Countdown (26 Oct. 1989)

In the Asian country of Kangji, the military leader Xang Kai plans to obliterate the entire government by detonating a nuclear bomb in the capital's city center. His strategy is to after ... See full summary »

Director:

Brian Trenchard-Smith

Writers:

Bruce Geller (creator), Chip Hayes

Stars:

Peter Graves, Thaao Penghlis, Antony Hamilton

Cast

Episode cast overview:
Peter Graves	...	Jim Phelps
Thaao Penghlis	...	Nicholas Black
Antony Hamilton	...	Max Harte (as Tony Hamilton)
Phil Morris	...	Grant Collier
Jane Badler	...	Shannon Reed
Julie Ow	...	Su Lin
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa	...	Vang Kai
John O'Brien	...	Major Chung
Darren Yap	...	Quon
Terry Woo	...	Monk (as Terence Woo)
Takao Nakazawi	...	Old Man
Rob Burton	...	Mime Artist
Lawrence Mah	...	Warlord
Fred Lee	...	Soldier

Storyline

In the Asian country of Kangji, the military leader Xang Kai plans to obliterate the entire government by detonating a nuclear bomb in the capital's city center. His strategy is to after that blame the attack on the United States and take control of his country, emerging as the undisputed leader. To set up the bomb, he has taken help from the beautiful female terrorist Sun Li, who has agreed to help on condition that her religious leader "The Holy One" may return to Kangji under Xang Kai's rule. "The Holy One" has for a long time lived in exile outside the country borders. Jim Phelps and his team of agents get the mission to locate and defuse the nuclear bomb, thus stopping all of Xang Kai's devious plans.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 October 1989 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Village Roadshow Studios, Oxenford, Queensland, Australia

Company Credits

Production Co:

Jeffrey Hayes Productions, Paramount Television

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

User Reviews

A good episode, with some strong action

The IMF team needs to both locate and disarm a bomb that one, maybe two, people know the location of, under a time limit of less than a day.

There were a few things that set this episode apart from others. First, there's a bit more violence than normal. We do see someone die in a hail of gunfire.

The motivation of the target is a religious one. I was concerned about how easy it would be for the team to manipulate her. But the team took the ploy in a different direction than I anticipated. I thought they would be appealing to her sense of humanity. Rather, they appealed to her religious goals to achieve the desired result.

This seems like a minor thing, but the approach came across as a more clever than expected.

Also, I got a deeper sense of the team being braver than usual in this episode. In most missions, the team has a personal danger, but can always rely on their own ingenuity and each other to escape if things go wrong. In this case, it's all-or-nothing. If someone messes up, or they just can't do it in time, they're all going to die.