Engineer Jake Holman arrives aboard the gunboat USS San Pablo, assigned to patrol a tributary of the Yangtze in the middle of exploited and revolution-torn 1926 China. His iconoclasm and cynical nature soon clash with the 'rice-bowl' system which runs the ship and the uneasy symbiosis between Chinese and foreigner on the river. Hostility towards the gunboat's presence reaches a climax when the boat must crash through a river-boom and rescue missionaries upriver at China Light Mission.
Elenco: Steve McQueen , Richard Attenborough , Richard Crenna , Candice Bergen , Mako , Larry Gates , Charles Robinson , Simon Oakland , Ford Rainey , Joe Turkel , Gavin MacLeod , Joe Di Reda , Richard Loo , Barney Phillips , James Hong , Gus Trikonis , Emmanuelle Arsan , Shepherd Sanders , James Jeter , Tom Middleton , Paul Chun , Tommy Lee , Beulah Quo , Stephen Jahn , Alan Hopkins , Stephen Ferry , Ted Fish , Loren Janes , Glenn R. Wilder , Robert Kelly-Schleyer .