Anthony Fallon (Richard Harris) began his bomb-defusing career under the tutelage of Sid Buckland (Freddie Jones) during the London blitz of the early 1940s. Defusing one German bomb after another was an extremely difficult task, and I would imagine that dealing with possible sudden death over and over would result in a profound bond between Buckland and Fallon.
And yet when they conferred at the very end of Juggernaut and Fallon’s life depended on his snipping the right wire (red or blue), Buckland tells Fallon to cut the blue wire, which would blow him to pieces?
I’ve never believed that. Buckland is a bitter, enraged fellow who hates the bloodless Whitehall bureaucracy, yes, and yet after he and Fallon were nearly killed in ’40 or ’41 when a bomb they were working on ignited in their vicinity, Buckland dragged the wounded Fallon out of the rubble. Because he was a human being, and presumably still is.
Which is why the climax of this 1974 Richard Lester film, though obviously suspenseful, doesn’t quite work.
>