The Fourth Protocol (1987)

Director:

John Mackenzie

Writers:

George Axelrod (writer)
Richard Burridge (additional material)

Release Date:

28 August 1987 (USA)

Genre:

Thriller

Tagline:

If the Fourth Protocol is ever breached, there would be no warning, just a nuclear explosion from a bedsitter...The unthinkable has just begun...

Plot:

KGB agent, Major Valeri Petrofsky has been reassigned at the request of the KGB Chairman for a secret mission...

Plot Keywords:

Russian | Atomic Bomb | Spy | NATO | Military Base

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Michael Caine	...	John Preston
Pierce Brosnan	...	Valeri Petrofsky / James Edward Ross
Ned Beatty	...	Borisov / Pavel Petrovic
Joanna Cassidy	...	Irina Vassilievna
Julian Glover	...	Brian Harcourt-Smith
Michael Gough	...	Sir Bernard Hemmings
Ray McAnally	...	General Karpov
Ian Richardson	...	Sir Nigel Irvine
Anton Rodgers	...	George Berenson
Caroline Blakiston	...	Angela Berenson
Joseph Brady	...	Carmichael
Betsy Brantley	...	Eileen McWhirter
Sean Chapman	...	Captain Lyndhurst
Matt Frewer	...	Tom McWhirter
Jerry Harte	...	Professor Krilov

Runtime:

119 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:14 | Australia:M | Netherlands:12 (2002) | Netherlands:16 (VHS/DVD rating) (2001) | Norway:15 | Norway:16 (theatrical rating) | Finland:K-16 | UK:15 | USA:R | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Birmingham International Arena, Birmingham, West Midlands, England, UK

Company:

Fourth Protocol

Trivia:

Last cinema feature of John Horsley.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: During the film, a KGB agent is said to be traveling by rail from London to Colchester, yet he is shown catching a train from St Pancras Station, which serves the Midlands region of England. The only way to travel by train from London to Colchester (which is in East Anglia) is from Liverpool Street Station.

Quotes:

John Preston: *Acting* Director-General. Bernard Hemmings isn't dead yet.
Brian Harcourt-Smith: [through growing, though restrained anger] Look, Preston, let's get one thing perfectly clear. If, or rather *when*, I am confirmed as head of this department, you are simply going to disappear, without trace!
John Preston: I will bear that in mind.
Brian Harcourt-Smith: Meantime, I want another report, complete in every detail, on my desk, before you go home!
John Preston: Would that include this meeting, sir?
Brian Harcourt-Smith: [finally losing his temper] DO IT!

Movie Connections:

References "The Muppet Show" (1976)

absorbing thriller

I was quite surprised to see that this movie got a 5.9 rating. I think that it's a lot better than that. 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). The ending is a little abrupt, but I can't find any fault with it other than that. (The cast is uniformly strong, too.) Maybe people underrate the movie because the movie is low-budget. 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.