ABC NOVEL FOR TELEVISION, AN: ROBERT LUDLUM'S THE APOCALYPSE WATCH {PART 2 OF 2} (TV)
Summary
The second part of this two-part television film presented under the umbrella title of “ABC Novel for Television” about efforts to combat a modern-day neo-Nazi conspiracy in England.
Drew eludes Karin’s assassination attempt and takes her gun. Suddenly she clutches her head and passes out, similar to Harry several days beforehand. A series of London Underground stations are subject to bombings in rapid succession, thus bringing London public transportation systems to a halt. Prime Minister Harding refuses to comment, unwilling to lend any more publicity to the terrorist actions. Ross holds a press conference decrying the bombings and claiming that he predicted such a thing would occur and that he would, if elected, be the only one able to quell such violence. Drew brings Karin in to get a medical examination, and her blood tests suggest that she was injected with chemicals similar to those used on Harry, suggesting that she has also been brainwashed. Evidence suggests that Karin could suffer permanent brain damage. She is injected with a solution which will either restore normal brain functions or intensify the process and put her in danger. Drew speaks to a semi-conscious Karin, and she recalls being kidnapped at her family home in Prague. She only vaguely recalls being at the WG Corporation headquarters and being subjected to their memory alteration procedure. She also vaguely recalls her meeting with Weigel, although she cannot identify him as such.
Sorenson orders that Karin be placed under constant surveillance. Despite this, Karin manages to escape from her hospital bed and drives off with Drew. He trusts that she will not betray her again and they drive together to the WG Corporation headquarters. They break in at night and infiltrate the shipping compound, where they discover the ex-Stasi agent still locked in a storage container. He dies before they can get any information out of him, but Drew finds him clutching a piece of wood with the word “ausen” painted on it. Karin explains that the man was Dieter Kramer, and that she worked with him while she was stationed in East Berlin, and that he supposedly tortured and executed Frederick for the assassinations of communist sympathizers. Harry was the one who recovered the interrogation transcript and gave it to Karin. She begins to wonder aloud if the report Harry recovered was a fake. Ambassador Courtland becomes frustrated at being shut out of negotiations and Janine encourages him to request a transfer back to Washington.
Drew has Karin check into a hotel under an assumed name while he runs analyses on the piece of wood they found with Dieter. Weigel and Ulrich still have Karin under their own surveillance; Ulrich believes that Karin has outlived her usefulness and that she is only being kept alive due to Frederick’s history with her. Drew’s superiors upbraid him for taking custody of Karin without their permission and for possibly allowing her to further her traitorous schemes. He attempts to prevent them from recapturing Karin themselves. It turns out that Witkowski is being paid off by Weigel to turn over Karin, but tries to hold him up for more money. Drew follows him and reports to Sorenson that he is betraying them from the inside. One of Ulrich’s men mind-controls Karin into answering her door and gives her a letter from Frederick. She is then brought to a construction site, where she meets with Frederick in person. They argue about his plans, which he claims are a means of realizing their dreams of creating a stable and secure world. He asks her to join him, but she refuses; he gives her his wedding ring and leaves.
Soon Drew arrives at the site as Witkowski shows up, and he reports back to his superiors. Witkowski is presented with his money, but he requests that Drew and Karin be killed as well. He attempts to shoot Karin himself but is shot before he can do so. Karin is about to be framed for Witkowski’s death, but Drew intervenes and rescues her. At MI6 headquarters in London, Ulrich’s men are tortured and interrogated. It is revealed that a plot has been formed to assassinate Prime Minister Harding. He is warned about it, but is making a public appearance and refuses to change his schedule, unwilling to appear frightened. Drew and Karin arrive in time to prevent the assassination from being carried out. Ulrich is captured by MI6 and commits suicide in his cell with a hidden cyanide tablet. Drew and Karin attempts to retrace Ulrich’s steps and take a ride on a sightseeing boating tour he attended. Drew notices two of Ulrich’s men at the back of the boat. Harding’s poll numbers go up, contrary to Frederick’s plan, and Ross complains about this. Weigel advises Frederick against getting further involved with Karin, but Frederick dismisses this.
Ulrich’s men prepare a missile to be launched from a sightseeing boat at Big Ben just as Prime Minister Harding gives a speech advocating for the introduction of martial law to combat terrorism. Drew and Karin are too late to stop Big Ben from being destroyed. Many are injured in the attack, although there are no reported fatalities. Drew briefs his superiors about what he has learned so far about the conspiracy and links Ross to the Brüderschaft and the WG Corporation. At the meeting they resolve to stop Frederick from enacting his plans and conquering all of England. Frederick and his organization prepare to introduce the Klyzon 44 into the British water supply in accordance with their plan to cause mass death and panic. The toxin is distributed in various reservoirs via pressurized canisters deposited by unmanned remote-controlled aerial drones. A countdown is set for eight hours, at which time the toxin will be released across England simultaneously.
Ambassador Courtland and Janine enter the consulate and insist upon being informed of their doings whilst Drew and Karin conduct research on the wood fragment found with Dieter. Karin notices that Janine has taken much more of a keen interest in their operation since Witkowski was killed and asks that research be conducted on her. Drew discovers records on the company which produced Klyzon 44 during World War II; it was the same company purchased by Ulrich and rebranded as the WG Corporation. They also pull up a classified file on Janine and discover that she is related to the Weigel family; they realize that she is connected with Frederick’s conspiracy as well. They speak to Ambassador Courtland about their findings, but he refuses to believe them. Frederick orders that a press conference be held claiming that the government knew about his operation beforehand but did nothing to stop it. Some of his underlings point out that revealing their plan creates the risk that it could be halted at the last minute, but Frederick is confident that nothing can stop him.
Frederick delivers a televised address about Operation: Apocalypse, although Prime Minister Harding dismisses his claims as a hoax. Clive recommends informing the public, but Harding decides to ignore the message. Janine returns to Frederick and expresses her dissatisfaction that Karin is still alive. She uses her connections with the CIA to get Karin removed from the operation. Their justification is her prior connection with Frederick, which they believe impacts her decision-making. Karin goes home and receives a phone message from someone within Frederick’s organization; he is disturbed by the deaths that his plan will cause and asks Karin to meet him at a nearby water treatment facility. Drew realizes she is gone and follows after her. The traitor tells Karin about the water poisoning scheme, but is shot before he can reveal the location of Frederick’s castle. Drew arrives and kills the assassin, but Karin is captured by two other men. Drew consults with the traitor as he dies, and learns that Frederick’s headquarters is at Droog Castle.
Karin is brought to Frederick in his control room. She pleads with him to stop his plan, but he refuses and talks about his grand design for a new world order. As the countdown enters its final minutes, Drew is deposited outside Castle Droog and infiltrates it. Drew enters the control room just before the canisters can be activated and tries to evacuate it, but Frederick manages to activate the code during a struggle. Two of the canisters detonate, but Drew and Karin break through and gets into a fistfight with Frederick and run him out of the control room. He retreats into a shrine to Hitler in the castle and commits suicide by ingesting a vial of Klyzon 44. The poisoned reservoirs are sealed off by the police, thus preventing the public from coming to any harm. Operation: Apocalypse is thus a failure, and Ross’s political ambitions are squelched due to his association with it. Weigel and Janine retreat to a castle somewhere in central Europe, lamenting their loss and vowing to begin again elsewhere. Drew and Karin decide to settle down together. Includes commercials.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: March 3, 1997 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:59:57
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:48116
- GENRE: Drama, spy
- SUBJECT HEADING: TV - Drama, spy
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV, 1997
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV – Commercials – Ace hardware stores
- TV – Commercials – Arrid antiperspirant
- TV – Commercials – Blockbuster video rental stores
- TV – Commercials – Blue Cross of California health insurance
- TV – Commercials – Burger King restaurants
- TV – Commercials – Cadillac automobiles
- TV – Commercials – Carnation nutrition shakes
- TV – Commercials – Carnival cruise line
- TV – Commercials – Chevrolet automobiles
- TV – Commercials – Colgate toothpaste
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- TV – Commercials – Dexatrim diet pills
- TV – Commercials – Dove bar soap
- TV – Commercials – Eggo waffles
- TV – Commercials – GMC automobiles
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- TV – Commercials – Little Caesars pizza
- TV – Commercials – Little Debbie snacks
- TV – Commercials – MasterCard credit cards
- TV – Commercials – McDonald’s restaurants
- TV – Commercials – Mentadent toothpaste
- TV – Commercials – Mighty Dog dog food
- TV – Commercials – Mylanta AR antacid tablets
- TV – Commercials – Neutrogena skin cream
- TV – Commercials – Nicoderm CQ nicotine patch
- TV – Commercials – Nutri-Grain cereal bars
- TV – Commercials – Odor-Eaters foot hygiene products
- TV – Commercials – Pam cooking spray
- TV – Commercials – Pentium computer processors
- TV – Commercials – Pepsi soft drinks
- TV – Commercials – Pillsbury cooking dough
- TV – Commercials – Playtex women’s underwear
- TV – Commercials – Pontiac automobiles
- TV – Commercials – Ragu pasta sauce
- TV – Commercials – Rogaine hair regrowth treatment
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- TV – Commercials – Salon Selectives shampoo
- TV – Commercials – Samsonite luggage
- TV – Commercials – Slim Fast diet shakes
- TV – Commercials – Tilex mildew stain remover
- TV – Commercials – Totino’s pizza rolls
- TV – Commercials – Wendy’s restaurants
- TV – Commercials – Zantac 75 heartburn medicine
- TV – Promos – “ABC News Primetime”
- TV – Promos – “ABC World News Tonight”
- TV – Promos – “Arsenio”
- TV – Promos – “Coach”
- TV – Promos – “Ellen”
- TV – Promos – “Eyewitness News”
- TV – Promos – “Grace Under Fire”
- TV – Promos – “Home Improvement”
- TV – Promos – “Nightline”
- TV – Promos – “Oprah”
- TV – Promos – “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher”
- TV – Promos – “Roseanne”
- TV – Promos – “Spin City”
- TV – Promos – “The Drew Carey Show”
- TV – Promos – “The Practice”
- TV – Promos – “Vital Signs”
CREDITS
- Steven North … Producer
- Kevin Connor … Director
- John Goldsmith … Writer
- Christopher Canaan … Writer
- Robert Ludlum … Based on the novel “The Apocalypse Watch” by
- Ken Thorne … Music by
- Patrick Bergen … Cast, Drew Latham
- Virginia Madsen … Cast, Karin De Vries
- John Shea … Cast, Harry Latham
- Glynis Barber … Cast, Janine Courtland
- Benedick Blythe … Cast, Frederick De Vries
- Christopher Neame … Cast, Ulrich von Schnabe
- Malcolm Tierney … Cast, Clive Morrow
- Michael Brandon … Cast, Ambassador Courtland
- James Aubrey … Cast, Winston Ross
- Steven Bronowski … Cast, Ex-Stasi Agent Dieter Kramer
- Sarah Cameron … Cast, Alexandra Cameron
- Daphne Cheung … Cast, Dr. Sophie Tan
- David Y. Cheung … Cast, Okaru
- Anthony Cochrane … Cast, Palmer
- Toyin Fani-Kayode … Cast, Nora Gunnell
- James Faulkner … Cast, Alexander Strong
- Jonathan Finlay … Cast, Reporter 2
- Harold Finley … Cast, Reporter 1
- Hugh Futcher … Cast, Yossi Ferelman
- Gordon Griffin … Cast, Alastair Mason
- Jonathan Hartman … Cast, Hit Man 2
- Roger Llewellyn … Cast, Prime Minister Harding
- Joshua Losey … Cast, John Wade
- Jonathan Magnanti … Cast, Kreitz
- Al Matthews … Cast, Sorenson
- Ted Maynard … Cast, Stanley Witkowski
- Ben Murphy … Cast, Kroeger
- David Riley … Cast, Christopher Peters
- Stephanie Schonfield … Cast, Magda Pike
- Victoria Stewart … Cast, Nurse
- Alan Shearman … Cast, Jones
- Geoffrey Toone … Cast, General Weigel
- William Wilde … Cast, Commander Ramage
- Jerome Willis … Cast, Dr. Hans Traupman
- Kathleen Worth … Cast, Mrs. Perelman