Irina Vassilievna (The Fourth Protocol)

Irina Vassilievna (Joanna Cassidy) is a Russian spy and
nuclear expert from the 1987 movie version of Frederick Forsyth’s novel “The
Fourth Protocol” first published in 1984.
The movie was directed by John Mackenzie
and stars Michael Caine as MI5 officer John Preston.
Top Russian spy Major Valeri Alekseyevich
Petrofsky (Pierce Brosnan) is sent on a special mission to England. The mission
does not have Kremlin approval so Petrofsky is ordered to kill any witnesses
and loose ends that pop up along the way. Petrofsky is a ruthless killer and
follows orders without questions, hesitation and without any sign of remorse.
While in England Petrofsky uses the name
James Edward Ross, an identity that the Russians have been creating a legend
around for some time. As James Ross, he rents an apartment next to an American
airbase. The Russian plan is to set off an atomic bomb next seemingly at the
base causing great loss of life and a political crisis between the Americans
and British that could trigger the closing of American bases around the world which
would help Russia’s plans for world domination.
Bit by bit the Russians have sent James
Ross the parts to make an atomic bomb. Each part was brought over by a separate
courier and Petrofsky has kept the parts in his refrigerator.
While waiting for his plan to take shape
Petrofsky meets an American pilot and his wife. Petrofsky all alone is longing
for female companionship.
Petrofsky is contacted by nuclear weapons
expert Irina Vassilievna (Joanna Cassidy) [because in the movies all nuclear
experts are beautiful women.]
Irina rejects Petrofsky’s advances as she
wants to get down to the business of assembling the atomic bomb. Piece by piece
the bomb is built.
The bombs timer is set for two hours but
the timer is not yet turned on. Irina hands Petofsky a small key and tells him
to turn on the bomb, when the order is given and then to leave town at
once. Irina then hands Petrofsky a coded
note.
Petrofsky decodes the note as Irina goes
back and resets the bomb to explode as soon as it is turned on. She has just
sentenced Petrofsky to death by his own hand.
She checks on Petrofsky who is burning the
coded message and the piece of paper he decoded it on to. Their eyes suddenly
lock. The pressure of the build is now over Irina, the bringer of death,
decides to have one finally fling with the hansom Petrofsky before fleas ground
zero. They begin to kiss passionately.
The camera cuts back to them making love in
Petrofsky’s bed. The femme fatale shares a tender moment and body fluids with
man she’s just doomed to death.
Basking in the afterglow after her lover
rolls off her, the lovely topless spy notices the writing pad that her doomed
lover used to write down the coded message. She can clearly see the imprints in
to the pad and the message says “kill her”.
Realizing that they have both been ordered
to double cross each other, Irina rolls back into her former lover’s arms and
attempts to warn him as he shoots her to death in the chest.
Later we see that he has partly wrapped her
body in a bed sheet and placed her in the bathtub. Realizing that she may have
been ordered to double cross him he goes into the bathroom. On a gold chain
around her neck she is still wearing the little key that she used to lock the
control panel on the bomb after the timer was set for two hours. 
He pulls the key off her body and reopens
the control panel on the bomb.
He was double crossed! He was going to be
killed just like every other loose end on this mission.
However, before he has a chance to reset
the time his apartment is raided by the men from MI5 and Petrofsky is killed.
The bomb is disarmed and Irina’s body is found in the bathtub.
Trivia: Pierce Brosnan who had recently
been selected to play James Bond but was unable to play the part do to
contractual obligations plays the parts of Russian Agent Major Valeri
Alekseyevich Petrofsky who poses as a British civilian James Edward Ross.
thumb|220x220px|She tried to warn him.
Watching this movie I can’t help but think
that this was Brosnan’s attempting to audition for James Bond. His portrayal of
the Russian agent matches perfectly with that of Ian Flemings description of
James Bond in the Bond novels, where 007 is described as having dark hair,
cruel eyes and a scar on his cheek. In The Forth Protocol Brosnan has jet black
hair, cruel eyes and a scar on his cheek.
It bothered me when I first saw this movie
that the coded message that Petrofsky receved was in English using the Latin
alphabet and not Russian using Cyrillic script. However Petrofsky was in deep
cover and being caught with a piece of paper with Cyrillic script on it might
give him away. So it does make sense that the message was in English.
Category:1980s
Category:Conspirator
Category:Deceiver
Category:Full Frontal Nudity
Category:Henchwoman
Category:Live Action Villainess
Category:Murderer
Category:Murder: Gun
Category:Nude
Category:Redhead
Category:Spy
Category:Terrorist
Category:Villainous Reveal
Category:Villain's Lover
Category:Fate: Deceased
Category:A Taste Of Her Own Medicine
Category:Assassin
Category:Callous
Category:Explosives
Category:Sex
Category:Topless