The 39 Steps
The story starts on 28 June 1914; Richard Hannay (Rupert Penry-Jones), a mining engineer and an intelligence officer during the Second Boer War, is in London following his recent return from Africa, finding England "cliquey", "class-bound" and "deathly, deathly dull". Evading German spies (Werner Daehn and Peter Stark), Scudder (Eddie Marsan) pushes himself into Hannay's flat and reveals himself to be a betrayed freelance British Secret Service Bureau agent, who has been on the trail of a German espionage ring with headquarters in Scotland. He has heard rumours of a plot to assassinate a high-ranking European royal, which could lead to war. Believing he will soon be killed, he hands Hannay a notebook to pass to Captain Kell of the Secret Service Bureau. While Hannay answers the door, Scudder is shot by one of the German spies seeking his notebook who has entered the flat via a back door. The police arrive, and Hannay is arrested for murder before escaping.
Unable to contact Kell, Hannay flicks through the notebook, finding it contains pages of code using Roman numerals. He finds a map in the back and takes a train to Scotland to prove Scudder right, attempting to decipher the code en route. Finding out Archduke Ferdinand has been assassinated, Hannay reaches Scotland and leaves the train to escape the police. He stays in a barn overnight, where he deciphers the code in the notebook (except a section in double code), which reveals the Germans want to destroy the Royal Navy so that they could invade the country, starting a war. Chased by the police, the Germans and machine-gun-fire from a biplane, he encounters brother and sister Harry and Victoria Sinclair, a prospective Member of Parliament and a suffragette respectively (Patrick Kennedy and Lydia Leonard), who believe him to be a Liberal spokesman. At a political rally in a nearby town (Culross) where Hannay meets Sir George Sinclair, Harry and Victoria's uncle (David Haig), Victoria aids Hannay's attempt to escape, before they are captured by the Germans. With the notebook missing from Hannay's pocket, they are taken to Longkeep Castle (Dumbarton Castle), the headquarters of the German espionage ring, where they are imprisoned by Professor Fisher (Patrick Malahide). Sir George arrives as they are captured and inquires about them while they are held in another room. After he leaves they are bound and gagged and placed in the cellar. They escape and return to where they were captured to look for the notebook, which Victoria reveals she had picked from Hannay's pocket and hidden. They stay overnight in an inn, where Hannay details the contents of the notebook to Victoria.
In the morning, they escape to Harry's house, where Victoria unsuccessfully attempts to contact Captain Kell. Hannay, alone, meets with Sir George, who sits on the defence committee. Hannay reveals the contents of the notebook, leading to Sir George disclosing that a meeting of the National Committee of Defence is being held the next day at Stirling Castle to unveil new naval plans, matching part of the double code. Later, Hannay and Victoria kiss, and the next morning he sees her leaving with a man, whom he recalls seeing previously on the train and at the rally. With the notebook missing and finding out that Victoria disconnected the call she made to the Secret Service Bureau before it was connected, Hannay goes to Stirling Castle, believing Victoria to be a traitor. There, Victoria reveals she works for the Secret Service Bureau and he meets Kell (Alex Jennings) and Wakeham, the man Victoria left with earlier (Steven Elder), who reveal they used Hannay to distract the Germans and sent Victoria to keep an eye on him. Hannay deduces that Sir George is the traitor, as he should have heard them when he was at Fisher's House, and, with his photographic memory, has escaped with the naval plans memorised. To identify his rendezvous point with the Germans, they crack the remaining code, referring to the room they were previously imprisoned in at Longkeep Castle, and discover "39 steps" written in the notebook by Scudder using invisible ink. At the Castle, Hannay and Victoria find 39 steps leading to a loch. A shoot-out ensues, and a German U-boat surfaces in the loch. Fisher, the Germans and Sir George fail to get to the U-boat before it submerges, and surrender.
Together by the loch, Hannay and Victoria kiss before she is hit by a bullet fired by a surviving gunman, falls into the loch and disappears. The story concludes four months later, after the declaration of the First World War, when Hannay, in a British Army officer's uniform, is waiting to meet someone at St Pancras Station. Harry appears, saying that Victoria wanted to say goodbye, and Hannay sees her in the distance. In reply to Hannay's bewilderment, Harry tells him, "top secret, old man." Victoria disappears behind a luggage trolley and Harry tells Hannay she'll see him after the war.
murder