प्लॉट

John Preston is a British Agent with the task of preventing the Russians detonating a nuclear explosion next to an American base in the UK. The Russians are hoping this will shatter the "special relationship" between the two countries.

K.G.B. Agent Major Valeri Petrofsky has been reassigned at the request of the K.G.B. Chairman for a secret mission wherein he is sent to England to establish a residence near an American military base and receive various items from couriers from the U.S.S.R. John Preston is the top British spy catcher, currently at odds with his superior because he doesn't lick his boots. After he conducts an operation without his superior's permission which caused his superior some embarrassment, he is reassigned to the menial task of overseeing airports and ports. One day, one the couriers Petrofsky was expecting comes off of a freighter and has an accident which leaves him dead. Preston is informed by the pathologist that the man is not a seaman, so Preston goes through his things and finds that he was carrying something which he is told is an atomic bomb component. Preston now suspects that someone is bringing in parts for an atomic bomb, his superior doesn't want to let Preston be proven right, so he doesn't authorize further action and suspends Preston. But a man who works with Intelligence approaches Preston saying he might be right because a sleeper transmitter went active twice, once probably to alert Moscow that he is in place, and the second sent after the man's death probably to inform that the component he was delivering wasn't received. So the man offers to let Preston find the man who is bringing in the bomb. Back in the U.S.S.R., Petrofsky's boss is so disgruntled, that Petrofsky and so much of his department's resources are being taken by the Chairman for his op, that he calls his old friend, the Vice Chairman of the K.G.B., to find out what's going on, because he believes that the Chairman wouldn't be able to do any of these things without his friend's input. But his friend is just as incredulous as he is. So he tries to find out what the Chairman is up to.—<rcs0411@yahoo.com>

Sir Michael Caine plays a senior British administrator who is part of the Intelligence establishment. When his findings offend his superiors, he is reassigned to a customs post. While there, he finds odd things showing up, which might well be parts of a small nuclear device. A Russian Agent has been sent to England with instructions to assemble the device just prior to the British election next to an American Air Base in order to throw the election to Labor and get Britain out of N.A.T.O.—John Vogel <jlvogel@comcast.net>

In 1963, a top British agent Kim Philby defected to Moscow.

There was a secret 1968 East-West agreement to halt nuclear proliferation. One of the clauses, the Fourth Protocol, forbids the non-conventional delivery of a nuclear weapon to a target. The four secret protocols were implemented among the then nuclear powers. Today only the fourth remains.

MI5 agent John Preston (Michael Caine) breaks into the residence of British government official George Berenson (Anton Rodgers) on New Year's Eve and finds a number of top-secret NATO files that should not have been there. He reports his findings to high-ranking British Secret Service official Sir Nigel Irvine (Ian Richardson), who deals with the leak. During the investigation Irvine gains Preston's trust and respect. Irvine allows Preston to put Berenson on round the clock observation to find his handler and the people he passes on the information to.

Berenson returns home to find his safe open and panics. He travels to a pizzeria, taking elaborate precautions along the way to lose any tails. He is given a pizza box by the manager, with which Berenson visits the South African Embassy.

Nigel confronts Berenson with the evidence, and he admits that he is staunchly anti-communist, and he was passing NATO intelligence to South Africans, who are most anti-communist nation on the planet and yet are excluded from NATO planning due to other political considerations. Berenson believes he is a patriot, until Nigel reveals that the man he has been passing information to, in the South African Embassy, is a Soviet agent. So, Berenson was passing NATO files to the Soviets. Nigel orders Berenson to continue the charade, but now pass on flawed intelligence to the Soviets.

However, Preston's unauthorized action has embarrassed the acting-Director of MI5 & Preston's direct boss, Brian Harcourt-Smith (Julian Glover), so as punishment for his insubordination, Preston is relegated to lowly "Airports and Ports". Preston is unapologetic about his actions & considers the currently sick director of MI5, Bernard Hemmings (Michael Gough) as his real boss and mentor. Brian vows that when Hemmings dies, and he is made the director of MI5, Preston would be the first to "Disappear".

Meanwhile, KGB agent Major Valeri Alekseyevich Petrofsky (Pierce Brosnan) is sent on a mission to the United Kingdom by General Govorshin (Alan North), the head of the KGB. Petrofsky is ordered not to discuss the details of his mission with anyone and is promised promotions and rewards beyond his imagination, if he returns successful. Govorshin asks Major Pavlov (Michael J. Jackson) to brief Petrofsky on the mission and give him his mission instructions. The instructions include Petrofsky eliminating Pavlov, which he does. Petrofsky travels to Britain under the alias of James Edward Ross.

One of Govorshin's subordinates, General Pavel Petrovich Borisov (Ned Beatty), complains to his old friend General Yevgeny Sergeyevich Karpov (Ray McAnally), about his espionage department being stripped of resources and personnel, particularly his star agent Petrofsky. A surprised Karpov quietly investigates and learns about Petrofsky's unsanctioned mission - to violate the Fourth Protocol by assembling and detonating an atomic device so that it will appear to be a nuclear accident at a nearby military base. It is intended to strain British-US relations and strengthen the anti-nuclear movement in advance of an election in favor of the Soviet Union.

Karpov is second in command at the KGB and wants to unseat Govorshin, & hence is looking for an opportunity to discredit Govorshin or to lay waste his carefully laid plans. He finds an opportunity to blame Govorshin for breaking the fourth protocol.

In Glasgow, a Soviet sailor (a courier in a series of men who are sent over by Govorshin to transport the components of the nuclear weapon, bit by tiny bit) is struck by a truck while fleeing from a port guard. Among the dead man's possessions, Preston finds a disk of Polonium, which could only be useful as a component of a detonator for an atomic bomb. He informs Harcourt-Smith, but is promptly suspended, as Harcourt-Smith believes that Preston is manufacturing a fake incident to work his way back into MI5.

Luckily however, Preston has the confidence of Sir Bernard Hemmings, the gravely ill Director of MI5, as well as Irvine, who is happy to sidestep Harcourt-Smith's directives. Preston sets to work and eventually comes across Winkler (Jiri Stanislav), a known Czech KGB agent, and tails him from the airport.

Meanwhile, Petrofsky meets another KGB agent, Irina Vassilievna (Joanna Cassidy), a bomb expert who is pretending to be his wife. Under her guidance, they assemble the device from seemingly harmless items, and she sets it on a two-hour delay per their instructions. Later, unknown to Petrofsky, Vassilievna follows her own orders, resetting the delay to zero. After sleeping with Petrofsky, she finds his own secret order to eliminate her and tries to warn him about the double-cross, but he kills her before she can.

Afterwards, Petrofsky is observed contacting Winkler. Preston tracks him to Ipswich, loses him, then finds him again. Preston eventually realizes that Petrofsky's target is RAF Baywaters, and locates Petrofsky's house, which lies right next to the base.

When Petrofsky starts to activate the bomb, on an impulse, he checks the timer first and realizes he has been betrayed. At that moment, an SAS team storms the house. After a struggle, Preston subdues and disables Petrofsky. However, to Preston's outrage, one of the SAS team executes Petrofsky in a cold blooded manner, explaining afterwards that he had orders to do so.

At Hemming's funeral, Preston is not surprised to find Irvine secretly meeting with General Karpov. Preston had become suspicious when known KGB agent Winkler was used as a courier, making it easy to follow him, and also when Petrofsky was killed instead of being captured for questioning. He surmised that discrediting Govorshin would benefit both Irvine and Karpov. However, Preston does not see any point in exposing them and leaves after expressing his contempt for their cynical power play. Irvine secretly assures Karpov that they have control over Preston, as they covertly observe him reunite with his young son