Plot
In 1926, Machinist's Mate 1st Class Jake Holman (Steve McQueen) transfers from the Asiatic Fleet flagship to the Yangtze River Patrol gunboat USS San Pablo. (The ship is nicknamed the "Sand Pebble" and its sailors refer to themselves as "Sand Pebbles.") Life aboard a gunboat is very different. It has a labor system – condoned by officers – wherein coolies (Chinese manual laborers) do the work, leaving the sailors free for combat drills and idle bickering. The coolie laborers' "rice bowl" (source of income) is derived from doing the work that the sailors would normally do.
Because he personally enjoys taking care of ships' engines, Holman bucks the "coolie" system, overseeing the operation of the power plant himself - thereby antagonizing not only the chief engine-room coolie, Chien, but his ship-mates as well. Holman's "connection" with the engine is conveyed when he personally introduces himself to the apparatus during his first trip to the ship's engine room. Although he becomes close friends with one seasoned and sensitive seaman, Frenchy (Richard Attenborough), most of the other members of the crew see Holman's attitude as a threat to their cushy arrangement, and accuse him of being a Jonah.
Holman discovers a serious defect that the coolies have not fixed. Holman informs the Captain (Richard Crenna), who declines to authorize an engine shutdown for the repair. Only after the Executive Officer observes the same problem and declares an emergency, does the Captain agree. The chief engine-room coolie, Chien, after insisting upon taking Holman's place in the dangerous crank pit, is accidentally killed when the jacking gear slips due to its poor condition. The chief coolie, Lop-eye Shing, blames Holman, who maintains that the death was caused by the deceased coolie's own poor work, not by ghosts in the machinery. Holman asks the Captain to allow him to run the engine room properly, but is ordered to train a replacement coolie and concentrate on his military duties.
Holman selects Po-han (Mako) as the replacement and invests time training him. The two form a friendship. Po-Han is harassed by one sailor (Simon Oakland), leading to a boxing match on which the crewmen place bets. Po-Han's victory leads to more antagonism between Holman and crew members, as well as the chief coolie, who wants to kick Po-Han off the ship but is foiled by Holman.
An incident involving British gunboats (not shown in the film) leads to the Captain ordering the crew not to fire on, or return fire from the Chinese, to avoid diplomatic incidents. Po-Han is sent ashore by the chief coolie (with the apparent intent of getting him killed). Po-han is captured and tortured by a mob of Chinese in full view of the crew, only yards from shore. With the crew poised to repel boarders, and under intense pressure, the Captain attempts to negotiate for Po-Han's release with offers of American money; his efforts are fruitless. Po-Han begs for someone to kill him. Holman disobeys orders and ends Po-Han's suffering with a fatal rifle shot.
The San Pablo is stuck in port at Changsha for the winter due to low water levels. It must deal with increasingly hostile crowds surrounding it in numerous smaller boats. The Captain fears a possible mutiny. Frenchy has saved a Chinese woman, Maily (Emmanuelle Arsan), from prostitution by paying her debts. He marries her and sneaks off the ship regularly, but dies of pneumonia one night. Holman searches for him and finds Maily sitting stunned by Frenchy's corpse. Kuomintang (Chinese nationalists) burst in, beat up Holman, and drag Maily away.
Holman returns to the ship. The next day, several Chinese float out to the San Pablo in small boats and demand the "murderer" Holman be turned over to them. Apparently, the nationalists killed Maily and blamed Holman, trying to provoke an incident. Holman informs the Captain what really happened. When the Chinese demand for Holman is refused, they blockade the San Pablo. The American crew fears for their safety and demand that Holman surrender to the Chinese against the Captain's orders. Order is not restored until the Captain fires across the bow of one of the Chinese junks.
With spring at hand, the Captain decides to risk an attempt to leave. The San Pablo sails away from the Kuomintang blockade and receives radioed orders to return to the coast. The Captain defies these orders and elects to evacuate idealistic missionary Jameson (Larry Gates) and his school teacher assistant Shirley Eckert (Candice Bergen) from their remote mission up the Yangtze River.
To reach the missionaries, the San Pablo must fight through a boom made up of junks carrying a massive rope blocking the river. The San Pablo returns their fire and boards one of the junks. Close-range fighting results in the deaths of several sailors and Chinese. Holman heroically cuts the boom with an axe under fire while other sailors return to the San Pablo. He is attacked and kills a Chinese man with the axe. It turns out that the man, the leader of a Nationalist student group, was known to Holman as a student of Eckert. The ship then proceeds upriver, leaving the smoking wrecks behind.
Arriving near the mission, the Captain leads a patrol of three sailors, including Holman, ashore. Jameson resists rescue, claiming that it is the Captain's actions that have endangered him, not the Chinese. Jameson shows the Captain a document claiming that he and Eckert have renounced their US citizenship and are therefore not under the Captain's authority. The Captain tells him the paper will not matter. The Captain orders Holman to forcibly remove Eckert and Jameson, but Holman refuses the order and announces his intent to stay at the mission with them. The Captain tells Holman angrily that this is desertion.
The argument is interrupted by nationalist soldiers who attack the mission and kill Jameson with paper in hand as he approaches them pleading for his life. The Captain takes a large Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR), orders the patrol to return to the ship with Miss Eckert, and remains behind to provide covering fire. As the patrol leaves, the Captain is killed, ironically leaving the normally rebellious Holman in command. Holman returns and recovers the rifle. He orders the remaining two sailors to leave with Eckert and takes the Captain's place to cover the escape. In the ensuing shootout Holman kills several soldiers before he himself is fatally shot just before he can rejoin the others. His final words are, "I was home... What happened? What the hell happened?!"
Eckert and the two remaining sailors are shown successfully escaping to the ship, and the San Pablo is shown cruising off to apparent safety.
Read more about this topic: The Sand Pebbles (film)
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