At "Port Amberley", a secret aviation research station in rural England, an international group of scientists are working on the prototype of a revolutionary new aircraft, a supersonic nuclear-augmented jet aircraft code-named M7, taking off and landing on water and capable of flying at up to 2,000 miles per hour. The project will lead to M8, a spacecraft, that will be used to explore space. The atmosphere at the laboratory is competitive rather than co-operative, with fierce rivalry between the various scientists. The project leader Michael Heathley is so wrapped up with the M7 that his wife Lydia feels neglected and that she is being sidelined in favour of her husband's work. At a social gathering she strikes up a conversation with Heathley's colleague Alex Leon, and the pair are soon circling one another. Meanwhile, Heathley is desperate to test the M7, but is continually stonewalled by facility director Carrington. Matters take a sinister turn when Carrington is killed, and the project members realise there is a spy in their midst. The M7 is finally given its first tense test flight, and emerges intact. The group continue to work on modifications to iron out minor problems identified on the test flight. The finished version then takes to the sky, but this time the spy shows his hand and tries to hijack the aircraft.
Although The Net deals with contemporary aviation technology, there are no aircraft to be seen, other than photographs on walls and a model of the top-secret delta-wing M7 aircraft. At one point, the aircraft is seen resting on water, giving it the potential of being a flying-boat. All the interiors of the M7 are studio-constructed mock-ups.
Reception
Aviation Historian Michael Paris, in From the Wright Brothers to Top Gun: Aviation, Nationalism, and Popular Cinema was positive in his review of the film. "The Net is essentially a thriller owing a great deal to contemporary Cold War tensions, but interestingly, it still pays homage to the notion of progress and utopianism through aviation and suggests that Britain is in the forefront of space research." In Aviation in the Cinema, aviation film historian Stephen Pendo, however, considered The Net, "... a poor effort; its only distinction is that it was the first aviation film to be photographed in Technicolor 3 D."
