 The script was based on an Alastair MacNeill novel of the same name, which in turn was based on an Alistair MacLean screenplay.With the aid of a German nuclear physicist, dissident Russian General Konstantin Benin (Christopher Lee), a military casualty of the Soviet collapse, is conspiring to restore the Soviet Union to superpower status.His plan is to place a nuclear bomb on a train controlled by mercenaries, led by Alex Tierney (Ted Levine), bound for Iraq, forcing the Russian army to invade Iraq to recover it and once again mobilize its might - creating a new military union in the process.