Americans will be filled with a renewed sense of outrage, rancor and impassioned pride after watching "The Taking of Flight 847: The Uli Derickson Story."

This NBC film, airing from 8 to 10 tonight on WMAQ-Channel 5, is a powerful re-creation of the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847. The ordeal lasted 17 violent days and included the brutal murder of U.S. Navy seaman Robert Stethem, to whom the production is dedicated.

Lindsay Wagner delivers a superb performance as Derickson in a role that should put her in serious contention for an Emmy Award.

For most viewers, the basic facts about "The Taking of Flight 847" are well-known. On June 14, 1985, shortly after taking off from Athens on a flight to Rome, the Boeing 727 jetliner was hijacked by two thugs with pistols and grenades. The hijackers demanded the release of more than 700 Palestinians then imprisoned in Israel.

During the next several days, the plane came to symbolize a sort of Flying Dutchman of terrorism as it shuttled across the Mediterranean, from Lebanon to Algiers and finally back to Lebanon, as the hijackers attempted to negotiate their demands while inflicting cruelties on numerous passengers.

After the crisis finally ended, the world learned of the courage and composure of one particular individual, TWA flight attendant Uli Derickson, who was a vital factor in protecting the lives of many passengers marked for beatings and death by the hijackers.

From the very beginning, the hijacking seemed almost an exercise in Murphy's Law. A third hijacker - and the only one who could speak English - missed the flight in Athens and was detained by police.

The snafu brought Derickson into greater prominence during the crisis, because she was the only person on board who could speak German, which also was spoken by one of the terrorists.

As the only link between the hijackers and the plane's pilot, Capt. John Testrake (terrifically played in tonight's movie by Sandy McPeak), Derickson managed to develop a rapport with the skittish, fanatical terrorists, chillingly portrayed by Eli Danker and Joseph Nasser.

While she was unable to save the life of Stethem, who was repeatedly beaten and shot in the head before his body was dumped on the airport tarmac, Derickson successfully stopped the beating of another Navy seaman, hid the identities of Jewish passengers on board and provided solace and comfort to the other travelers, often under the threat of being harmed herself.

In bringing this horrible story to life once more, Wagner delivers the performance of her career as Derickson. Wagner portrays the heroine in the most human of terms as an average human being thrust into an incredible nightmare.

As the terrorist Castro, Danker turns in a powerful and frightening effort.

Tonight's film successfully walks a tightrope in attempting to present Castro as someone more than a typically bloodthirsty Middle Eastern terrorist.

While Castro's penchant for violence seems unquenched, "The Taking of Flight 847" also presents another side to the terrorist. He's a man with a grossly limited world view, attempting to avenge the loss of his wife and daughter - who were killed in shelling by the USS New Jersey off the coast of Lebanon - by hijacking an airplane.

"The Taking of Flight 847" is a taut, unnerving two hours of drama, but it also reveals some of the more absurd moments of the hijacking - as when the plane was refused fuel in Algiers until someone paid for it with a Shell credit card.

Once more, Derickson had to come to the rescue.

This film will have you flinching from beginning to end over the irrationality of the hijacking and the violence it spawned. But this is also a story of survival and hidden reserves of bravery, which many of us fail to realize linger in the heart until the need to call upon them arises.