Frank Finlay

It's August 9, 1985 in the year of Halley's Comet. The space shuttle Churchill, on a joint British-American mission, approaches the comet. While investigating, the crew finds a 150-mile long alien spaceship hidden in the tail of the comet. Upon entering the alien spacecraft, the crew finds hundreds of dead and shrivelled bat-like creatures and three naked humanoid bodies (two male and one female) in suspended animation within glass coffin-like containers. The crew recovers the three aliens and begins the return trip to Earth. During the return journey, Mission Control loses contact with the shuttle as it nears Earth and a rescue mission is sent to find out what happened on board. The rescuers find the Churchill completely gutted by fire, except for the three suspended animation cases bearing the aliens. All three are taken to European Space Research Centre in London where they are watched over by Dr. Leonard Bukovsky (Michael Gothard) and Dr. Hans Fallada (Frank Finlay). Prior to an autopsy taking place, the naked female 'vampire' (Mathilda May) awakens and sucks the lifeforce out of a guard. She then escapes the research facility and begins robbing various humans of their life force and moving through various host bodies. The two humanoid men wake up and attack the guards, who open fire on them with their assault rifles and are blown to pieces (so it seems). It transpires that the aliens are a race of space vampires that consume the life force energy from living beings instead of blood. Meanwhile, in Texas, an escape pod from the shuttle Churchill is found with Colonel Tom Carlsen (Steve Railsback) still alive. He is flown to London and tells how the crew were drained of their life forces. To save Earth from this fate, Carlsen set fire to the shuttle and escaped in the pod. During hypnosis it is clear Carlsen has a psychic link to the female alien. Carlsen and Col. Colin Caine (Peter Firth), a member of the SAS, trace the alien to the body of a nurse at a hospital for the mentally disturbed in Yorkshire. They believe they have managed to trap the alien girl within the heavily sedated body of the hospital's manager, Dr. Armstrong (Patrick Stewart). However, the entire episode was a trick to lure them away from London. As Carlsen and Caine are transporting Dr. Armstrong in a helicopter back to London, the alien girl breaks free from a sedated Dr. Armstrong and disappears. Carlsen then admits to Caine that whilst on the shuttle he felt compelled to open the female vampire's container and to have shared his life force with hers. When they arrive back in London it is clear that a plague has taken full control... the entire city is affected in a wave of violence and panic as people are being taken over and have become rabid-like vampire-alien-zombies rampaging through London. Upon arrival back at SAS headquarters, Carlsen and Caine soon realize that even the prime minister has been infected and martial law has been enacted to prevent the spread of the plague out of London. The two male vampires have also escaped from confinement and begun to transform most of London's population into zombies. Once transformed, the 'dead' victims cycle into living-dead every two hours and seek out the living, absorbing the life force from their victims through physical contact. These people themselves become zombie-vampires and the transformation process repeats. This blue energy is then collected by the male vampires who direct it to the female vampire who transfers it to the waiting spaceship now in Earth's orbit. Carlsen and Caine are found by a military patrol and taken into quarantine outside the London city limits where they try to persuade the authorities to let them return to the city to find and kill the three space vampires which they hope will save the contagion from spreading. The two men return to the ruins of London, albeit taking different routes: Carlsen goest to St. Paul's Cathedral, while Caine makes it back to the remains of the research centre, driving through rampaging mobs of both fleeing humans and zombie-vampires. Caine finds Fallada in his office who has managed to kill one of the male vampires by impaling him on a sword made of lead. The vital area on the vampire is a few inches below the heart, rather than the heart itself. He surmises that the legends of vampires may well be drawn from a previous visit by this space vampire race. Meanwhile, Carlsen realises his psychic connection is being used to lure him back to the alien so she can regain the life force she shared with him. She is located lying upon St. Paul's Cathedral's altar transferring the energy to her spaceship. Caine follows Carlsen's trail and dispatches the second male vampire (with the lead sword, obtained from Fallada, who Caine had to kill due to becoming infected as with the others at the research centre) before locating Carlsen who sacrifices himself by impaling himself and the female alien in the process. Wounded but not fatally, the female vampire returns to her ship, releasing a burst of blue energy that blasts the top off the church building's dome in the process and taking Carlsen with her. The two ascend up the column of blue light to the vessel with all the countless human souls taken from the planet. Caine is beside himself as all the vampire-zombies fall dead. Caine looks on as London is still in flames, but at least the rest of Earth is saved... for the time being. On board the alien ship, the vampire girl along with Carlsen are entombed back in her crystal glass coffin along with thousands of souls of victims in the form of blue light energy to power up the ship as it departs from Earth's orbit and heads away towards the comet it came from... with the grim implication that it will return one day 75 years later.

A British private eye's relatives confuse his case. Ginley (Albert Finney) is a nightclub bingo caller eager for a career change. On his thirty-first birthday, he advertises himself as a private eye in the newspaper. He dons a trench coat, and begins engaging others in rapid-fire dialogue as if he were Humphrey Bogart, or some Dashiell Hammett creation. Soon after, Ginley is phoned by a fat man, who gives him a package containing a gun, a photograph, and a large sum of money. Eventually Ginley is investigating a case involving smuggling of weapons as well as drugs. Ginley also finds himself at odds with his unsupportive brother, who offers Ginley payment to break off his investigations. Eventually Ginley learns of his brother-in-law's involvement in the crimes at hand. Ginley faces a series of daunting tasks: solving the crimes, bringing justice to the smugglers (and a murderer), as well as maintaining his safety and sanity in the process.

In London, Sir Charles Braithwaite, Commissioner for Scotland Yard, struggles to solve an organized crime case involving a gang which has been performing robberies across Europe. Suspecting a mole within Scotland Yard, England's Prime Minister decides to request outside help to solve the case, which the press view as an insult. The Prime Minister brings Clouseau (Alan Arkin) in to solve the case. Commissioner Sir Charles Braithwaite (Patrick Cargill) heads the Scotland Yard & considers this a slap in the face to the organization. Clouseau is his usual bumbling self and is never far away from an accident. Shockley (Richard Pearson) is assigned to assist Clouseau. Charles believes that the latest 2.5 MM pounds stolen by the gang are being used to plan something much bigger and sinister. He also reveals that the Yard apprehended a few of the top members of the gang. Frenchie LeBec (Tutte Lemkow) & Stevie Frey (Michael Ripper), recently broke prison. Addison Steele (Barry Foster) is still in custody. Clouseau decides to meet Steele inside prison and some intelligence about the gang's plans. Sir Charles warns Clouseau not to trust anyone, even those in the Yard, as he is suspicious that there is a mole among their ranks. Meanwhile, Steele works as the prison's barber. When Clouseau arrives, Steele is cutting the hair of the warden's son, Clyde Hargreaves. Once Clyde is finished, Steele tells Clouseau that he does not know who the leader of the gang is, but only knows him by the name of "Johnny Rainbow." Clouseau is then tricked into a shave by Steele. During the hot towel treatment, Steele uses chloroform to subdue Clouseau and escape custody. At Scotland Yard, Superintendent Weaver gives Clouseau experimental disguised weapons (like a laser, smoke signals, transmitter and recording devices, miniature missiles disguised in the belt buckle and so on) to help with his investigation. Superintendent Weaver (Frank Finlay) is the special equipment officer & Clouseau destroys his lab. Clouseau invites himself to dinner at Weaver's & meets Lisa Morell (Delia Boccardo), who is posing as a maid at Weaver's residence. Mrs Weaver (Beryl Reid) takes Clouseau to a Scottish festival, where he gets drunk. Frenchie later attempts to assassinate Clouseau, who accidentally kills him with one of Weaver's weapons, the missiles in his belt buckle. Sir Charles is annoyed that Clouseau killed Frenchie, as they were unable to interrogate him. After realizing his own food has been poisoned, Clouseau finds a matchbook from a nearby inn called Tudor Arms on Frenchie's body. Clouseau is subsequently kidnapped on his way to Tudor Arms, when he is seduced by a female gang member Julie (Tracey Crisp). The gang members pour rubber on Clouseau's face, which they use to make a mold of his likeness. Clouseau accidentally kills the owner of the inn by crushing him with a bed and realizes that he has a Johnny Rainbow tattoo. Charles is frustrated that Clouseau keeps getting leads and results in the case and believes it is blind luck. But Shockley believes that Clouseau's methods bring results. Clouseau goes to Frenchie's funeral in France as Weaver believes that the gang is bound to be attending the funeral as well, and Clouseau is a local who speaks the language. Clouseau is to look for more leads and is attacked by the gang. Weaver's maid, Lisa Morell, arrives and rescues him. She is actually an agent for Interpol who has been sent to help him. Clouseau does not believe Lisa's story and arrests her. However, his superior, Prefet De Police Geffrion, confirms she is telling the truth. At the gang's hideout, Johnny Rainbow is revealed to be Clyde Hargreaves. Clyde Hargreaves (Clive Francis) is the son of the warden of the jail from which Stevie and later Steele had escaped. Turns out he is an active member of the gang & had helped them both escape. Clyde helps the gang use the Clouseau masks to plan a series of daring bank robberies across Switzerland. They plan to rob 13 banks in Switzerland simultaneously wearing Clouseau masks. To make sure Clouseau is implicated the gang decides to kidnap him. Clouseau learns of the plan and goes to the hideout to investigate. Two of Rainbow's men, Bomber LeBec (Anthony Ainley) and Stockton follow Clouseau and attempt to kidnap him, but Weaver arrives and foils this. Weaver, who is actually the mole, slips a train ticket from Le Havre, France to Zurich, Switzerland in Clouseau's pocket and walks away. Weaver is revealed to be the member of the same gang. Weaver steals Clouseau's credentials & throws him off the train. Weaver dons a Clouseau mask & is welcomed by the Swiss police in Zurich. Lisa warns him about Weaver, not realizing she is really speaking to Weaver in disguise. Lisa is kidnapped by the gang, and Rainbow puts on the disguise as Clouseau. Clyde is Weaver's driver & on the way to the police HQ, Clyde dons a Clouseau mask and Weaver removes his. Together they instruct the Swiss police & the 13 bank presidents to transfer the funds into Clouseau's physical custody when he visits them by helicopter the next day. 13 banks are hit by gang members the next day precisely at noon, wearing Clouseau masks, who order the bank's president to transfer the cash into their custody, which they do. The real Clouseau finally makes his way to Zurich, & his promptly arrested. The gang use a Lidnt chocolate factory to wrap the cash into Chocolate bars, which they load into a barge & agree to converge again in Cologne. Weaver attempts to escape by disguising himself as Clouseau but is killed in a fight with the real Clouseau. This proves that Clouseau is innocent. He goes to rescue Lisa, chases after Steele and is eventually captured by Rainbow's men. Clouseau escapes using one of Weaver's weapons (a secret laser) and sinks the ship. The heist is foiled, but Rainbow and his men escape. Clouseau returns to France after saying goodbye to a grateful Sir Charles.