During the Cold War, a television news journalist aboard the American aircraft carrier USS Nimitz explains the scenario of current fleet exercise of the United States Navy in the central Pacific Ocean.

During a live broadcast from the bridge of the Nimitz, the correspondent points out a fleet of "Russian" (Soviet) warships on the horizon commanded by Vice Admiral Chernov.

At the same time, a plainclothed man, later identified as a CIA operative, meets United States Army Major Jack Hessalt, a crazed Vietnam War veteran, who is suffering wartime flashbacks and seems to be on his own private crusade against the Soviets.

The CIA man employs Hessalt to gain control over the American missile facility in the central Pacific and launch a false flag attack on a third-party ocean liner, sink it, and make it look like the Soviets have done that.

After Hessalt finds out that he and his men are actually expendable and most likely to be assassinated immediately after the completion of their mission, he goes ballistic and takes full control of the base, arming a cruise missile with a nuclear warhead instead of conventional one, and prepares to strike the Soviet squadron so he and his henchmen could escape from the island and disappear among the ensuing chaos.