In the early 1970s during the Cold War, the head of British Intelligence, Control, resigns after an operation in Budapest, Hungary goes badly wrong. It transpires that Control believed one of four senior figures in the service was in fact a Russian agent - a mole - and the Hungary operation was an attempt to identify which of them it was. Smiley had been forced into retirement by the departure of Control, but is asked by a senior government figure to investigate a story told to him by a rogue agent, Ricky Tarr, that there was a mole. Smiley considers that the failure of the Hungary operation and the continuing success of Operation Witchcraft (an apparent source of significant Soviet intelligence) confirms this, and takes up the task of finding him. Through the efforts of Peter Guillam, Smiley obtains information that eventually leads him to Jim Prideaux, the agent at the heart of the Hungary fiasco...
Written by David Brain
Tomas Alfredson based the environment on his first impressions of London when he first visited the town in the 1970s: a brown and gray palette, shadows and uncovered light-bulbs, and dirty streets. "If you see London now and at that time, it's two different cities. Today it's a white city; then it was black,; it was so dirty, and you could still feel the War all around."
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Goofs
Anachronisms:
During a roof shot going down the building to the road in Istanbul, 2 split type air conditioners can be clearly seen mounted on a building wall. Split air conditioners came to the Turkish market in mid'90s.
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Quotes
[from trailer]
Control:
All I want from you is one codename: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier... George Smiley:
...Spy. See more »