Based on Frederick Forsyth's 1984 novel, it was co-produced by Forsyth himself and Michael Caine and directed by John Mckenzie.
The Fourth Protocol The Plot
The film opens with the killing of Kim Philby by the KGB. Philby had been working on a top secret plan called "Plan Aurora" which involves setting off a Nuclear bomb by a Russian agent at an American Airbase on UK Soil. If that happens the British will be forced to kick the Americans out, and would break the NATO Alliance apart.
The other strand to the plot involves British MI5 spy catcher John Preston (Michael Caine) who is investigating the leaking of Ministry of Defence papers by a top defence mandarin Sir George Berenson. Preston breaks into Berenson's flat, and finds the papers in a safe which Preston blows open on the stroke of midnight on January 1st.
The first hour of the movie moves between Preston and his fight with his boss Nigel-Harcourt Smith (Julian Glover) who dislikes Preston and his methods, and the attempts to catch Berenson passing on papers. It turns out that Berenson believes that he has been passing on the papers to South Africa but it turns out the Jan Marais is actually a Soviet spy with the South African Embassy.
Sir Nigel Irvine the Head of M6 ( Ian Richardson) admires the "false flag" recruitment of Berenson by his opposite Number General Karpov (Ray McNally).
The Soviet secret agent Major Valeri Petrofsky (Pierce Brosnan) arrives in England to assemble the bomb. The Plot is being carried out by the Chairman of the KGB (Alan North) without the knowledge of the rest of his officers. General Borisov (Ned Beatty) explains how his department is being stripped by the Chairman of the KGB to General Karpov, who uncovers the plan.
The Soviets are smuggling into the County parts to make the bomb, which is breech of the 1968 Anti-Nuclear Arms treaty which forbid one nation to smuggle parts of a bomb onto another.
One of the Soviet Couriers is killed in an accident in Glasgow , and Preston finds two disks of an unkown material on the man. They are tested and believed to be the detonator of a nuclear bomb.
Harcourt-Smith believes otherwise and after a argument with Preston, Preston is suspended. Nigel Irvine believes Preston's hunch that their is a Soviet Agent trying to build a bomb, so he arranges for records and information to be passed to Preston.
Petrosfy posing as an Englishman James Ross has rented a home next to a USAF base where he plans to denote the bomb. To replace the lost consignment, a replacement is sent with the Assembler Vassillievna(Joanna Cassidy) who then assembles the bomb, from the items that have been smuggled in. She sets it on a two-hour delay to allow Petrofsky to escape, but unknown to Petrofsky, Vassilievna resets the delay to zero. After having sex with Petrofsky, she finds his own order to kill her and tries to warn him about the bomb, but he shots her before she can.
Franz Winkler a known Czech agent enters Heathrow with a forged passport, and Preston follows him to a cafe owned by two Greeks outside Colchester, which holds a radio transmitter.
At this point the two plot lines converge. A tracker is placed on Petrosfy's motorbike, as he heads away into Suffolk. They follow him to a garage in Ipswich, but it is switchover, and he has carried on in a car.
Petrosfy's car gets caught in traffic jam and Preston manages to follow him to his house on the edge of the base.
The SAS lead by Preston storm the house, Petrofsky starts to activate the bomb, but he checks the timer first and realises he has been betrayed. At that moment, the SAS storm the house. After a desperate struggle, Preston subdues Petrofsky. However, much to Preston's outrage, a SAS solider guns him down, saying he had orders to do so.
The film ends with the funeral of Sir Bernard Hemmings, the former head of MI5 (who had brief couple of scenes) played by Michael Gough. Preston sees Irvine meeting with Karpov, and works out that the killing of Petrofsky was a deal with the Soviets. Preston leaves with his son.
The Fourth Protocol differences from the novel
The film is probably the best adaptation of any of Frederick Forsyth's book's, which is helped in that he co-wrote the screenplay. The major changes are
- The film opens with the killing of Philby, who has already planned the operation, because he knows to much. In the book in remains a key figure.
- The character of Rawlings doesn't exist in the film, the initial robbery is undertaken by John Preston instead.
- The political plot of the book to allow the Labour party to win the general election and allow for a Communist take over of the party is taken out.
- The film removes a large section of the book in regards to John Preston's investigation into Jan Marais in South Africa.
- Some of the locations are changed from the book, the Greek cafe is in Chesterfield, not Colchester, and Petrosfy's house is in Ipswich not directly next to the air base.
- The USAF airbase in the book is the real base of "Bentwaters" which is changed to "Baywaters".
- The character of the assembler in the book is a man although the surname is the same. He is killed by getting his kneck broken rather than being shot.
The Fourth Protocol Overall
The screenplay does make good use of the source material, despite the differences above, much of the dialogue is taken directly from the book. John Mckenzie handles the tension well, the final SAS storming of the House is well done. Michael Caine is excellent as always. Pierce Brosnan does well in his first major film role, although he does not have that much to do. The real of the star of the film is Ian Richardson, his portrayal of Nigel Irvine is superb, and reminds you what a great actor he was.
A well directed spy thriller.
Mark Bunn - null
