The Fourth Protocol

Plot synopsis:
On New Year's Eve 1986, professional thief Jim Rawlings breaks into the apartment of a senior civil servant, and inadvertently discovers stolen top secret documents. Despite being one of the most notorious thieves in London, he is enough of a patriot to anonymously send the documents to MI5 so that they might locate the traitor.
In Moscow, British defector Kim Philby drafts a memorandum for the Soviet General Secretary stating that, if the Labour Party wins the next general election in the United Kingdom (scheduled for sometime in the subsequent eighteen months), the "hard left" of the party will oust the moderate populist Neil Kinnock in favour of a radical new leader who will adopt a true Marxist-Leninist manifesto, including the expulsion of all American forces from the United Kingdom and the country's withdrawal from and repudiation of NATO. In conjunction with a GRU general, an academic named Krilov, and a master strategist, Philby devises "Plan Aurora" to ensure a Labour victory by exploiting the party's support for unilateral disarmament—although it is noted that the strategist, a nuclear physicist and chess Grand Master, has come up with most of the plan's strategy.
John Preston, an ex-Parachute Regiment soldier-turned-MI5 officer, who was exploring hard-left infiltration of the Labour party, investigates the stolen documents and finds that they were leaked by George Berenson, a passionate anti-communist and supporter of South Africa. Berenson passed on the documents to Jan Marais, a man he believes is a South African diplomat, but is in fact a Soviet false flag agent. SIS chief Sir Nigel Irvine eventually confronts Berenson with the truth and "turns" him, using him to pass disinformation to the KGB.
As part of Plan Aurora, Soviet agent Valeri Petrofsky arrives under deep cover in the United Kingdom and sets up home in Ipswich. From there, he travels around the country collecting packages from various couriers who have smuggled them into the country either hidden, or disguised as harmless-looking items.
One of the couriers, disguised as a sailor, is attacked by 'Neds' in Glasgow and taken to hospital, where he commits suicide rather than submit to questioning. Preston investigates and finds three out-of-place looking metal discs in a tobacco tin in his gunny sack. He shows the discs to a metallurgist who identifies the outer two as aluminium but the other as polonium, a key element in the initiator of an atomic bomb. Preston reports his findings to his antagonistic MI5 superior, who ignores them and has Preston taken off the politically embarrassing case. Irvine, however, suspects that a major intelligence operation is under way, and has Preston work unofficially for him to search for other Soviet couriers. Simultaneously, he uses Berenson to pass a deliberate piece of disinformation to the KGB.
In Moscow, the director of operations for the KGB, General Karpov, discovers Aurora's existence. He identifies that the general secretary is responsible, and blackmails Krilov into revealing the plan: in contravention of the Fourth Protocol, the component parts of a small atomic device are to be smuggled into the United Kingdom, to be assembled and exploded near RAF Bentwaters a week before the general election. Substantial evidence will be left that the explosion was an accidental detonation of an American weapon, leading to a wave of anti-Americanism, support for unilateral disarmament and for the only major party committed to disarmament, the Labour Party. The day after they win the election, the hard left will take over and begin to dismantle the Western alliance in Europe.
Meanwhile, Preston tries in vain to uncover other couriers connected to the operation. A month into the investigation, a bumbling Czechoslovakian agent, originally mistaken for an Austrian, under the name Franz Winkler arrives at Heathrow with a forged passport and is shadowed to a house in Chesterfield. Preston's patience is rewarded when Petrofsky shows up to use the radio transmitter that is located there. He trails Petrofsky to his rented house, where the bomb has been assembled. An SAS team is called in to storm the house, and manages to wound Petrofsky before he can detonate the bomb. Defying Preston's express wishes, the leader of the SAS team shoots the Soviet agent in the head during the raid. Before dying Petrofsky manages to say one last word: “Philby”.
Preston confronts Irvine with his theory that the operation was deliberately blown by Philby; the latter did not know Petrofsky's location but instead sent Franz Winkler, with an obviously false passport, to the location of the transmitter, and ultimately, to Petrofsky. Irvine admits to sabotaging the KGB's British operation by leaking disinformation through Berenson to General Karpov that they were closing in on their suspect. In turn, Karpov (and not Philby) sent Winkler, sabotaging Plan Aurora. By sending Winkler, Karpov has thwarted a British publicity victory as Irvine understood the implication that Petrofsky must not be captured alive or exposed in the media.
At the novel's end, Preston's MI5 superior and adversary is denied a senior leadership role because of his misjudgment in the case, and subsequently resigns from MI5 altogether. Preston also resigns but, through Irvine, finds lucrative private-sector employment that enables him to obtain full custody of his son. Marais is taken into custody by South African intelligence and Berenson's work is left unusable to the KGB, as Irvine intends to use his own spy network and plant the suspicion that Berenson was in fact a double agent, so that his information will be considered suspect.

Tags: mystery, suspenseful, comedy, murder, violence

Review:
He is excellent as the seasoned agent who uses his mind and not gadgets to track down the Russian spy played by Pierce Brosnan.
For those of you who saw Brosnan in Tailor of Panama and found it refreshing to see him play a creep secret agent will be in for a real treat in The Fourth Protocol.
He has a conscience but he doesn't let it get in the way of his mission to explode a nuclear weapon on a US Air Force base in Great Britain in order to make it look like the US had a nuclear accident.
Brosnan is good, the plot is sufficiently tricky to be interesting, and Caine delivers the kind of reliable, excellent performance that you can count on (at least when the movie isn't total junk -- he only seems to phone it in when the movie is entirely hopeless).
It looks like a British TV-movie, and maybe it was, but I find it easy to get past the production values when the acting is good.I've seen it twice, and it holds up to a second viewing..
some comments on this film have stated that there are unnecessary killings of agents or witnesses, this is done to show the politics of the film and how there must be no trace back to those who planned the operation, whilst also portraying that petrofsky is a lethal killer, and as Caine says in the film "the best".
A great story, and very believable, spies that remain hidden from each other and no excruciating scene where the bad guy reveals his plot to the good guy.
Would have been interesting to see what would have happened if the operation had turned out differently, or the ending for that matter!Of course one of the best things about this film is the acting as previously stated by other people.
Caine brings his character to life and is very believable in the role of John Preston, the agent who cares, and will "bend" the rules to make sure things get down.
Brosnan is similarly good, his character will stop at nothing to complete his mission, he is a stone cold killer and this is portrayed well, he doesn't let anything get in the way of the mission.All in all a very good little film, much better than some of the tripe we get from Hollywood and with one of the finest British casts i've seen in some time..
Made in 1987, the film is closer to its older brother (The Days of Jackal, also by Frederick Forsyth) than the spy films starring Michael Caine, as I originally thought it would be.
I haven't read the book, however I used to own "The Fourth Protocol" computer game for the Commodore 64, and was vaguely familiar with the basic storyline.I can't pinpoint what exactly it is I like about this movie, but I did enjoy seeing Michael Caine as a British agent tracking down the nuclear bomb.
In fact, I love watching the film just to see the various parts of England as well.I liked the fact that its a rather 'quiet' movie, but I do think it needed to be re-edited.
A Good Example Of The Cold War Spy Thriller.
Based on the bestselling novel by thriller writer Fredrick Forsyth, The Fourth Protocol stands out as one of the last of the breed of Cold War spy thrillers.
Set amongst the issues of 1980's Cold War tensions, the film is the story of a KGB plot to detonate an atomic bomb in the UK near a US Air Force base, causing the deterioration of NATO as a result if UK security services don't stop it first.
With good performances and a fine script that make up for some of the films shortcomings, The Fourth Protocol is a good example of the Cold War spy thriller.The films has good performances throughout.
The supporting cast is like a whose who of fine character actors including Joanna Cassidy, Ned Beatty, Julian Glover, Michael Gough, Ray McAnally and Ian Richardson.
Sadly the actors playing Russian characters struggle with their accents at times but for the most part the performances work and help the film rather then hinder it.
The result is a well-written thriller.With good performances, good production values and a well-written script from noted thriller Fredrick Forsyth, The Fourth Protocol is a good example of the Cold War spy thriller.
Even more surprising is that despite its being entrenched in 1980's Cold War politics the films dealing with the on-going threat of nuclear terrorism means it has relevance over two decades later.
Pretty standard spy thriller with a good performance from Pierce Brosnan.
A Soviet agent is sent to the UK to stage a nuclear accident that could be blamed on the Americans and set off a chain reaction of events to unbalance this stand-off.The Fourth Protocol is based on a novel written by Frederick Forsyth.
The Fourth Protocol is a quite typical Forsyth spy thriller, in that it has a fairly detailed plot and paper thin characters.
Unlike Caine, Brosnan is playing against type and certainly makes better work of what he is given and is certainly the best thing about the movie.
A good film, indeed, but not so much of an exciting experience to watch it and those who know Frederick Forsyth's works as novelist are highly familiar on how gripping and thrilling his characters and situations are.
But the thing that disappointed me the most is that Forsyth wrote the film script and what I saw wasn't so interesting to make me feel great about it.Well, the story isn't news, again we have a plot where Soviets want to destroy the Capitalist/American system, this time the target is an American base in England.
The villain, however, is one man and one man only, a deadly KGB spy (Pierce Brosnan) who has the mission of exploding an atomic bomb on a American military base.
The man on his track is the charming agent John Preston (Michael Caine, very good), who has to fight the bureaucracy of his boss (Julian Glover) to finally solve this situation.The problem I had with the film is the awfully number of characters and tiny little situations where I couldn't understand clearly what was happening, some of the characters motivations as well wasn't good presented.
The lack of some great action sequences also bothered me a little, but the ones developed were very interesting (the scene where Michael Caine jumps out of the car, then runs to a moving train; and Barry's crazy chase with the van almost hitting the people).
The appeal of "The Fourth Protocol" lies in the incredible cast assembled that not only includes Brosnan and Caine but also Ned Beatty, Ray McAnally, Joanna Cassidy (quite effective as Brosnan partner), Michael Gough and others.It's not a case of great performances but all of them have decent parts to play with.
Surprisingly strange is the fact of a great director like John Mackenzie, specialist in creating thrilling moments in films like "Deadly Voyage" and "Infiltrator" (both TV movies) seemed a little lost with this script since it's hard to feel some thrill with everything presented (except when Pierce is killing his victims, he's a real stone cold kind of a guy).
It is a while since I this film but the title is explained at the start of the film,a voice over and text on the screen says something about a treaty signed by the major powers during the cold war and mentions a secret "fourth protocol" that forbids the planting of small scale nuclear weapons in each others countries.
Iiked this film but at the time (1987) many people said that Forysth was a right wing nut,he is but we know know that the USSR had all sorts of crazy ideas about attacking the west because they thought that the west was going to attack them first.People who liked this fiom should also look out for THE WHILSTLEBLOWER ,another 1980s British spy movie with Michael Caine..
However it's still an ordinary spy-game film, well directed, with good casting, not reaching over the other ones produced in late 80'.
Excellent cast (Pierce Brosnan surprised me, what a performance he delivers!), great novel by Forsyth, which works in many layers (an insightful look at the political games of the era, a character study of the top agents in both sides and some action, while this is not the primary goal of the movie), superb directing and the right pacing.
Major Valeri Petrofsky (Pierce Brosnan) is assigned by KGB head General Govorshin to infiltrate the United Kingdom and set off a nuclear device next to an American base disguised as an American accident.
Brosnan is good as a freezing cold spy and Caine is fine as the operative.
Micheal Caine is a member of the British Intelliegence ( another spy for england) whose mission is find the person with the bomb and get rid of it!This movie at times felt  like it was made for TV!!The action is slow placed though out the movie, so if slow movies  are the type for you , you might like this movie!!Other than that watch this movie if you want to see Pierce Bronsnan in a bad guy role way before he played James Bond!!!Otherwise avoid this movie and stick with Bronsnan James Bond movies,"Dante's Peak" , "Mars Attacks" or any recently made he was in!!!So watch only if you like Bronsnan or like slow movies.
I'm a big fan of Michael Caine's Len Deighton films - 'The Ipcress File', 'Funeral in Berlin' and 'Billion Dollar Brain' - even *if* the films got worse as they went along.Even though it's based on a Forsyth book, it's practically a 'return to form' for Harry Palmer - a conceit that's easily swallowed if you allow that Sgt. Palmer might have to assume more than one paper identity over the course of his career.
Sir Michael is in top form here, as is Pierce Brosnan and one of my favorite British actors, Ian Richardson of 'House of Cards' fame.In fact, it's an altogether plausible thriller - until you get to the American actors.
This film is a very enlightening glimpse into Britain's paranoid ideas during the Cold War.Right-wing English ultranationalist Frederick Forsyth makes it a point to have human rights activist Kim Philby brutally murdered in the beginning of the story, and voices of dissent against Thatcher's heavy handed regime painted as fools.The KGB is portrayed through silly stereotype and myth.
An adequate spy thriller of its type, the film has a number of predictable moments but a few well-filmed scenes too, such as the meticulous preparation of the bomb itself.
The film is more about political repercussions than it is about explosions, a point which some viewers obviously missed.Michael Caine gives his usual solid performance and Pierce Brosnan doesn't embarrass himself as the ruthless Soviet agent.
My interest in the movie was only held by the presence in the cast of a pre-Bond Pearce Brosnan, the yummy, gorgeous Joanna Cassidy in her absolute 80s red-headed prime, and of course Caine himself, giving a great performance as the relentless, loyal, middle-aged MI5 operative (and surprisingly, apparently devoted father)Preston, determined to thwart a terrorist nuclear catastrophe in London, despite the efforts of his devious public school, anal Ox-bridge superiors to discredit him..
Frederick Forsyth's bestselling novel is here brought to the big screen with an all-star cast, but despite occasional moments of excitement it is not a film that genuinely gets the blood pumping.
If you think about it, we've seen stories like this countless times: Rod Steiger plotting to blow up Parliament in "Hennessy"; Edward Fox plotting to assassinate De Gaulle in "Day Of The Jackal"; Bruce Dern planning a terrorist attack on the Superbowl in "Black Sunday"; Steven Berkoff wanting to decimate an American air base with an atomic bomb in "Octopussy".
Genre addicts will probably enjoy the film, but for the majority of us it's a tired case of more of the same.Secret agent John Preston (Michael Caine) leads a raid on the apartment of an idealistic government bureaucrat, George Berenson (Anton Rogers).
Ian Richardson probably has the best of it (he has a suggestive, sinister tone of voice and shifty eyes that make him perfect for these cloak-and-dagger roles), while Caine makes an amiable enough hero and Brosnan a fairly believable villain.
Sean Connery would have been perfect but many Forsyth novels probably wouldn`t make good movies since the plots are complex and there`s often a myriad of characters with long back stories , information overload on how the KGB operate etc .
THE FOURTH PROTOCOL centres around a nasty Soviet plot to win the cold war by exploding an atomic bomb at an American base making it look like an accident caused by the Americans leading to unilateral nuclear disarmament and the break up of NATO leaving those dastardly commies to invade Europe .
The plot had actually been used before in the James Bond movie OCTOPUSSY and in many ways this does feel like a mind bending spy movie with Harry Palmer ( Michael Caine )  taking on communist traitor James Bond ( Peirce Brosnan ) , bizarre to say the least but as strange as it seems it is somewhat compelling , even though the climax is very predictable with the good guy trying to stop the bad guy detonating the bomb There are a few problems with the screenplay though .
He must be a KGB agent or something " Like most Forsyth stories there`s a lot of characters ( Maybe too many ) and they`re played by familiar British character actors but few of them make an impact with the exception of Ian Richardson and Anton Rodgers who both appear in the best scene of the movie where an intelligence chief confronts a traitor .
At this stage of his career Pierce Brosnan was only known to me for his part in Remington Steele which was a fairly light role.In fact James Bond is a fairly harmless character compared to the ruthless agent he plays in this film.
The urgency of his acting is the feature of this film.Caine's character is engaging but fails to keep pace with Brosnan's Petrofsky.I watched this on cable television in my hotel and was guessing throughout what year it might be by the devices used and cars driven.Another chilling role was the authoritative Sir Nigel Irvine played by the late Ian Richardson who dresses down the gormless character Anton Rogers plays "a treat." As Richardson rates amongst my top 5 actors it was a very enjoyable part of the film for me.Out of interest John Hurt, Alan Bates, Humphrey Bogart and Edward Woodward would be the other four..
When this film was made nobody suspected that the Soviet Union would no longer exist in five years time; they were still the bad guys of choice for spy thrillers.
Against him there is John Preston, a British agent, who stumbles upon the plot when one of the people bringing in one of the bomb components is killed in an accident.While there are a few plot holes it is possible to suspend ones disbelief as this is a fine thriller with great performances from lead actors Michael Caine and Peirce Brosnon who play Preston and the ice cold Petrofsky respectively.
The action keeps up throughout the film from the start when traitor Kim Philby is killed to the end where Preston struggles with Petrofsky to prevent him detonating the bomb.
Having recently watch Michael Caine play a similar role in the 1965 thriller 'The Ipcress File' it is great seeing that he can still be believable in such a role twenty years later..
Caine phones in a Harry Palmer-lite performance as the (surprise, surprise) insubordinate spy-catcher who lucks in to a fiendish Russian plot to detonate a nuclear device on a US Air Base in England thus making America the heavy who has flouted the 'no-WMD in our respective countries' rule.
Readers of Le Carre's spy novels would tell you for example, that "Moscow Centre prides itself in always getting its agents back (alive.)" There is a James Bond film, Octopussy, with a similar story, trying to nuke a circus near a Nato airbase in Germany, rather than Britain, but that detail was probably inspired by this story as much as the books of Ian Fleming, who worked for Naval Intelligence and would have known better.
For reasons like this, it seems unlikely that even a rogue Russian General would arrange for such a nuclear incident.There's now an official history of MI6, by the way, "The Secret History of MI-6: 1909-1949," and a rogue British agent is detailed there, but he was only a little crazy..
Sheesh...I liked the ideas that all the agent managers were self serving prats, though Forsyth's portrayal of all the Russian characters as cold automatons is a bit dated, probably even by 1987 cold war standard.
Frederick Forsythe is always a reliable and successful writer, and many of his spy thriller novels have been made into movies.
No matter.The KGB man is Pearse Brosnan and the British counter-terrorism agent who tracks him is Michael Caine, redoing his Palmer number from "The Ipcress File," only with more raucous animation.It's pretty involving.
The explosion will devastate everything within a two-mile radius and kill upwards of 5,000 people.And there are exciting action scenes, especially a van in pursuit of a motorcycle and the inevitable final shoot out, with the wounded Brosnan's fingertip straining to reach the button that will detonate the fiendish device.There are a couple of types of villains in movies like this.
A fine piece of work with messages that would be easily missed, but it's not a "message" film and stands up as a thriller as well.I especially liked the scenes between the lead character, played by Michael Caine and his son.
The suggestions are clear when John Preston (Michael Caine) say's "it's all a game to you" to the political "players" at the end of the film.