Build a movie plot around this: Who were "Tinker" (Alleline), "Tailor" (Haydon), "Soldier" (Bland), "Poorman" (Esterhase), and "Beggarman" (Smiley himself)? Suspects
Note: Spoilers ahead! Please read this synopsis if you want to understand what is going on in the film.n October 1973, Control (John Hurt), the head of British Intelligence ("the Circus"), sends agent Jim Prideaux (Mark Strong) to Budapest in Communist Hungary to meet a Hungarian general who had promised to deliver valuable information regarding a mole in British Intelligence. However, Prideaux is shot and captured by Soviet agents. Amid the international incident that follows, Control and his right-hand man George Smiley (Gary Oldman) are forced into retirement. Control, already ill, dies soon afterwards.Percy Alleline (Toby Jones) becomes the new Chief of the Circus, with Bill Haydon (Colin Firth) as his deputy and Roy Bland (Ciaran Hinds) and Toby Esterhase (David Dencik) as close allies. They previously began a secretive operation called "Witchcraft" which was obtaining purportedly valuable Soviet intelligence. Control and Smiley mistrust the material produced by Witchcraft, and are dismayed that Percy is unwilling to share the identity of the source. The Witchcraft intelligence is important enough that Percy is able to persuade the United States to renew exchanging their intelligence with the British, which they had stopped due to prior British intelligence failures.Percy and Hayden meet with Oliver Lacon (Simon McBurney), the vice minister in charge of intelligence, and persuade him to rent a safe house from restricted funds outside the normal MI6 budget. Lacon is contacted by Ricki Tarr (Tom Hardy), an MI6 operative thought to have defected, who claims there is a long-term mole in a senior position within British Intelligence.Lacon secretly persuades Smiley to conduct a private investigation into Tarr's claims, a suspicion that Control also held before he was sacked. Unknown to the Circus, Smiley recruits Peter Guillam (Benedict Cumberbatch) and retired Special Branch officer Mendel (Roger Lloyd Pack) to help him with his investigation. He begins interviewing people who left the Circus about the same...