Countdown

While manning a tower, Mitch notices a little girl playing with a small, round object. He picks up his binoculars and watches in horror as he realizes it’s a hand grenade – and the little girl pulls the pin. Racing towards her, he grabs it out of her hand and hurls it into open water where it explodes. Two other boys have found grenades as well, and Mitch gets to them before they pull the pins on those as well. Cody, hearing the explosion, comes to the scene, and helps Mitch locate the broken box on shore and account for all the grenades that were stored there.

Later, Mitch finds out from his old SEAL connections that a cache of weapons was recently stolen from the Marines and they’re trying to track down the thieves and the missing weapons. Cody heads out on Craig’s boat to do sweeps of the ocean in hopes of discovering the location of the weapons. He finds an underwater mass on sonar, and when he and Mitch dive to investigate, they find a recently sunken boat – and the missing weapons. The armament in located in a hatch in the boat where there’s an air pocket. As Mitch and Cody search the room, they realize how unstable and dangerous the boat is becoming and prepare to leave to get more help. Just then, the thieves, Ray and Vance, show up and after a struggle in which Cody is shot in the arm with a speargun, Mitch and Cody are captured and tied up.

As Ray and Vance are unloading the ordinance, Mitch gets free from his ropes, unties Cody, and they pretend to still be tied up when Ray and Vance return. As Ray sets a C-4 plastique bomb to destroy the boat and their captives in 5 minutes, Mitch and Cody spring into action. During the ensuing fight, Mitch rams Ray into the fragile wall of the compartment, which collapses – pinning Cody in the wreckage and sending Mitch, Ray and Vance in a wild three-way fight to the surface. Ray and Vance get away on their boat, but Mitch climbs aboard the scarab to call for backup to catch the fugitives.

In the sunken boat, Cody is trapped and the water is quickly rising in the damaged compartment – and the bomb is ticking down the minutes to detonation. Just as Cody is down to his last 2 inches of air, Mitch gets back to him and frees him from the wreckage. They are down to one breath of air – and have to ascent 75 feet to the surface. Mitch forces Cody to take the last of the air and they head out for the long trip to the surface. Mitch is kicking furiously and dragging the injured Cody who is doing his best to kick along and help. Just when they are in trouble of not making it, a tremendous explosion goes off beneath them, and the blast catapults them up to the surface and into the air.

Meanwhile, Neely and Ashley have been staying with Mitch temporarily until Neely can figure out what to do and where to live. The arrangement has its ups and downs as they try to adjust their lifestyles and personal needs. After a particularly difficult morning, Neely decides that she’s really taking advantage of Mitch and starts apartment hunting. She manages to find a place pretty quickly, but when Mitch finds out, he asks her to stay on. Even though it has been a bit of a shaky start, he has begun thoroughly enjoy having Ashley – and Neely in his life.

Written by…
Tanquil Lisa Collins
Directed by…
Rick Jacobson