Credits
Distributed by
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures[a] (United States)
20th Century Fox[3] (International)
Production companies
DreamWorks Pictures
Reliance Entertainment
Afterworks Limited
Studio Babelsberg
Amblin Entertainment
Marc Platt Productions
Participant Media
Fox 2000 Pictures[2]
Directed by
Steven Spielberg
Written by
Matt Charman
Ethan Coen
Joel Coen
Produced by
Marc Platt
Steven Spielberg
Kristie Macosko Krieger
Starring
Tom Hanks
Mark Rylance
Amy Ryan
Alan Alda
Cinematography
Janusz Kamiński
Edited by
Michael Kahn
Music by
Thomas Newman
Details
In 1957 New York City, Rudolf Abel is arrested and charged with spying for the Soviet Union, and insurance lawyer James B. Donovan is appointed to be Abel's legal counsel. Committed to the principle that the accused deserves a vigorous defense, he mounts the best defense of Abel he can, declining along the way to cooperate in the CIA's attempts to induce him to violate the confidentiality of his communications with his client. Abel is convicted, but Donovan convinces the judge to spare Abel the death penalty because Abel had been serving his country honorably, and he might prove useful for a future prisoner exchange; Abel is sentenced to 30 years. Donovan appeals the conviction to the Supreme Court based on the lack of a search warrant for the seizure of Abel's ciphers and photography equipment. For his principled stand, Donovan and his family are harassed, including shots being fired at their home. The conviction is upheld in a very close margin. In 1960, Gary Powers, a pilot in the CIA's top-secret U-2 spy plane program, is shot down over the USSR. He is captured and sentenced in a show trial to ten years' confinement, including three years in prison. Donovan receives a letter from East Germany, purportedly sent by Abel's wife, thanking him and urging him to get in contact with their lawyer, whose name is Vogel. The CIA thinks this is a back-channel message hinting that the USSR is willing to swap Powers for Abel. They unofficially ask Donovan to go to Berlin to negotiate the exchange; he arrives just as the Berlin Wall is going up. Crossing into East Berlin, he meets with a KGB officer in the Soviet Embassy and is then directed to Vogel, who represents the Attorney General of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). The Attorney General seeks to swap Abel for an American graduate student named Frederic Pryor, who had been arrested in East Germany; in the process, the GDR hopes to gain official recognition by the United States. The CIA wants Donovan to disregard Pryor but he insists that both Pryor and Powers be swapped for Abel. In a message to the Attorney General, he bluffs that they will either release Pryor with Powers or there will be no deal. The exchange of Powers and Abel is to take place at the Glienicke Bridge, with Pryor to be released simultaneously at Checkpoint Charlie. Tension builds as Pryor fails to arrive. The CIA, still primarily concerned with Powers, tell Abel he can go, but he refuses to move. It is confirmed that Pryor has been released, and the exchange takes place. The next day, back in the United States, the government publicly acknowledges Donovan for negotiating the deal, rehabilitating his public image.
31 мар 2023
