 Proxate Corporation recruits a boozy former ship captain (Malcolm McDowell) and offers him a new identity: Sean Murdoch. His job: to take charge of large ship on one voyage. Once aboard, Murdoch realizes that the ship is a prison ship, and the cargo are criminally insane inmates. Murdoch s other problem: someone has planted bombs aboard the vessel. Murdoch s acrimonious relationship with the prison warden (played by Michael Pare) lends extra drama to the story.