The Cruise (radio play)

The Cruise is a multi-part crime radio play that was produced by Westdeutscher Rundfunk in 2014 and 2015 and broadcast for the first time by its youth broadcaster 1LIVE . The director was Stuart Kummer , who also wrote the script together with Edgar Linscheid . In June 2016, both seasons of the radio play were released on CD.

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season 1

Part 1

The Russian businessman Aleksei Potjomkin embarks on the “Princess of Wales” with his assistant Grigory Orlov and his lover Katja. She is the largest and most luxurious cruise ship in the world and can accommodate 3,000 passengers and 1,500 crew members. Also on board is the young Joshua Cohen, who is traveling to Israel and wants to bury his mother's ashes there. After discovering at check-in that the nonexistent cabin was assigned to him in 1912, he is suddenly surrounded by mysterious steel walls. A computer voice then announces the beginning of "phase zero". The captain describes the steel walls as part of a new security system that was installed on the "Princess of Wales" for the first time. As compensation, Cohen is invited to the Captain's Dinner, since only one crew cabin without a window is free for him.

At the Captain's Dinner he meets the entertainer John Bounty, who jumped in at short notice, the newly wed couple Amber and David Harland, the opaque French Father LePort and the Swedish archaeologist Prof. Carl Anders Erikson with his daughter Linda. In addition, the mysterious computer voice explains the beginning of "phase one".

In a previous conversation these two had with first officer Christian Fletcher, it was already apparent that they were carrying boxes with archaeological finds on board. However, they leave Fletcher in the dark about the contents of the boxes, 500 skulls.

During dinner it turns out that Father LePort had previously been to the Mexican city of Texcoco. When asked by the Eriksons, who are also on their way back from Texcoco, he does not want to say why he was there. Suddenly it disappears without a trace during a power failure.

Later Professor Erikson is sitting at the bar with David Harland when his wife wants to speak to him in private. She informs him that the two are not alone and calls him Tom.

The next morning, while searching for her missing father, Linda Erikson encounters the same steel walls that Joshua Cohen has already encountered - the strange voice sounds again, this time announcing "Phase Two".

At breakfast together, Linda learns that other passengers, various crew members and the captain are also missing. The first officer also claims that some parts of the ship are blocked by the steel walls and that they cannot currently be opened.

In the absence of the captain, Fletcher takes command of the ship and sets off with David Harland to walk the corridors for missing passengers. Here Harland learns that Fletcher employs a number of Chinese in the laundry without the knowledge of the other passengers, whose English-speaking leader Zheng He claims to have heard screams and strange noises behind one of the steel walls.

When the two of them want to get to the bottom of the matter, they come across a slashed dog, from which several organs have been removed and in whose mouth a dictaphone is stuck.

Meanwhile, alleged stuntman Rusty claims to Linda Erikson that he has a plan to open the steel walls. He needs your help with that. Linda goes with him and follows Rusty onto the balcony of an empty passenger cabin. Rusty, who earns his living with videos of dangerous climbing actions, wants to climb up the outer wall of the ship to the bridge and from there open the steel walls. Linda is supposed to film him. But when Rusty has made about half the distance and is standing on a balcony, the door suddenly opens and Rusty is dragged into the cabin behind it. Linda picks up everything and then goes into the dining room to ask Christian Fletcher, who has meanwhile returned, for help.

Before he can do anything, however, Father LePort shows up and claims he has a message to deliver to Amber Harland. She suggests moving away from the other passengers and is whispered by her husband that LePort is armed. Instead of Amber Harland, however, LePort shoots the first officer and escapes.

The Harlands pursue him and identify themselves as CIA agents Tom Cleary and Emma Scott. LePort holed up in a room that the agents enter after brief negotiations. Amber Harland, aka Emma Scott, and the supposed Frenchman LePort, who suddenly speaks without an accent and gives Tom Cleary a cassette shortly before his death, die in the subsequent shooting. Their content is the answer to Cleary's questions. Cleary puts the tape into the dictaphone, whereupon the female voice, which has already been heard in several of the shipping company's commercials, says: “Welcome to the Princess of Wales. Welcome to hell."

Part 2

In the dining room, Joshua, Bounty, and Linda begin the makeshift care of the injured Fletcher. The blind nurse Becky offers to help; and indeed Linda manages to remove the pistol bullet from Fletcher's body under Becky's guidance. After this is done, Tom Cleary alias David Harland reappears and reports on the events in the kitchen. He identifies himself as a CIA agent, but allegedly doesn't know exactly why he and his colleague should go on board. Joshua doesn't believe him and suspects the CIA to be the mastermind behind the strange events, which is why he draws a comparison with the Philadelphia experiment . Cleary, however, denies this and denies the existence of this experiment; before he goes to the kitchen with Linda to bring the bodies from there to the cold store.

As they enter, they discover that the ground is covered with blood. A skinned man was also hung from a meat hook. Bounty now has Joshua explain the Philadelphia Experiment, which allegedly was two experiments with a new camouflage technology that were carried out on the USS Eltrige during the Second World War. Initially, the ship disappeared from the port of Philadelphia only for a few seconds and reappeared 500 nautical miles away. In the second experiment, however, the ship disappeared for about 15 minutes on the high seas, on its return parts of the crew would have disappeared and never reappeared - as it is now on the Princess of Wales. In the meantime, Cleary plays Linda the tape LePort had given him using the dictaphone. Then the request can be heard to either sacrifice the bride of the mother of gods Teteoinnan or the child to the rain god Tlaloc . Linda realizes that both the gods and the sacrificial rituals are of Aztec origin - as is the molting, which is said to be typical of such rituals.

During dinner, Cleary and Bounty hear a person in the kitchen who turns out to be Grigory Orlov. He said that he lived with his employer in the Admiral Suite, but had already unsuccessfully searched all the other cabins on the upper decks for further passengers. Cleary asks to speak to Orlov's boss, Russian businessman Alexej Potjomkin, in vain. Instead, however, he wants to speak to Joshua Cohen, who agrees after a short discussion and accompanies Orlow to the Admiral Suite. There it turns out that Potjomkin wants to buy an algorithm on board, but the specialist tasked with checking it disappeared last night and Joshua is supposed to replace him. Potjomkin claims to have detailed information on all passengers and crew on board the Princess of Wales - for example, he can tell Joshua's life story if asked. As a reward for his help, he also offers him to let him fly overboard the next day. However, Joshua declines the offer to stay in Potjomkin's cabin. Potjomkin also admits that he was in a position to initiate the events on board. However, he himself is not the bad one. B. Cleary came on board to kill him (Potjomkin); Moreover, Professor Erikson is not a harmless archaeologist and has brought dangerous things on board. After Joshua leaves the cabin, Potjomkin asks his henchman to watch the other passengers. Katja also seems to be afraid of Potemkin, but Orlov cannot protect him from him.

In the meantime, the leader of the Chinese appears in the dining room and reports of a demon who is walking through the ship and making strange noises. These are identified by Linda as Aztec for "a child is crying", whereupon she and Cleary want to go on a search. Then, however, the power fails again, which again proves to be of great help to Becky: since she knows her way around the dark, she can lead the others around the ship. On the way they meet Joshua and are about to make their way back when suddenly the supposed demon approaches. Linda's attempt to address him in Aztec fails and she goes down. Cleary wants to shoot the person, but is prevented by Becky because she recognizes Rusty in the "demon" by means of the voice. In fact, she can calm Rusty down afterwards. Then Linda and Cleary reconstruct the events with Fletcher: after, according to the theory, Rusty was dragged into the cabin, he was drugged and taught in Aztec, in order to then sew him into the skin of the man from the cold store. According to Linda, this is also an Aztec sacrificial ritual, this time in honor of the fertility god Xipe Totec . Cohen describes the dead person in the cold store as the missing Jimmy Colombo, since the same tattoo can be seen in his biography as on the dead person. Once again, Linda is allowed to prove her medical skills when she uses Fletcher's pocket knife to free Rusty from his second skin. Rusty tells Cleary that Professor Erikson sewed him into the skin. Linda defends her father and claims that he has nothing to do with what happened.

Then Cleary, Linda, Bounty and Joshua sit down in a booth and recapitulate what has happened so far. Cleary plays the second cassette, which was sewn into Colombo's skin: this time either a man is to be sacrificed to the god of war Xipe Totec or a child to the earth mother Tlazolteotl . Linda claims, however, that with the moult, the sacrifice for the Xipe Totec was already made. In addition, the stranger had made a mistake, since women instead of children were sacrificed to the earth mother. Cleary accuses her of making this up only to relieve her father. Instead, however, she directs suspicion on Potjomkin, whereupon Cohen reports on his conversation with him. When he confronts Cleary with the accusation that he should kill Potjomkin, this again denies everything. Cohen now suspects Bounty because he suddenly appeared as a replacement for Colombo. As a result, the four of them accuse each other when suddenly the door is locked from the outside and gas flows into the room.

When the four wake up again, all the pistols have disappeared and Bounty also has a tattoo in the same place as Colombo before. The tattoo is a one-eyed falcon, which in turn is the coat of arms of Sheikh Abu-Sinth, who owns the ship. When Cohen takes Linda to her cabin, he also tells her what Potjomkin said about Professor Erikson. Linda then admits that there are the excavation pieces and 500 skulls. Suddenly hundreds of scorpions fall out of the ventilation shafts, which is why all passengers and crew members barricade themselves in the dining room. Suddenly you can hear the piano playing, although nobody is sitting at the grand piano and the keys are not moving. When Cleary and Cohen open the grand piano, there is another dictaphone inside. Apart from the piano music, it contains the request to sacrifice yourself in ten seconds - otherwise everyone would be sacrificed. Cleary tells everyone to take cover under the tables - seconds later, poison arrows fly through the air, killing two passengers who didn't make it in time. To make matters worse, the scorpions now penetrate the hall; However, Linda can prevent panic by recognizing the scorpions as a non-toxic species in good time. Repeatedly from the loudspeakers the call to self-sacrifice can be heard, which is why Cohen leaves his cover and wants to sacrifice himself. The voice then quotes the sacrifice of Isaac from the Old Testament and ends with the sentence “For now I know that you fear God”. Eventually the steel walls open up and reveal large parts of the ship again. But while Cleary and the others are still happy about it, the computer voice explains the beginning of phase 3.

part 3

At the beginning of the third part, a newscaster (spoken by Jens Riewa ) announced that the Princess of Wales reached the port of Nice on June 21st . However, this causes some confusion for Linda, Cleary and Cohen: after all, the ship is at sea, June 21 is only a month away, and the report is also looping. Meanwhile, Joshua searches the reception computer for the occupancy plan, which shows all the cabins as vacant - with the exception of the cabins of the people remaining on board and the allegedly nonexistent cabin 1912, which is occupied by a certain Nick Portman.

On the way to the bridge, the three discover several sharks in the swimming pool; on the bridge itself there are three dead officers and the seriously injured Captain Seaman, who warns them not to step onto the bridge. Cleary believes in a dangerous virus and therefore speaks to Becky, who, based on the symptoms, assumes severe prussic acid poisoning . Cleary and the others are supposed to get the antidote needed for this immediately from the infirmary while Bounty transports Captain Seaman from the bridge to Becky's treatment room. When Fletcher is making an emergency call in vain, Rusty thinks for a brief moment that he can make out an Indian playing a flute in the back of the bridge.

Meanwhile, the group around Cleary, on the run from a wild lion, comes across the mysterious cabin 1912, which Cleary unceremoniously opens with a credit card at Cohen's request. A scared boy hides under the bed, who finally reveals himself to be Nick Portman. Allegedly he was locked in the cabin by a large Indian with a jaguar skin and an obsidian sword , whereupon Linda identifies the person as a jaguar warrior - allegedly a kind of Aztec elite unit, which has not existed for several centuries. Nick also asks about his father, Norman Portman - he is none other than the dead "Father" LePort, who sacrificed himself for his child. Cohen suggests the theater as a shortcut to the infirmary, but where he and the others encounter other wild animals and are ultimately even locked up there with them.

After the four were able to cross and leave the theater in great danger, they barricade the second exit and then go straight to the infirmary. With the help of Cohen's brilliant hacking skills, they quickly find out where the correct drug is stored - but when Cleary searches the appropriate cupboard for it, the group is surrounded by two armed jaguar warriors. While Linda, Joshua and Nick seek refuge in the closet, Cleary tries to overpower the attackers single-handedly. This does not work, however, as he is disarmed and seriously injured by one of the two Aztecs despite fierce resistance. Then Linda jumps out of the closet, rushes to Cleary and stabs the man from behind. While the other Aztec is attacked by the lion that suddenly appears in the infirmary, Cleary and Co. take the opportunity to escape.

Becky's expertise actually brings Captain Seaman back to consciousness and claims to know who was responsible for what happened on board. After whispering the name of the stranger in her ear, Becky suffocates Seaman with a pillow - after the deed she bursts into tears and tells his corpse that she is sorry and that he shouldn't have found out. The other four get into trouble again: they discover an Aztec sacrificial stone in the zoo, and before anyone can react, they are surrounded by several Aztecs. In literally the last second, the Chinese launderers storm into the zoo and attack the Aztecs before they can injure anyone in the group. In fact, the Aztecs surrender after a violent fight with the Chinese, whose leader Cleary then hands over another dictaphone - this contains the message to the Chinese, either to fight with the animals or to die like the animals. The Chinese lock the Aztecs in the empty animal cages and promise Cleary to guard them. Before they leave the zoo, Cleary makes an important discovery: the alleged Aztecs wear both the symbols of Sheikh Abu-Sinth and that of the Mexican Mafia as tattoos.

When the group finally arrives at Becky, she claims that the captain succumbed to his poisoning a few minutes ago and that the antidote is unfortunately too late. While Joshua brings Nick into the dining room, Cleary and Linda stay with Becky - again Cleary suspects Professor Erikson, who is again defended by Linda. Instead, she directs suspicion to Sheikh Abu-Sinth and Bounty, who could be one of the Sheikh's henchmen due to his tattoo. In the evening Joshua told Nick and Linda that a photo of him was printed in a Canadian math book - the photographer was friends with him and needed someone to sit in front of a computer. Suddenly Cleary reappears and claims to want to apologize to Linda - in fact, he admits his mistakes and thanks Linda's help and support so far.

But then they are interrupted by Bounty, who starts his talent show and introduces Becky, Rusty and himself with the song "My Sweet Child". During the show, however, a helicopter suddenly drops a man on board - he pretends to be Lloyd Nelson, allegedly wants to close a deal with Potjomkin and claims that the helicopter won't be back for another 24 hours. Suddenly he greets Cohen with "Werner"; and although Cohen speaks of a mix-up, Nelson insists on knowing him. Before they can discuss this question any further, Grigory Orlov appears on deck and asks both of them to follow him into Potjomkin's cabin.

Once there, Potjomkin is quite annoyed at first - apparently Nelson is just the replacement for a certain Mr. Osbourne, who allegedly had a heart attack a few days ago. Nelson hands Potjomkin a USB stick, which he immediately passes on to Cohen, asking him to check its contents on a laptop. According to Joshua, the stick contains an algorithm that determines the current position of the ship and also ensures that it cannot be located - much like the algorithm that is said to have been used in the mysterious “ Philadelphia Experiment ”. However, the program deactivates itself automatically after 24 hours, since it is the beta version. When Nelson demands an advance payment, Potjomkin asks his "lover" Katja to come over.

Part 4

Lloyd Nelson tells Potjomkin that instead of Katja he would have expected a suitcase with 10 million dollars. According to Potjomkin, however, Katja was taught a numerical code by hypnosis, which she would remember when listening to the song "My Sweet Child" (the song that had previously been performed by Bounty, Becky and Rusty in the dining room). This code then enables access to a bank account in which the said 10 million are located. Reluctantly, Nelson finally agrees to the deal and decides to sleep in Potjomkin's suite; Potjomkin tells Cohen that he would be flown overboard in the helicopter the next day - but only if he didn't say a word about what he saw in the suite. Bounty and Cleary are certain that something is wrong with this due to Cohen's strange behavior - Linda denies this, however, and insists that Cohen will save them all.

Rusty is now in private with Becky and confronts her with a video recording that shows the murder of Captain Seaman. However, Becky claims that, for his own safety, she cannot give Rusty any details about what happened in the cabin. While Cleary and Fletcher eat together on his balcony, they are interrupted by Rusty and asked to go to the bridge. Cohen, Linda and Bounty are already waiting for them there - because there are several cooked organs on the bridge, arranged in parsley. However, according to Linda, they are not from a human, but from an animal - possibly Becky's dog. There was also a dictaphone between the organs, allegedly the group expected "500 dead and one living". Linda sees this as a reference to hold 5 (where she and her father have stored the skulls) and hopes to find her father there.

In the hold, she finally tells the truth about the skulls, which are now lined up on the floor as signposts - they lead to a sacrificial stone on which Professor Erikson is actually lying. However, he is tied to the altar and also wears an explosive vest - he reports that he was forced by the fake Aztecs to sew Rusty into the skin of Jimmy Colombo. However, he did not recognize the leader of the Aztecs because he played the instructions to him on a dictaphone. Cleary initially sees no chance to free the professor. However, under his explosives vest there is another dictaphone: a girl knows the numbers, a girl knows the song. Now Cohen claims that this girl must be Potjomkin's companion Katja - but he doesn't want to say how he knows this. While the others are walking into Potjomkin's suite, Fletcher wants to check the security system on the bridge.

Potjomkin is not exactly enthusiastic about the surprising visit and refuses to surrender Katja. Cohen therefore proposes a deal to him, but this time Potjomkin prefers to gamble: he asks Cleary to play against him in Russian Roulette - with Katja as a bet. Shortly after the start of the game, however, the helicopter approaches the ship and Potjomkin wants to leave Katja to the men as soon as everyone is on deck. The helicopter pilot Jonathan Lindbergh is accompanied by a man with a submachine gun ; Nevertheless, Potjomkin requests that he and his assistant Orlov disembark from the ship. Nelson insists on the deal, but it is no longer valid - since the helicopter found the ship before the 24 hours had expired, the algorithm did not work. However, Lindbergh refuses to take Potjomkin on board - thereupon he shoots Lindbergh's armed companion and demands to be flown ashore by Lindbergh.

However, he still refuses and leaves the helicopter. Potjomkin then offers anyone who takes him off board in the helicopter a million dollars. Bounty succumbs to the power of money and offers Potjomkin to fly him ashore in a helicopter - allegedly he was once a helicopter pilot in the US Air Force . His assistant Orlov, however, only wants to board if Katja comes with them - since Potjomkin refuses, both Orlov and Katja stay on board the ship. After the helicopter has taken off, Lindbergh presses a button on a transmitter - this then deactivates the electronics on the rotor, whereupon the helicopter crashes into the sea with Bounty and Potjomkin. However, Fletcher, who has observed everything from the bridge, sees no way of saving the two. After Lindbergh could be eliminated, Cleary wants to go back to the hold to free Professor Erikson. In the hold, the other Katja sing the song "My Sweet Child", whereupon she actually remembers the numbers.

However, Cleary recognizes this as the date of April 15, 1912 , the day the Titanic sank . Nevertheless, he enters the code in the number field, whereupon an e-mail arrives on the smartphone : the attached audio file contains the sentence "Free and yet not free" and the message to sacrifice either the old man or all. As a result, Professor Erikson's shackles are released, but the clock on the smartphone continues to run. In a panic, Linda asks Cleary to defuse the bomb - but due to a special fuse in the detonator, this is impossible for him either. The professor wants to sacrifice himself and jump into the sea, but according to Rusty the bomb could explode due to the impact - instead he suggests putting the professor in a lifeboat. This is prepared by Fletcher and Cleary while Linda talks to her father in private. This demands that Linda make sure that all 500 skulls get properly back into the boxes - allegedly they are Linda's life insurance .

A man named Flint would come over to Linda and look at the skulls and take five. When Linda got the reward she was going to get from Flint, she should give up archeology and not let anyone persuade her to continue. Linda promises her father to grant him this wish. While Cohen takes care of Linda and Cleary brings the professor to the boat, Rusty informs Becky of the latest events. Finally, the professor gets into the boat and says goodbye before being lowered by Fletcher and away from the ship. While Linda and Cohen are still talking, the ship suddenly reverses - Linda regains hope that her father might have survived. In fact, the bomb did not explode after the time ran out, which is why Professor Erikson is to be brought back on board. Suddenly, however, another email arrives on the smartphone, whereupon the bomb finally explodes.

The professor dies and Linda bursts into tears, whereupon Cohen comforts her and takes her to her cabin. There the two get closer and finally sleep together, but suddenly Lloyd Nelson bursts in. He allegedly found out where he knew Cohen from and claims to be waiting for him on the gallery above the dining room in five minutes. In fact, Cohen goes there: when Linda and the alerted Tom Cleary arrive in the dining room, Cohen and Nelson are already in a fierce fight. Cohen tries to free himself from the clutches of Nelson - but Cohen wants to be brought from the ship by Cohen, which is why he attacked him. Eventually Nelson rushes down into the dining room after Cohen rams a knife in his stomach. When Cohen learns from Linda that Cleary is also present, he looks slightly nervous. He also insists on checking immediately that Nelson is still alive.

In fact, Nelson did not survive the fall but, according to Cleary, had a dictaphone with him. On this, Nelson explains that he was murdered by Joshua Ismael Cohen: 10 years ago Nelson met him as Werner Katz at a trade fair for military strategy games in Geneva . Katz was said to be the most talented game developer of the time, and Nelson was supposed to recruit him to develop a strategic simulation for training special forces in the Middle East . In his lecture, Katz had put forward a provocative thesis: allegedly, at some point it will be so far that the simulations have reached the level of reality. However, since they do not come close to reality, according to Katz you have to realize the virtual world - that is, transplant games into reality, with real people and real weapons. Nelson did not find Katz at the time, however, because he disappeared immediately after the lecture.

Nelson has now noticed that Katz aka Cohen has put his ideas into practice and brought the virtual world into reality - on board the Princess of Wales and with the other passengers as characters. After the end of the recording, Cohen admits that Nelson was telling the truth: all the events on board were part of the game he developed, The Cruise. Cohen finally reveals his true colors and seems to have a good dose of madness , as he describes the past few days as "exciting" and "awesome". Linda freaks out and goes after Cohen, but is stopped by Becky with the help of a gun. She then used it to threaten Cleary, Linda and the rushed Rusty; she also admits that she still has 5% eyesight. Allegedly there is the possibility of a complicated operation for $ 700,000 with which Becky can get her eyesight back: Cohen wants to finance the operation for her if she supports him in return with his "game".

Rusty, however, has a plan with which he wants to get Becky to give up: if they all got together and sue the shipping company for pain and suffering, Becky would have enough money for the operation. In fact, Becky agrees to the plan, and Cleary rejects Rusty's proposal to kill Joshua immediately; but after a short discussion agrees and wants to shoot Cohen personally. This again proves his mental illness and appears almost amused by the fact that the remaining passengers were now willing to murder a man in cold blood. According to Cohen, the "game" will not end with his death, rather Cohen is a kind of "life insurance" for others. Because supposedly he is not the enemy, but together with the other part of a team in the fight against the real enemy. He was an orphan himself against him, the last days on board were only the "training" or "intro".

Joshua Cohen ends with the sentence: "The real game is just beginning."

season 2

Part 5

Werner Katz, previously on board under the name Joshua Cohen, is held captive in a ship's cabin by the other passengers. Little by little he gives insights into his perfidious game: The 4,000 passengers have not really disappeared. In fact, the 40 "survivors" were stunned and taken to a second identical and identically equipped cruise ship. According to Katz, all of this was financed by an ominous donor named Sam - her opponent. Katz's involuntary team-mates disagree about how things should go on with him: Linda Erikson wants to take revenge on Katz for her father's death, while vigilante justice is no solution for CIA agent Cleary. They all have good reason: Nobody happens to be on board the "Princess of Wales". Katz listened to them all and put together incriminating material against each individual. Everyone has someone on their conscience. Katz promises them redemption - if they join in his game. Meanwhile, there is another dead person on board: the boy Nick is found dead in the seawater pool, surrounded by sharks. On the command bridge, Rusty learns from first officer Christian Fletcher, who has taken command since the death of Captain Seaman, that the ship is heading straight for a large point on the radar. A collision seems inevitable as the “Princess of Wales” can neither be turned nor stopped. Level 2 of the game is inescapably waiting for the passengers.

Part 6

Becky Tereisias is outraged that the boy Nick has died. She swears revenge on the crazy game developer Werner Katz. However, Katz is already quite battered by Orlov's blows and only talks confused things. The surviving passengers urgently need an announcement from Katz, because the ship is inexorably heading for a fixed point. Officer Fletcher tells of an emergency button in the engine room that they could use to stop the ship. Linda and Cleary search for this emergency mechanism and come across a naked, tied man in the engine room. He pretends to be Flint, head of the Mighty Leaks platform and alleged partner of Katz. The somewhat hyperactive guy reveals further details of the computer game in which they are trapped as characters: They have all been chosen as specialists whose characteristics are useful for Katz's team. The next step was to get the 500 skulls that Linda's father Erikson had brought on board. Meanwhile the ship has accelerated to top speed. The goal of their collision course becomes apparent: an oil rig! The passengers are now to be evacuated at full speed. The Aztec warriors are the first to offer themselves for this daring maneuver. But helicopter pilot Lindbergh is sure that there must be another way out. Together with Katja, he encounters inconsistencies and begins to decipher a riddle that Katz asked them. His five favorite books play a decisive role in this. And a game of roulette.

Part 7

Cleary blames herself that Linda perished in the lifeboat. The evacuation operation is in full swing when the ship loses speed: Katja and Lindbergh have managed to stop the engines. You stop right in front of the huge oil rig. The opponent SAM is taking shape. It consists of three people: the energy drink manufacturer Styx, the extremely wealthy shipowner Abu Sindh and the press mogul Susan Myers. They keep a close eye on the actions of the Princess of Wales survivors. Flint says he did business with the three of them through his Shapeshifter surveillance program. Cleary, Katja, Orlow, Flint and Katz, who only speaks in quotes from the Bible, climb onto the oil rig. There the guru Dr. Montgomery with its twelve muses, all named after a month. They live on the former Leviathan oil platform, which Abu Sindh gave them through Katz's mediation. The self-sufficient community is called "Elysium", has strict rules and manufactures beauty products based on seaweed. Dr. Montgomery uses hypnosis to end Katz's confused state. He invites the guests to dinner. When Orlov touches the muse May on the upper arm, the situation escalates. He will be punished immediately, further sanctions will be announced over the loudspeaker - instructions from SAM! Montgomery announces that Elysium has a youth problem that the male guests now have to solve. In order to avoid the announced "Night of the Praying Mantis" - because this spider eats its partner after the sexual act - the guests try to escape from the oil rig. This seems to be successful, but the "Princess Of Wales" is no longer in front of the oil rig.

Part 8

Will be added later

occupation

The most important roles are occupied by well-known actors and voice actors, including Tobias Meister (voice actor for Brad Pitt ) and Gerrit Schmidt-Foss (voice actor for Leonardo DiCaprio ).

role	Speaker	Part (s) of the radio play
David Harland / Thomas Jefferson Cleary	Tobias Master	1-8
Amber Harland / Emma Scott	Karoline Eichhorn	1
Linda Erikson	Lisa Werlinder	1-6 (7 (in Cleary's dream))
1st Officer Christian Fletcher	Jan Odle	1-8
Joshua Ismael Cohen (from season 2 Werner Katz )	Gerrit Schmidt-Foss	1-8
Marcus Benjamin "Rusty" Langhorne	Asad Black	1-6
Prof. Carl Anders Erikson	Volker Brandt	1-4
Captain Seaman	Michael Schernthaner	1-4
Father LePort	Gregor Höppner	1
Alexei Potemkin	Olaf Reichmann	1-4
Grigory Orlov	Daniel Wiemer	1-8
Katja Ivanova	Ilona Otto	1-8
Zheng He	Yu Fang	1-8
Receptionists	Jana Julie Kilka	1
Rebecca "Becky" Teiresias	Anna Fischer	1-6
Spokeswoman for commercials	Jennifer Bottcher
The voice / Assia	Dörte Lyssewski	1-8
Lance Rivers	Jens Riewa	1-8
John Bounty	Hans-Werner Olm	1-4
Nick Portman	Oleg Schlueter	3-5
Lloyd Nelson	Patrick Bach	3-4
Jonathan Lindbergh	Marcus Off	4-8
Carrie Dekker	Nana Spier	5, 8
Flint	Christoph Maria Herbst	5-8
Kasper Styx	Thomas Nero Wolff	6-8
Susan Myers	Irina von Bentheim	7-8
Hamad Abu Sinth	Tayfun Bademsoy	7-8
June	Barbara Auer	7-8
Dr. Montgomery	Lutz Mackensy	7-8
May	Camilla Renschke	7-8
April	Marie Bierstedt	7-8

Joachim Kerzel speaks the opening and closing credits throughout . Furthermore, Stefan Kaminski speaks several smaller roles in season 2 (e.g. the network administrator).

Rod

Task / position	Surname
Authors	Edgar Linscheid, Stuart Kummer
Director	Stuart grief
music	Lars Gelhausen, Stuart Kummer
editorial staff	Natalie Szallies
Assistant director	Mariann Kaiser (Season 1), Hanna Steger (Season 2)
Technical realization	Matthias Fischenich, Jens-Peter Hamacher, Daniel Dietmann

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 1LIVE crime thriller - The Cruise: Interview with director Stuart Kummer ( Memento of the original from October 5, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . 1LIVE (WDR) website, accessed on October 3, 2015. 
2. ↑ FOLLOW-UP | Ahoy! The mystery-thriller radio play series "The Cruise" is dropping | News . Universal Music, accessed July 23, 2016.
3. ↑ 1LIVE crime thriller - The Cruise: content and characters . 1LIVE (WDR) website, accessed on May 17, 2014.
4. ↑ 1LIVE crime thriller - The Cruise: Pictures from the production ( Memento from May 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ). 1LIVE (WDR) website.
5. ↑ 1LIVE crime thriller - The Cruise: All roles and their speakers ( Memento of the original from October 5, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . 1LIVE (WDR) website, accessed on October 3, 2015. 
6. ↑ Email of July 28, 2014.