Original subtitles

Jump point epsilon is secure.

Roger.

This ship carries the most powerful weapon ever built by man,

a subatomic warrior.

It took nearly all of our 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 that

destroy the enemy's home world.

I am proud to tell you the Light Brigade herself will deliver the warhead that

wins this war once and for all.

Know that God is on our side for our enemy is God.

Know that the millions who have died will be avenged.

Know, if we must lay down our lives in the coming battle, we will not 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 the ship was named.

Captain, we're making a multiple hit on radar.

Oh, sweet Jesus.

Sound general quarters.

General Quarters, General Quarters, all hands about feet. What's happened?

We're attacked.

Oh, yeah.

Increasing speed to emergency flight.

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

We'll do great. Then, of course, the enemy all grown and knock it in.

All batteries firing well. They knew we were coming.

Incoming metal.

Great work, Pat. Engineering to bridge.

Engine at 110%. 1 .5 feet acceleration.

Chief,

he's got containment failure.

I have to get him. Keep up the acceleration as long as you can.

We've got

to help him.

He's dying.

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 delude you with a thousand channels or expand one single image to

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.

And in engineering wedge one, the engineer is dead. What do I do?

Can anyone hear me?

All the reactor rods down here are matched out and the hydraulics are

Somebody tell me what to do.

Turn it off.

Calm link to the command desk. They can't hear it outside the ship.

Go.

Shine that over here, will you?

Pretty cool, huh?

You probably heard it was an Exeter fighter trying to hail somebody on the

command deck. Well, why aren't they responding?

Maybe they can.

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

Oh, no.

It'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 going to 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

the viewport. 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.

Sir.

I'm sorry.

I'm just really, really scared.

How long have we been in flanks, man?

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 we're still accelerating. So that

should tell you something.

If they could have stopped us, they would have.

What do you think?

That we got through? Yeah, we got through.

We're headed towards their home.

We're still 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

mission? We 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.

What happened?

Who are you? The brigade is still headed towards our target.

Do you hear me?

You can still use this bomb.

Let us sleep.

We got the bomb.

Nothing else matters.

My legs.

Easy.

Gormir, you hang in there.

I want you there to celebrate our victory.

Dad, get assigned to the brigade anyhow.

My father sits on the UNDF council back on Earth.

You're a counselor, son?

Yeah, 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?

You've

got

to 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 forward of the crew mess deck is off limits to repel.

Reinstated POWs. I lost my security clearance for a while.

They do that to you?

Yeah, they did.

Tell me what you know about the weapon.

Well, just one of them could probably destroy an entire planet.

I think it breaks down the bonds that hold matter together on a subatomic

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 that they were bombing the Mars colony and

were going to come after us next.

Then I saw my dad.

He was looking up at the sky like he had seen the most beautiful thing in the

world.

And did your father tell you how to arm it?

No, 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've got to slow down. These engines weren't built to handle this kind of

acceleration for long.

Clothing these will help.

Glad he's on our side, huh?

Okay, there's three other compartments on this deck. We've got to do the same

thing in one of these or this whole ship is going to 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 die.

If they're still alive, our job is to complete our mission.

What was that?

Maybe that's someone coming to help. Maybe we've been boarded. By who?

The enemy?

Maybe. Stand back.

Damn.

My whips!

Coates, what are you doing?

It's Chief Weapons Officer.

What are you doing down here? I thought I was the only survivor. I tried to

contact you on the com, but all the channels were dead. Why are you trying

get into this compartment? To complete the damn mission.

Tell me what you're 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

like the enemy to you?

No, sir.

If you open up that bulkhead, this compartment will be flooded with

We have to try. No, sir. Hey!

We don't get inside that compartment. The war is over.

You understand what the stakes are here?

We are the last chance.

You do what you're ordered to do. 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 will complete the mission then?

Sir!

You detonate that bomb now from here?

No.

Until I 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 from here with the fire

suppression system.

We go back through the conduit, we enter through the... Through the escape pods,

yes. We slow the ship down and then we 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. I don't have a whole lot of time.

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 going to read us. I haven't read it.

Let's move out.

But I'm hurting 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.

I got knocked out when we took the second hint.

So did we.

I tried to get through to command, but kept running into red lights.

Radiation? Yeah.

Everybody was dead, but they were still at their stations.

Same on every deck between here and command.

Gunnery, maneuvering.

Neutron bombs.

Yeah.

Damn handy things.

It 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 don't know. I was working right inside the warhead casing.

You men must have been shielded by the reactor.

Okay, let's go.

Damn, red light.

You can override it?

Yeah, give me a minute.

Okay, Hero, we need the webs to arm the warhead. So, when I give the word, we

move in fast, we get out fast.

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

Yes, sir. All right. I go through.

You sure you're up to it?

That compartment's been open to space. As soon as we open these hatches,

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

All right. Almost there.

Okay, ready.

Okay, listen, if we don't make it back out... We'll make it if I have to go

there and get you myself.

If anybody tries to board us, you detonate that warhead. Take as many of

with you as you can. Don't make it!

All right.

Okay.

Hang on to something.

It's going down to one G or so of acceleration.

The engine should be able to maintain its speed all the way to the target.

Then we'll make it.

We'll be there in a couple hours.

We better get going before this radiation sickness sets in.

It's a long way to go yet.

Into the valley of death.

Turn it back down.

We can't get up through this divert access.

What happened? The ship was cooked by the neutron burst. It's too hot for

radiation. We'll never make it.

So how are we going to get it to the command deck?

Through the core. There's an access ladder.

That's impossible.

Not impossible, just stupid.

They run the length of the ship.

There's an access on every deck.

It'll be two feet away from the particle strength. It can't be done.

How the hell do you think I got down there?

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 want to make you jump

right out of your skin.

Just stay looking at the ladder.

What about the fuel pulse?

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 of the way?

The magnetic bottle is designed to contain the particle beam, but it won't

you. Pulses are how hot?

10 ,000 degrees, give or take.

Well, I'll definitely stay out of the way if I were you.

You ready?

Okay.

Follow me.

Oh,

I can't go in there.

Come on, Harold.

Nothing can stop you now. No.

I'm going to be sick.

The radiation.

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

In a few minutes, your brains are going to feel scrambled.

Behind your concentrator, keep moving, no matter what.

I really thought I could do this.

Congratulations, you just became sterile.

Hope I didn't ruin any family planning.

You feel the heat.

Think about something now. Keep moving. They're falling behind.

I can't stop thinking.

How did they know we were coming?

They always know.

Maybe they captured a scout to know about the police.

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 and green

blood and weird eyes.

So you figure they'd stand up the crowd?

Maybe. They surgically opted themselves to look like us. I mean, we know that

their medicine's superior to ours.

Yeah. Think of anything else?

I gotta rest.

So, everyone, UNDF had to pass a retina scan?

Yeah, I thought that was just for us to repel.

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.

Kid's right.

When I was a POW, I spent some quality time with one of them.

Female.

They're a lot smaller than we are.

I can get out anywhere.

Warmir led a raid on the prison I was in.

I was on a small moon. Got right out of rock.

I know this Boromir got me out.

Now he's dead.

All right, what's done is done.

Point is, we drop that warhead on their homeworld.

If we win, they lose.

It all comes down to that.

Just one more deck.

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

I can't focus.

Get in there, kid.

Gotta try going through the second one.

All right.

Is that the way to go in?

All we have to do now is just... You all right, kid?

Started already?

Oh, God.

I'm sorry.

I can't help myself.

That's your fault.

We're all going to be like that pretty soon.

Just hang in there. You're doing good.

All the equipment looks intact in there.

That's good.

What?

My father didn't lose his hair until 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 guys should be able to 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 anything. Just open the hatch.

I can do it.

Okay, hero.

Valley of Death.

Row the 600.

It's your first time above the engineering deck?

Yeah.

How long have you been aboard the brigade?

Since the shakedown.

Two months.

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

You?

I arrived with the bomb just before we shipped out.

Hey, Wes, once we're in there, how do we arm this thing anyway?

Sorry, I have to do it myself.

Security precautions.

I'll be the end of us.

No.

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

The Light Brigade.

Charge for the guns.

You don't trust him, do you?

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

Why?

Because 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.

Cadet, give me a hand.

Take him.

Got it.

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 that they were working on it.

It transmits and receives data through the optic nerve.

It stormed the bomb.

Damn it.

I got a problem.

What?

I can't make that connection.

Wes, keep trying.

Wes, keep trying.

Data stream was corrupted.

Random.

Like blinding noise.

Did you arm the bomb?

There's nothing I can do.

When they attacked us, one of those explosions must have generated a massive

pulse.

It's overloaded.

Are you just giving up?

I'm saying it's over.

It's all over. The war is a mission.

The whole damn human race.

It's over.

God wasn't with us after all.

Maybe he created them first.

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.

I thought that she was lost with all hands.

All but one.

I was outside the ship in a maintenance tug when the enemy crews had shown up.

We were on the far side of the sun.

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

But still, we had 29 ships.

Among them was a flagship of the fleet.

Against one enemy crew.

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, one by one.

They all charged into their own slaughter.

Until only the pattern was left.

And I thought to myself...

both 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.

I haven't done enough, have I?

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

There's always a way. Will you tell me what it is, soldier? Can you detonate

bomb without arming it? No.

And to arm it, I need the computer.

Then can you fix the computer?

We've only got a couple hours before we're over the target. So we have a few

hours. What do you need? It's over, Scokes.

Tell me what you need!

They detonated a nuclear warhead less than 500 meters from the ship.

That generated an electromagnetic pulse that fused all the circuits in the main

computer. I'm telling you, it's pointless.

Listen.

Emergency!

Scokes! Scokes, what are you doing? What are you doing? They were trying to

contact us!

That ship was probably 100 parsecs away. They can't help us, but this can.

He's right.

Why are those circuits working?

Communication says extra shielding against RF, right?

Maybe that's enough.

There's no Paul's chance in hell.

It's better than sitting here waiting to die.

You don't have to access the entire computer.

Just the weapon systems.

You don't give up, do you?

No. My brother was like that.

You know, 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 every one of us there was a hero, and that in our darkest

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 right now, the three of us.

Now hand those over to the web.

Now!

Yes, sir.

Sweet thing you didn't drop the one we needed.

If you died, we'd have been proud of you, kid.

We're running out of time.

Be over the target soon.

I'm up there.

There.

That's all I can do.

Okay.

Are you ready?

I can't make it. Tell me what to do.

Go to the payload bay.

Before you can open the doors, you have to 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 weapon system.

Locating warhead arming hut.

Subroutine.

Uploading command.

Waiting for verification.

The warhead is armed.

He did it.

Way to go, John.

So it doesn't look right.

You're one of them.

Everywhere.

We changed ourselves to look like prisoners and then allowed ourselves to

rescued.

Some of us have even been able to change back.

The retina test was our part.

We had to use the prisoners' own eyes to make sure we passed.

Most of our spies are female.

About my size.

Ah!

Boromir was my mate.

We were rescued from a prison together.

And then waited for an opportunity like this one.

Luxor deceiving you. You're not getting that warhead, hero.

Get to the payload right now.

They're trying to point at you.

Keep moving.

Cannon

to

the right of them.

Cannon to the left of them.

Cannon in front of them.

Bollied in thunder.

stormed at with shot and shell.

Boldly they roared and well into the jaws of death.

Into the mouth of hell.

30 seconds to log.

1 5 seconds to log.

1 7 log.

15 seconds to log.

10 seconds.

9 8 7.

He just came through the jump point!

What's going on?

Oh my god.

Cadet, answer me!

What did you do?

Oh my god, Scokes turned the ship around.

What did you do?

He turned the ship back toward Earth while we were unconscious.

The greatest horror of war is the fateful transformation of our children

heroes.