The Fourth Protocol (1987)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

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 | Military Base | NATO

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

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

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

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

Filming Locations:

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

Company:

Fourth Protocol

Trivia:

The reversed code number of James Bond can be read in the license plate of Pierce Brosnan's motorcycle: C700 OBL.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Soviet officers have got the wrong tabs on greatcoat lapels - black with no goldish frames. They also have service caps with the wrong cap bands - made of black plastic instead of goldish cords.

Quotes:

General Karpov: Govershin need not last forever.
Borisov: I want to die in my bed.

Movie Connections:

References "The Muppet Show" (1976)

Well done and realistic spy thriller!

Usually we get treated to one type of spy movie these days. This type is made up of good looking young agents with all sorts of high tech weapons and gear. There are beautiful women who are just lining up to sleep with the good guy. The Fourth Protocol is not one of these movies and thank goodness! It is one of the most realistic cold war spy movies out there. Despite it's age(1987) it is relevant to today's world. There is nuclear terrorism and real looking spies. Michael Cain plays a British agent and is too busy looking for Russian spies to be sexing up fine Russian female agents. In fact he has a family. 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. Brosnan plays Petrofsky, a young hot shot KGB agent who tries to slice and dice his way to the top. I mean Petrofsky is a flat out cold blooded killer. He makes the guy in Tailor of Panama look like a saint. 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. Petrofsky was the right man for the job he would blow up two or three thousand people just like that. If he wasn't a KGB agent, he could surely find work as a serial killer.

The story moves along quickly and sometimes a bit too quickly. However it doesn't detract from the movie. The movie looks more like a cop movie in the way the investigation unfolds. When they finally find out what's going on there is a good action sequence that doesn't go over the top. It just serves the purpose in this movie. Other things I liked was the scene where they constructed the bomb.

I would recommend this one to anyone who likes spy movies and are tired of the James Bond rigmarole.

Rayvyn