebrate our victory.

How did a cadet get assigned to The Brigade, anyhow?

My father sits on the UNDF council back on Earth.

You're a councilor's son?

He pulled some strings at the last minute.

Got me assigned to the fleet as a replacement.

Why would he do that?

To be one of the 600.

You know, one of the heroes.

Well, I don't have time to wait for you to grow up.

So you just do as I say, and you might end up a hero.

-Understand? -Yes, sir.

Good.

Check the engineer's board for red lights.

All right.

Ready?

[grunting]

[sizzling]

We gotta slow down the engines.

Help me get the rods in.

So you seem to know a lot about this ultimate weapon

the captain was talking about.

I thought everyone knew about that.

Everything fore the crew mess deck is off limits to REPOWS.

Reinstated POWs.

I lost my security clearance when I lost this.

They do that to you?

Yeah, they did.

Tell me what you know about the weapon.

Just one of them could destroy an entire planet.

I think it breaks down the bonds

that hold matter together on a subatomic level.

How do you know all that?

Right before I left Earth, they did a test blast on one of the Martian moons.

Lit up the sky for three nights in a row.

You saw that?

Yeah, everybody did. You couldn't miss it.

At first, I was scared. I thought they were bombing the Mars colony

and they were gonna come after us next.

Then I saw my dad.

He was looking up at the sky

like he'd seen the most beautiful thing in the world.

And did your father tell you how to arm it?

No, he never talked about things like that.

Most of the time, he didn't really talk at all.

All the control rods in the other compartments are at max.

That's not good. We got to slow down.

These engines weren't built to handle this kind of acceleration for long.

Closing these will help.

[grunting]

Glad he's on our side, huh?

Okay, there's three other compartments on this deck.

We gotta do the same thing in one of these,

or this whole ship is gonna blow itself up.

Before we reach our target.

They knew, didn't they?

That we were coming.

Yeah, they must have.

My dad said that the fleet was supposed to be a secret.

That's for the officers to decide...

If they're still alive.

Our job is to complete our mission.

-[banging] -What was that?

Maybe that's someone coming to help.

Maybe we've been boarded.

By who? The enemy?

Maybe. Stand back.

Damn.

-Who are you? -I'm a Weps!

Skokes, what are you doing?

He's chief weapons officer.

What are you doing down here?

I thought I was the only survivor.

I tried to contact you on the comm, all the channels were dead.

Why are you trying to get into this compartment?

To complete the damn mission!

What the hell are you doing, soldier?

Why haven't you closed those control rods in there?

He thought you were the enemy.

Have you ever seen the enemy before?

Yes, sir, I have. Real close.

And do I look like the enemy to you?

No, sir.

You open up that bulkhead,

this compartment will be flooded with radiation.

-We have to try. -No, sir!

Hey! If we don't get inside, the war is over!

You understand what the stakes are here?

We are the last chance!

You do what you're ordered to. Is that understood, soldier?

Sir, with respect, that compartment is contaminated.

If you open up that door, we will be dead within 30 seconds!

Who'll complete the mission then, sir?

Can you detonate that bomb now from here?

No.

Till they arm it from the bridge, it's useless.

May I suggest that we depressurize the compartment?

We vent the contaminated air into space.

I can do that here with the fire suppression system.

We go back through the conduit. We enter through...

Through the escape hatch, yes.

[Skokes] We slow the ship down, head for the bridge.

We'll be exposed to some lethal doses of gamma radiation,

there's no question about it. But at least we'll survive for a few hours.

Long enough to complete the mission.

All right, but let's get to it.

We don't have a whole lot of time.

Yes, sir.

"Theirs was not to reason why.

Theirs was but to do and die."

It's from The Charge of the Light Brigade.

It's the poem the captain was gonna read us...

I never read it. Let's move out.

[beeping]

[warning buzzer sounding]

[Skokes] Was the bomb hurt in the assault?

No, it's the most protected part of the ship.

I was doing a final check on the warhead when we got attacked.

It got knocked out on the second hit.

So did we.

I try to get through to Command, but kept running into red lights.

Radiation?

Yeah. Everybody was dead but they're still at their stations.

It's the same on every deck between here and command.

Gunnery, maneuvering.

Neutron bombs.

Yeah, damn handy things.

Doesn't destroy the ship, but it kills the crew.

They used them to capture ships before.

So how come we're still alive?

I was working inside the warhead casing.

You men must have been shielded by the reactor.

[beeps]

Okay, let's go.

Damn, red light.

You can override it?

Yeah, gimme a minute.

Okay, we need the Weps to arm the warhead.

So when I give the word, we move in fast, we get out fast.

Every second down there is an hour off your life. Is that clear?

-Yes, sir. -I go, too.

You sure you're up to it?

That compartment has been opened to space.

As soon as we open these hatches,

there's going to be a hurricane going through here like you've never seen before.

I go.

All right. Weps?

Almost there.

Okay, ready.

Okay, listen, if we don't make it back out...

You'll make it if I have to get down there and get you myself.

If anybody tries to board us, you detonate that warhead,

take as many of them with you as you can.

You'll make it!

All right.

Okay. Hang on to something.

[alarm blaring]

One! Two! Three! Go!

I can't budge it!

Push!

Whatever you guys do, hurry up and get out of there!

Let's go! Go! Go! Go!

[Skokes] Boromir, get out there!

What are you doing?!

It's the only way!

There's too much air pressure!

You don't know that!

I have to close it from inside!

You can't do this!

He's right. We'll never be able to fully close it from up here!

Cadet, give me a hand!

The door is caught!

It's too heavy!

Go! Go!

-Come on! -No! Boromir!

Come on!

[screaming]

No!

Go back to a vacuum in a few seconds.

He won't suffer long.

That's a hero.

Let's go.

We're slowing down. I can feel it.

We're slowing down to one G or so of acceleration.

The engine should maintain this speed all the way to the target.

Then we'll make it. We'll be there in a couple of hours.

[coughs] We better get going

before this radiation sickness sets in.

-It's a way to go yet. -All right.

"Into the Valley of Death."

Hey, WEP, shouldn't we have made a turn back there?

We can't get through the starboard access.

That half of the ship was cooked by the neutron bursts.

Too hot with radiation. We'll never make it.

How are we getting it to the command deck?

Through the core. There's an access ladder.

[Cadet] That's impossible!

[Skokes] Not impossible. Just stupid.

It runs the length of the ship.

There's an access on every deck.

It's two feet away from the particle stream.

[Cadet] It can't be done.

How do you think I got down here?

I trusted you back there. You trust me now.

All right now, listen up.

Stay in close to the wall.

The magnetic bottle around the particle beam

is going to make you want to jump right out of your skin.

Just stay looking at the ladder.

What about the fuel pulses?

Every eight seconds. You'll see the flash from the emitter.

And when you do, just stay in closer to the wall.

What happens if we don't get out the way?

The magnetic bottle is designed to contain the particle beam,

but it won't stop you.

Pulses are how hot?

10,000 degrees, give or take.

I'd definitely stay out of the way if I were you.

You ready?

Okay.

Follow me.

Oh, I can't go in there.

Come on, hero.

Nothing can stop you now.

No...

I'm going to be sick.

Radiation. It's going to get worse before it gets better.

Your brains are going to feel scrambled.

You have to concentrate and keep moving no matter what.

I never thought I'd see this.

Congratulations. You just became sterile.

I hope I didn't ruin any family planning.

Oh, I can feel the heat.

Think about something else.

Keep moving. You're falling behind.

I can't stop thinking.

How did they know we were coming?

They always know.

Maybe they captured a scout that knew about the fleet.

My dad thought that they had spies.

On Earth?

Never seen one of them before, have you?

I know they're big monster-looking things

with scaly lizard skin,

green blood and weird eyes.

So you figure they'd stand out in a crowd.

Maybe they surgically altered themselves to look like us.

We know their medicine is superior to ours.

Yeah... Like everything else.

I got to rest.

Everyone in UNDF had to pass a retina scan.

I thought that was just for us REPOWS.

Listen, I've been close to these sons of bitches.

Real close.

You know how much bigger they are than us?

They're seven, eight feet tall.

-Not their females. -The kid's right.

When I was a POW,

I spent some quality time with one female.

They're a lot smaller than we are.

How did you get out, anyway?

Boromir led a raid on the prison I was in.

It was on a small moon cut right out of rock.

All I know is Boromir got me out.

And now he's dead.

All right, what's done is done.

Point is, if we drop that warhead on their home world,

we win, and they lose.

It all comes down to that.

Just one more deck.

We're almost there. Let's move out!

I can't focus.

Hang in there, kid.

[Cadet] Oh, my head.

Got to try going through the second time.

Is that the way to Command?

All we have to do now is...

Are you all right, kid?

[retching]

Started already.

Oh, God... I'm sorry.

I can't help myself.

It's not your fault.

We're all gonna be like that pretty soon.

Just hang in there. You're doing good.

All the equipment looks intact in there.

That's good.

-[laughs] -What?

My father didn't lose his hair till he was 50.

I can see the humor in that.

Can you override that?

It's secure from inside.

So what, we can't get in there?

I didn't say that.

There's an access through the wall.

It's too tight for me.

One of you should be able make it.

-Okay, I'll go. -No way, you're way too sick.

So are you.

There's another access door on the other side just like this one.

You should be able to unlatch it from underneath.

When you get inside, don't touch it. Just open the hatch.

I can do it.

Okay, hero.

"Half a league...

Half a league...

"Half a league onward.

All in the Vallely of Death rode the six hundred."

This your first time above the engineering deck?

Yeah.

How long you been aboard The Brigade?

Since the shakedown.

Two months.

I haven't been able to fly an exeter fighter since I lost my hand.

You?

I arrived with the bomb just before we shipped out.

Hey, Weps, once we're in there,

how do we arm this thing, anyway?

Sorry, I have to do it myself.

[scoffs] Security precautions.

It'll be the end of us.

No.

It's just that I got something you don't.

"'Forward the Light Brigade...

Charge for the guns!' he said."

You don't trust him, do you?

Let's just say I don't like cadets.

Why?

'Cause he's a last-minute replacement?

The only man I ever trusted

just died trying to complete this mission.

I did it.

I got through.

Way to go, kid.

[Weps] Cadet, gimme a hand.

-Take him. -Got him.

I told you. I got something you don't.

It's an ocular interface.

A little secret your daddy told you?

No, I just knew they were working on it.

It transmits and receives data

through the optic nerve.

Just arm the bomb.

Wait a minute. I got a problem.

What?

Ah. I can't make the connection.

Weps, keep trying.

[grunting]

Weps, keep trying!

Don't give up!

Break! Break!

Weps! Weps! What happened?

Data stream was corrupted.

Random light, blinding noise.

[Groaning]

Did you arm the bomb?

There's nothing I could do.

When they attacked us, one of those explosions

must have generated a massive e-impulse.

The interface was overloaded.

Are you just giving up?

I'm saying it's over... It's all over,

the war, the mission,

the whole damn human race.

It's over.

[vomiting]

Oh, God.

Come to think of it,

God wasn't with us after all.

Maybe He created them first.

[Cadet] We were supposed to win.

This fleet was supposed to turn the tide.

We didn't have a chance.

My father said...

Your father was fooling himself.

We all were.

I know from experience.

I served aboard The General Patton.

But that was a disaster.

Yeah, tell me about it.

I thought she was lost with all hands.

All but one.

I was outside the ship in a maintenance tug

when the enemy cruiser showed up.

We were on the far side of the sun.

We didn't think the enemy knew we were there.

But still, we were 29 ships,

among them was the flagship of the fleet,

against one enemy cruiser.

They taught us that

that fleet was attacked by a superior force.

It was.

A force of one

that moved among our ships like a wolf among lambs.

And I watched from a distance as one by one

they all charged into their own slaughter

until only The Patton was left.

And I thought to myself,

"Now... Now the wolf will be punished."

But our best ship of the line

died with the rest.

Her blood stained the stars in a ball of red fire.

We were supposed to turn the tide that day too.

You can't win if you give up the fight.

Haven't done enough, have I?

I told you there's no way. It's over.

-There's always a way. -Tell me what it is.

Can you detonate the bomb without arming it?

No, to arm it, I need the computer.

Then can you fix the computer?

We've only got a couple of hours before we're over the target.

So we have a few hours. What do you need?

It's over, Skokes.

Tell me what you need!

A miracle.

Listen to me.

They detonated a nuclear warhead less than 500 meters from this ship,

that generated an electromagnetic pulse

That fused all the circuits in the main computer.

-It's pointless! -[Static over the radio]

Listen.

Light brigade!

Please!

Emergency!

Skokes!

What are you doing?

Light brigade, please!

What are you doing? They were trying to contact us.

That ship was 100 parsecs away.

They can't help us, but this can.

He's right.

Why are those circuits working?

Communications has extra shielding against RF, right?

Maybe that's enough.

It's a snowball's chance in hell.

It's better than sitting here waiting to die.

You don't have to access the entire computer,

just the weapons systems.

Put this in.

You don't give up, do you?

No.

My brother was like that.

My father gave a speech at a war rally about a year ago.

He said that humanity would triumph

so long as we had hope.

He said that

in everyone of us, there was a hero

and that in our darkest hour

that hero would rise up

and we would honor them for all time.

You don't understand.

I've got a war to win.

I don't have time to get sentimental.

We're dying now, the three of us.

Now hand those over to the Weps. Now!

Yes, sir.

[pieces dropping]

It's a good thing you didn't drop the one we needed.

Your dad would have been proud of you, kid.

We're running out of time.

We'll be over the target soon.

Almost there.

There, it's all I can do.

Skokes.

Are you ready?

If I can't make it...

Tell me what to do.

Go to the payload bay.

Before you open the doors, you must type in a password.

It's "John". That's my name.

This key initiates a 30-second countdown.

John,

don't give up this time.

Okay, you son of a bitch, let's dance.

I'm in.

Accessing weapons system.

Locating warhead, arming sub-routine.

Uploading command.

Waiting for verification.

The warhead is armed.

You did it.

Way to go, John.

Wait a minute. Something doesn't look right.

You... You're one of them.

Open the door!

Go to hell!

Open the door!

[Skokes] Your father was right.

We had spies everywhere.

We changed ourselves to look like prisoners

and then allowed ourselves to be rescued.

Some of us have been able to change back.

The retina tests were the hardest part.

We had to use the prisoners' own eyes to ensure we'd pass.

[groaning]

Most of our spies are female, about my size.

Boromir was my mate.

We were rescued from a prison together,

and have waited for an opportunity like this one.

Looks are deceiving.

You're not getting to that warhead, hero.

I need to get into the payload bay now.

[grunts] Get out of my way!

No! Let go!

Get out of my way!

They're trying to board the ship.

Keep moving.

Got to keep moving.

"Cannon to the right of them,

Cannon to the left of them,

Cannon in front of them volleyed and thundered."

"Stormed at with shot and shell,

boldly they rode and well into the jaws of death,

into the mouth of hell."

[alarm blaring]

[Computer] 30 seconds to launch.

25 seconds to launch.

20 seconds to launch.

15 seconds to launch.

10 seconds, 9,

8, 7...

You just came through the jump point.

What's going on?

Oh, my god.

...2, 1, Launch.

Cadet, answer me.

What did you do?

Oh, my god, Skokes turned the ship around.

What did you do?

He turned it toward earth while we were unconscious.

[whispers] Oh, my god, he turned the ship around.

[Control Voice] The greatest horror of war

is the fateful transformation of our children into heroes.