North Sea Hijack



North Sea Hijack is a thriller film from 1979, starring Roger Moore and Anthony Perkins. It is based on the novel Esther, Ruth and Jennifer by Jack Davies.

Rufus Excalibur ffolkes (yes, with a lower case "f") is an eccentric freelancer who specializes in diving missions. One day, he is approached to come with an anti-terrorist plan for oil platforms. Months later, one oil platform is planted with bombs by a terrorist group led by a man calling himself Lou Kramer, who demands a ransom in exchange for not blowing it up within 24 hours. Rest of the film is then spent with ffolkes's plan coming into fruition bit by bit.


 * The Alcoholic: ffolkes always has a bottle of scotch at hand.
 * Attempted Rape: One of Kramer's men attempts to rape Sanna, but is interrupted by captain Olafsen.
 * Ax Crazy: Kramer. He seems to spend most of his time insulting people, killing them, or screaming.
 * Badass Beard: ffolkes.
 * Badass Crew: ffolkes's men, the ffolkes ffusiliers.
 * Character Title: The film was released as ffolkes outside the UK.
 * Death by Childbirth: Both ffolkes's parents died upon his birth. It is not elaborated further just how his father managed to do it.
 * Everything's Louder with Bagpipes: A bagpiper is present when ffolkes is awarded for his deeds in the end.
 * Freudian Excuse: The reason why ffolkes dislikes women so much because he was forced to wear girls clothes until he was ten. Among other things.
 * Genre Savvy: When Herring volunteers to poison the terrorists, the crew of Esther, after giving some thought, realize that he must be working for them.
 * Harpoon Gun: ffolkes's men are armed with them.
 * He-Man Woman Hater: ffolkes. After he heard that the gentleman club he is part started taking female members, he resigned from it immediatly.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Even though ffolkes dislikes women, he still has some more polite moments towards them.
 * Kindhearted Cat Lover: ffolkes loves cats.
 * Name and Name: The original novel Esther, Ruth and Jennifer. It refers to the names of the supply ship, oil rig and the oil platform.
 * Nerd Glasses: Worn by Harold, the terrorists' bomb expert.
 * No Name Given: We never learn Lou Kramer's real name, as he operates under a name that he randomly chose from a phonebook.
 * Pistol Pose: Used on one of the posters.
 * Preppy Name: Rufus Excalibur ffolkes, not to mention badass.
 * Real Men Wear Pink: ffolkes does does needlepoint embroidery to pass away time. It has kittens on it, unsurprisingly.
 * Tampering with Food and Drink: The crew of Esther attempts to poison the terrorists with tampered food.
 * Thanks for the Mammary: ffolkes mistakes Sanna for a boy when they initially meet. He later realizes that Sanna really is a woman when he grabs her chest while he is making her warm.
 * Thrown From the Zeppelin: Herring is killed after he decides to not to go with Kramer's plan.
 * Villainous Breakdown: Kramer degenerates from a collected (if rude and obnoxious) criminal mastermind to a shrieking maniac as the film progresses. Of course, that was part of ffolkes' strategy all along.
 * Western Terrorists: The bad guys. Their leader Kramer doesn't like to be called such, as he claims to do it for money rather than any religious ideology.
 * Window Pain: Lou and Harold are shot with harpoons through windows.