A docudrama script for
HEROES OF ABLE ARCHER 83
By Kenneth James Prendergast
 |
| A B-52 strategic bomber is readied for a night flight (US Strategic Command). |
A six-episode
docudrama
** START
FIRST EPISODE **
FADE IN:
1 EXT. 100
MILES ABOVE EARTH 1
Text on screen:
“Never perhaps in the postwar decades has the
situation in the world been as explosive and, hence, more difficult and unfavorable
as in the first half of the 1980s.
-- Mikhail Gorbachev,
President of the Soviet Union
February 1986”
An east-looking, west-traveling camera moves from above a
daytime Asia, at morning across Europe and the Atlantic Ocean to nighttime
North America, occasionally passing satellites AS CREDITS APPEAR THROUGHOUT. AS
CREDITS END, the camera turns west to face the direction it is traveling to see
it approaching the East Coast of the United States from high above. The Song
“Russians” is ending. The camera now descends at a threatening rate of speed as
if on an ICBM’s trajectory, zooming in on the nighttime city lights of the Washington
DC area.
Music ends with ticking clock sound.
BRIGHT
FLASH TRANSITION:
2 EXT. MCLEAN, VIRGINIA – NIGHT 2
PANORAMIC
VIEW OF WASHINGTON DC MONUMENTS IN THE DISTANCE FROM THE WEST, ACROSS THE
POTOMAC, CAMERA TILTING DOWN at a neighborhood of comfortable homes in McLean,
Virgina. The camera settles down through the trees to street level in front of
a darkened, brick colonial house. Sounds of crickets are pierced by the noise
of a distant passenger jet aircraft, its landing and strobing lights visible
through the trees but a half-mile away, inbound to National Airport.
TILT UP AND
ZOOM IN ON DARK SECOND FLOOR WINDOW as the wind blows through the trees.
Text on
screen: “Home of National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinksi, McLean,
Virginia -- June 3, 1980”
3 INT. BEDROOM
OF NSA ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI AND WIFE 3
PULL BACK
FROM THE VIEW OUT THE BEDROOM WINDOW to show a couple asleep in bed in their
darkened room. Crickets and the jet plane are still barely heard outside. The
phone rings. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, a man in his early
50s, reaches to the bedside table and fumbles the black phone’s handset before
bringing it to his ear.
NSA
ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI
“Hello...” (CLEARS
HIS THROAT)
When it
rings again, Brzezinski realizes it’s the wrong
phone and replaces the black handset, trading it for the red handset to the red
phone next to it. He brings the red handset to his ear.
NSA
ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI
“Hello...”
(SPOKEN A LITTLE MORE CLEARLY)
“(HEARING HIS DISEMBODIED VOICE OVER THE PHONE)
Zbig, it’s Bill Odom. I’m on an emergency conference call. My authenticator is
Echo Whiskey Alpha, zero zero niner.”
NSA ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI
“Um...hold on. (HE GETS UP AND WALKS OVER TO A
CHAIR ON THE BACK OF WHICH IS A PAIR OF PANTS WITH THE BELT STILL THROUGH ITS
LOOPS. HE PULLS A CREDIT CARD-SIZED CARD FROM A PANTS POCKET. HE LOOKS AT THE
CARD). “My response is November Zulu Oscar, niner six two.”
ASSISTANT NSA WILLIAM ODOM
“So I hate to call you at this ungodly hour but,
um, we’ve got an unconfirmed report that 200 Soviet ballistic missiles are
heading our way. It is likely that they are armed with nuclear warheads...”
NSA
ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI
“What!?!”
He sits up. “Where??? What are the targets?” His wife stirs beside him but
doesn’t wake.
ASSISTANT NSA WILLIAM ODOM
“Here's what we know... Alerts are going off at
the National Missile Command Center that 200 intermediate- to long-range
ballistic missiles are inbound to the continental United States and (AS IF
RESPONDING TO ANOTHER PERSON), yes, we got first reports about 30 seconds before
our call started. We don’t have specific targets yet but with that limited
number of inbounds and the possibility that at least some were sub-launched,
there is concern it may be a decapitation strike on our command and control,
principal military installations and the like. Do you want to wake the
president to bring him on the call?”
“Wait, so
you don’t even have confirmation of the missiles’
origins?”
ASSISTANT NSA WILLIAM ODOM
“No sir. We didn't
get a launch detection. And we don’t have a track yet to plot projected
targets.”
NSA ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI
“This sounds like it could be another false
alarm like the one in November. I’m not waking the president for that. I’m
giving you two minutes to confirm.”
ASSISTANT
NSA WILLIAM ODOM
“Yes sir. I’ll
call you back.”
Brzezinski hangs up
the phone and exhales hard. Outside, the peaceful sound of crickets and the
wind rustling the leaves belies the sudden tension. The rising noise of another
jet plane approaches and becomes fearfully loud. Brzezinski
places his hand on the shoulder of his sleeping wife. He looks at her
lovingly. The phone ringing stops the deafening sound of the passing aircraft. Brzezinski
answers the red phone as both sounds disappear.
NSA ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI
“Bill?”
ASSISTANT NSA WILLIAM ODOM
“Yes sir. It’s not 200 missiles. It’s 2,000...
And it’s not like November when NORAD accidentally ran that wargame test
program. They’re telling me that screens at the Pentagon and SAC are also lit
up with the same data. The computer gave us the missile count.”
NSA ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI
“This just doesn’t make any sense. It’s a bolt
from the blue. Are there any signs of Politburo evacuations or any unusual Soviet
military deployments?”
“Not that
I’m aware of. But if the
point of this is to catch us off guard, they certainly succeeded. Sir, we’re at
plus-three minutes. We’re at the point where those of us with pre-delegation
authority can direct a retaliatory strike.”
“Like hell you will! I want you to double-check this.”
ASSISTANT NSA WILLIAM ODOM
“(SIGH) Then I recommend we get SAC in the air
and get our silos and subs warmed up while we’re playing with our left-handed monkey
wrenches.”
NSA
ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI
“Alright, Bill. You go ahead. You have my
authorization. But you know damn well that I have no problem with taking those
commie bastards with us if 50 million Americans are going to die in their sleep
tonight. So check this again and call me back in two more minutes.”
ASSISTANT NSA WILLIAM ODOM
“Yes sir.”
ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI hangs up the phone.
EMILIE BRZEZINSKI
“Honey. Is everything OK?”
NSA ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI
“I’m not sure. I may have to wake the
president.”
EMILIE
BRZEZINSKI
“Why? What
time is it?”
NSA
ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI
“It’s just after 3.”
EMILIE BRZEZINSKI
“My God, what’s happening?”
NSA ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI
“Go back to sleep, Emilie. I’m sure everything
is OK.” He looks to the window and listens to the wind.
STANDARD
CUT:
4 INT/EXT. SAC BOMBER BASE, GRAND FORKS, ND –
NIGHT 4
Wind sound intensifies
while showing the illuminated and guarded entrance to Strategic
Air Command, 319th Bombardment Wing, Grand Forks, ND.
Text on
screen: “Strategic Air Command, 319th Bombardment Wing, Grand Forks, North
Dakota”
FADE to camera
traveling past a thick, hinged blast door and into a brightly lit, tube-like
hallway with no windows but rooms with cots occupied by sleeping, dressed
soldiers extending to the left and the right.
The klaxon
horn blows, launching 70 uniformed airmen and ground crew from a shallow sleep
on their cots into a mission-oriented frenzy.
DRAMATIC
MUSIC PLAYS; EXAMPLE: Gary Numan - My name is Ruin (karaoke)
Airmen slip
on their untied boots, grab their jackets and gear and dash through the
molehole tunnels, through opened blast doors, to the alert pad where a dozen white
Ford Econoline vans are being started up. Five airmen and several ground
crewmen jump in, tires squeal and head out onto the pad with 11 other vans to
their B-52 bombers.
Cut to a
distant, but zoomed-in view of multiple Ford vans with yellow flashing lights
on, speeding down the alert pad called a “Christmas tree” toward the camera,
kicking up dust. As they near the aircraft and turn between them, the trucks’
headlights increasingly reveal silhouettes of the massive B-52s.
THAT SCENE
PLAYS OUT DURING THE FOLLOWING, DISEMBODIED DIALOGUE.
“G’morning
Ranger Rick!”
COMMANDER
RICHARD “RANGER RICK” HUTCHINSON
“Let’s get
this over with. I hate when they do this to us in the middle of the night. You
got our cartridges, J-J?”
“I got ’em,
commanda’. What’s yo best time?”
COMMANDER
RICHARD “RANGER RICK” HUTCHINSON
“Twelve minutes
day but fourteen night. That’s mole hole to wheels up. And we weren’t even the
senior crew then at the front of the line.”
DCC JIMMY "J-J"
JEFFERSON
“Not bad.
Could be worse. Y’all could be the last one in line and ain’t be making it out
in time.”
COMMANDER
RICHARD “RANGER RICK” HUTCHINSON
“I’ve been
the last one in line. The turbulence from the other planes will shake your
teeth out.”
DCC JIMMY "J-J"
JEFFERSON
Laughing
“At least Mount Saint Helens ain’t blowing ash in our engines like last week!”
Smith’s van
pulls in behind the starboard wingtip of B-52 “Czar 52.” Smith and his ground
crew jump out, run to the plane and pull up the wheel chocks. The air crew runs
to the fuselage, hits the slap-switch to drop the ladder from the hatch and all
five climb into the small opening with surprising speed. Meanwhile, grounds
crew are seen packing cartridges the size of small kettles into two of the
plane’s engines simultaneously. A cruise missile is seen under each wing.
SCENE MOVES
TO CZAR 52’S COCKPIT WHERE THE START-UP SEQUENCE IS PROCESSED QUICKLY.
COMMANDER RICHARD
“RANGER RICK” HUTCHINSON
“Gentlemen, start your engines. Standby to copy
orders.”
PILOT JACK SCHWINN
“Begin engine start sequence.” He switches two
of the eight engines to ‘cartridge start.’ “Standby for orders.”
COMMANDER RICHARD “RANGER RICK” HUTCHINSON
“Cart-start four and five.”
PILOT JACK SCHWINN
“Firing shotguns for four and five.” He flips
the switches to fire the cartridges. The engines pop and whine
up to rotational speed.
COMMANDER
RICHARD “RANGER RICK” HUTCHINSON
“Confirm
the wing ducts are catching engines one through three and six through eight.”
PILOT JACK SCHWINN
“Confirmed.
Visuals and vibrations!”
Outside, smoke is pouring from the B-52’s
engines, seen through the base’s lights, while grounds crew use their light
wands to direct the plane forward.
COMMANDER RICHARD “RANGER RICK” HUTCHINSON
“Oscar-Zero, Czar 52 is rolling. Where are my
orders?”
COMMAND POST TOWER CONTROLLER
“Czar 52...” A deep breath is heard. “Be
advised that all Alfa, Charlie and Foxtrot aircraft are directed to MITO – repeat,
Minimum Interval Take Off. Use your cruise missiles’ afterburners and get your
BUFFs clear of the base immediately. You’ll get your EWO in the air. God be
with you. God be with us all.”
PILOT JACK SCHWINN
“Holy shit!” (HIS EYES GROW WIDE WHILE HE LOOKS
SKYWARD) This is no exercise!”
COMMANDER
RICHARD “RANGER RICK” HUTCHINSON
“Alright
people, let’s stay focused. They called us which means inbounds are probably enroute
to military targets. Our job is to make sure it doesn’t go any further than
that. So do the jobs you’ve been trained to do!”
PILOT
JACK SCHWINN
HE SHAKES HIS HEAD AS IF TO WAKE UP, THEN PUSHES
HARD FORWARD ON THE THRUST LEVERS TO A DEAFENING ROAR.
“Let’s go!”
Czar 52 is
seen accelerating down the runway with fire pouring from its two cruise
missiles and black smoke curling behind, as the next B-52 pulls in behind and
throttles up 15 seconds after the first. The leader lifts off, with the second
emerging from its smoke to lift off and another coming in behind.
STANDARD CUT:
5 EXT/INT.
MINUTEMAN ICBM LCF HOLDEN, MO - NIGHT
5
Dramatic
music continues but more subdued. Exterior view of a single-level ranch-style
building with a shallow-gabled roof plus a microwave radio communications tower
and helicopter pad next to it.
The camera
flies into the building, quickly showing its bedrooms with three of them
occupied by people sleeping. The camera passes the kitchen, recreation room
with pool table and security room with a guard reading a Sports Illustrated
magazine before the camera dives 60 feet down the 12x12-foot elevator shaft to
the entrance to the Launch Control Center (LCC) for 10 Minuteman II
inter-continental ballistic missile silos in the surrounding countryside. The
entrance is protected by an 8-ton steel-and-concrete blast door with a mural
painted on it looking like a Domino’s pizza box that reads “Worldwide delivery
in 30 minutes or less – Or your next one is free.”
Inside a
reinforced capsule suspended from overhead shock absorbers, two US Air Force
missile officers are seated in large, red padded seats at consoles when an
alarm sounds. It is followed by a scratchy, faint, digitized voice over a speaker:
SPEAKER VOICE
“Skyking. Skyking. Do not answer. Message
Follows. Break... Foxtrot. India. Mike. November. Oscar. Standby.”
“Skyking?
Oh for God’s sakes...” He looks at McCAFFERTY and they both have big eyes but
are trying to keep their mouths closed. “I’m marking this in the log at...oh-seven-hundred-fifteen
Zulu. But if this is the start of a launch drill, why’s it got such a bad echo?”
CAPTAIN
BOBBY McCAFFERTY
“Those are
simultaneous ground and airborne TACAMO protocols -- likely a comms redundancy
test, a readiness check to the triad. But since it’s Skyking, I doubt it’s just
busy traffic to keep the Ruskies guessing...” His voice trailing off.
LIEUTENANT DAVID RASKIN
“Well, they’re waking up all our LCCs in the five-ten.
What’s next, an E-A-M?”
SPEAKER VOICE
“...Standby for Emergency Action Message from
the National Command Authority....”
CAPTAIN BOBBY McCAFFERTY
“Remove missile keys and code books!” He waits
for a few agonizing seconds. “They’re not going straight into a drill
instruction! Standby...” He waits a few seconds more. “Wake up everyone topside
and get them into the backup capsule.” The lieutenant picks up the phone. “And tell
them to bring down more Oh-two tanks, MREs and water.”
STANDARD
CUT:
6 EXT. ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, MARYLAND -
NIGHT 6
A klaxon
horn is blaring outside the hangar for the National
Emergency Airborne Command Post (NEACP), an E-4B
which is a converted Boeing 747-200. It is surrounded by a team of five heavily
armed soldiers as several ground crewmen quickly load a pallet of supplies into
baggage.
Text on
screen “National Emergency Airborne Command Post (NEACP) hangar, Andrews Air
Force Base, Maryland” is briefly displayed.
“Pick it up
guys! Knee-cap has to be rolling in two minutes. Is everyone on board?”
ACC JOSH CARLSON
“They always are.”
DCC MARTIN KOWALSKI
Impatiently, “Airman, I’m asking if anyone’s
left behind.”
ACC JOSH CARLSON
“The count is 48. All are on board, sir.”
DCC MARTIN KOWALSKI
“Close that hatch, airman!” He speaks into his
radio. “DCC Kowalksi to Nightwatch. You’re signed, sealed and delivered.”
NIGHTWATCH PILOT
On radio “Roger crew chief. Andrews Tower,
clear us a path. Nightwatch is taxiing. This is not a drill!”
Exterior
view of NEACP as its jet engines thrust the plane forward with a loud roar.
STANDARD
CUT:
7 INT. BEDROOM OF NSA ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI AND
WIFE 7
In his
pajamas, Brzezinski is looking at two of his sleeping children in their bedroom
from its doorway. The red-digit LED clock on their bedside table reads “3:28.”
The red phone rings again. He dashes across the hall into the master bedroom as
his wife stirs once more.
NSA
ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI
“Bill?”
“Yes sir. You better sit down for this...”
NSA ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI
“What, for God’s sakes?”
ASSISTANT NSA WILLIAM ODOM
“It was an integrated circuit. A God-damned
46-cent computer chip! NORAD ran diagnostics and found it was sending
typographical errors in otherwise routine messages to SAC and the NMCC. So
instead of displaying zero-zero-zero inbound missile status, it was adding a
two in different places...”
NSA ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI
“Jesus! So no nuclear attack?”
ASSISTANT NSA WILLIAM ODOM
“No sir.”
NSA ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI
“Then can you do us all a favor and stand down
SAC?”
ASSISTANT NSA WILLIAM ODOM
“We’re recalling the alert aircraft now, sir.
We were about to give them a Red Dot 4 -- with the president’s authorization,
of course -- and send them straight to their targets without checking in at
Failsafe.”
NSA ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI
“Ah Christ. The bombers went airborne? That
means the Soviets probably saw this.”
ASSISTANT
NSA WILLIAM ODOM
“They saw
the false alarm in November. So they probably saw this one, too.”
NSA
ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI
“Better
hope this didn’t trigger a chain
reaction. Keep an eye on the threat boards, Bill. But if nothing else shows up
tonight, I’d like to TRY to get some more sleep...”
ASSISTANT NSA WILLIAM ODOM
“What did the president say?”
“I’ll tell him in the morning.”
ASSISTANT NSA WILLIAM ODOM
“You didn’t call him? He’s gonna eat your
peanuts for breakfast, Zbig....”
NSA ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI
“Good night, Bill.” He hangs up the phone, lays
back into the bed with his eyes wide open and exhales hard.
END OPENING
SEQUENCE
8 EXT. PENTAGON – DAY 8
WIDE SHOT OF A MARINE CORPS HELICOPTER landing at the Pentagon
Army Heliport on the northwest side of the Pentagon.
Text on screen: “The Pentagon, January 13, 1981”
Several men aged 40-60 years in wool coats and suits including a
man in his late-60s emerge from the helicopter and are greeted with handshakes
from an Air Force general and his attaché. Enlisted soldiers posted nearby
salute and stand at attention. Buffeted by the winds from the helicopter’s
rotors, the suits smile and yell imperceptibly but pleasantly at the brass hat
who offers his congratulations at the oldest man in a suit and guides him toward
a doorway into the Pentagon AS THE CAMERA ZOOMS IN.
PRESIDENT-ELECT
RONALD REAGAN
“My God
it’s cold out here! (To the Air Force general, walking alongside) CHAIRMAN
JONES, why aren’t you wearing a coat?”
CHAIRMAN DAVID
JONES
(yelling
over the noise of the helicopter)
“I grew up
in the Dakotas, Mister President! This is what we would call a Chinook, sir.”
“I thought
Marine One is a Sikorsky?” (he says smiling)
CHAIRMAN
JONES
“Yes, it
is, MISTER ALLEN (forcing a smile). I was referring to the warm winds that come
down off the Rockies onto the high plains.”
PRESIDENT-ELECT
REAGAN
“And you’re
very kind, General. But I’m not the President yet -- not until next week.”
CHAIRMAN
JONES
“My
apologies, sir.”
PRESIDENT-ELECT
REAGAN
“Oh, that’s
quite alright. I arrived from California only last week and I’m still trying to
get used to it, not to mention this bitter cold.”
CHAIRMAN
JONES
“It can get
a lot colder around here, and it probably will before this winter is over. Follow
me, sir...” (His attaché opens the Pentagon’s VIP entrance for Reagan and his
transition team’s national security staff).
FADE:
9 INT. Pentagon
E-ring, fourth-deck conference room 9
INSIDE THE PENTAGON, the camera moves like a drone through the
halls, to an elevator, and emerges on the fourth deck of the E-ring, the text
briefly displays “Pentagon E-Ring, Fourth Deck” then enters a conference room
with U-shaped table and a projection screen at one end. REAGAN, GEORGE H. W. BUSH
and his national security transition team greet other officers and aides
totaling about a dozen people in the room. A bulky black leather case sits on
the table.
CHAIRMAN
JONES
“I trust
everyone in this room has Yankee White clearance? (AN ATTACHE STANDING NEARBY
NODS IN THE AFFIRMATIVE) Very well, Mister President-Elect, Mister Vice
President-elect, I present to you the Joint Chiefs.” (ALL SHAKE HANDS WITH
REAGAN)
MARINE
CORPS GENERAL ROBERT BARROW
“How was
your flight in from Camp David, sir?”
PRESIDENT-ELECT
REAGAN
“Fine,
thanks to your Marines, GENERAL BARROW. And to the Carters for extending the
courtesy. They were very gracious -- for Democrats.” (RESTRAINED
LAUGHTER ALL AROUND)
“I’ve never
seen so many brass hats in one place. I think you know the members of my
national security transition team who are with me today – DICK ALLEN, JIM
NANCE, and of course the next VICE PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH...”
NAVY
ADMIRAL TOM HAYWARD
(INTERRUPTING)
“Good to see you back here again, BUD. How’s retirement at 40 treating you?”
DEPUTY NSA
NOMINEE JIM “BUD” NANCE
“Not quite 40
yet (IN A SOUTHERN DRAWL), Admiral. But a few folks are trying to keep me from retiring.
If it’s not General Haig, it’s Senator Helms. It took the next President of the
United States to reel me back in.”
VICE
PRESIDENT-ELECT GEORGE BUSH
“And how is
President Haig these days?” (MORE LAUGHTER)
PRESIDENT-ELECT
REAGAN
“All right,
why don’t we take our seats, gentlemen. (ATTENDEES FIND THEIR SEATS AND SIT) CHAIRMAN
JONES, my transition team appreciates your straightforward answers to our many
questions. I hope we weren’t too much of a nuisance. One of the things I have
learned since joining the Committee on the Present Danger last year was that, while
the Soviets pretended to usher in a new era of peace and friendship, signing
the SALT treaties and the Helsinki accords, the Kissinger era of détente unfortunately
proved to be a distraction. We now see the Soviets exploited that fragile peace
by pursuing a massive military buildup of offensive weapons. Make no mistake
that the arms race never ended, gentlemen, but at this time only one side is
racing.”
CHAIRMAN
JONES
“I was
nominated by your predecessor, Mister President. But I serve any commander in
chief. As you may have learned from the committee, I have no illusions about
what lies ahead. The coming days may be some of the most difficult in our
nation’s history. Of particular concern is the growth in the Soviet military
capability beyond what we think is necessary for their national security needs.
At the time of the Cuban Missile crisis, the American military had ten times
the number of nuclear warheads as the Soviets. We’ve since reduced our inventory
by a significant amount. But the Soviets have expanded theirs tenfold,
including the introduction of new delivery systems – silo-based
intercontinental ballistic missiles, bomber platforms for cruise missiles,
sub-launched medium-range missiles and land-based mobile missiles. I must say,
in all candor, our defenses against these new systems are limited.”
PRESIDENT-ELECT
REAGAN
“CHAIRMAN
JONES, I appreciate your candor but I will reiterate here what I said last year
during the campaign to underscore what will be our defense policy going forward,
that it wasn’t just some campaign slogans. It is my firm belief that war comes
not when the forces of freedom are strong, but when they are weak. As you may
have heard, I intend to put America back in the way of the Soviets. To that
end, we’re going to pursue the largest peacetime military buildup in our
nation’s history. I want to assure you and others here that that also wasn’t
just a campaign slogan.”
(Reagan’s
remarks are greeted with restrained smiles and nodding heads by the Joint
Chiefs and their aides).
“It may get
a little rough at times, so I will need your support of this young administration,
even if some of its members are not so young.” (SOME LAUGHTER)
CHAIRMAN
JONES
“Indeed you
will. So this Pre-Inauguration Nuclear Briefing won’t take long, Mister
President. And I will still call you that, if that’s alright.”
PRESIDENT-ELECT
REAGAN
“I might as
well start getting used to it.” (HE SMILES)
CHAIRMAN
JONES
“Very well,
even though it’s not official until twelve-hundred on the 20th of January.
And at that time, an attaché from each of the armed forces will be assigned to
you and the vice president on a rotating basis accompanied with this, the
Presidential Emergency Satchel (he places his hand on the black leather suitcase).
They will be with you everywhere you go and be...”
“Everywhere I go?” (LAUGHTER
IN THE ROOM)
CHAIRMAN
JONES
“Yes sir.
Maybe not always in the same room but certainly a few steps away. Today you
will be familiarized with the satchel, its contents and how to use them. That familiarity
may leave you with a greater sense of what is the most terrible responsibility
you will have as president ... and as vice president, MISTER BUSH.”
PRESIDENT-ELECT
REAGAN
“It is a
responsibility I’d prefer to be rid of. Perhaps once we restore our strength,
we can someday get rid of these awful weapons through negotiation.”
(That
brings a hushed silence to the room and smiles of disbelief from the Joint
Chiefs toward REAGAN’s apparent naivete. JONES pushes the satchel aside and an
aide carries it over to where REAGAN is sitting.)
CHAIRMAN
JONES
“Mister
President – gentlemen, this seems like an opening to understand why the West’s
main adversary has 30,000 nuclear warheads pointed at us – enough to destroy us
– indeed the world many times over. So we’ve invited Harvard University’s top
historian on the Soviet Union, and for the past four years, the leader of what
has been called the B-team to check a détente-minded CIA when it comes to the
Soviets, Mister RICHARD PIPES...”
RICHARD
PIPES
PIPES WALKS
TO THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE TABLE FROM REAGAN AND SPEAKS WITH A SMILE. “I’m a
great admirer of yours, sir. And it’s an honor to finally meet you. I have
advised presidents since Harry Truman and, ever since I started working with
your transition team, I’ve come to believe you’re the West’s best hope of
turning back the red tide while we still can.” REAGAN NODS TO HIM WITH A
CLOSED-MOUTH SMILE.
“So Mister REAGAN,
you’re aware of how long the Cold War has been going on?”
A subtle,
stressful music fades in but remains in the background.
“Oh, yes. Back to my years in Hollywood.
Even before then, when I was still narrating films for the American Office of
War Information.”
RICHARD
PIPES
“Ah, yes. My
favorite was the film you narrated on the Tuskegee Airmen.”
PRESIDENT-ELECT
REAGAN
“Well, thank
you. That was one of my favorites, too.”
RICHARD
PIPES
“Many
people agree with you that the end of World War Two and the advent of the
Truman Doctrine in 1947 marked the start of the Cold War. And for us, that’s
true. Others suggest it was the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. But I will argue
until my last breath that the Cold War began more than 400 years ago in 1547...”
DISSOLVE:
10 INT./EXT. Montage of scenes of Russia in the
1500s 10
WHILE PIPES IS TALKING, scenes of Ivan The Terrible’s ascendency
to tsardom are shown, including the coronation of Ivan the Fourth at the Assumption
Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, ordering the murder of aristocratic boyars, next
we seen Ivan as a weathered man in his 50s, directing from horseback a battle
against the Mongols, kneeling before church leaders who blessed him, beating
his 27-year-old son to death with a wooden club while his son tried to protect
his pregnant wife who also was beaten, and again on horseback riding slowly with
his army, defeated by the Poles in the Baltics.
RICHARD
PIPES
“In the
most westerly province of the great Mongol Empire that extended from the Volga
to the Pacific. That westerly province was the Muscovite Principality where a
paranoid 16-year-old prince would emerge to impose Russia’s oppressive domestic
polices and to set its imperial foreign mission that continues to this day.
That ruler in 1547 became the first czar of Russia, Ivan the Fourth – henceforth,
Ivan the Terrible. His wars of conquest over the Mongols created a national consciousness
which had hardly existed before in Muscovy. He envisioned a New Rome to lead
and missionize Christendom from Moscow, rather than from the Vatican, and for
the next 54 years of his brutal rule, set forth a vision for establishing a Greater
Eurasia from sea to sea and dominated from Moscow. It spread to the Pacific in
the East and soon turned west toward Europe. It achieved ruthless gains and,
for our instruction here, endured stunning setbacks that would have destroyed
other nations. Instead...”
DISSOLVE:
11 INT. Pentagon E-ring, fourth-deck conference
room 11
RICHARD
PIPES
“...It
regrouped, sometimes taking a century to recover enough to fight again for its
vision of a Greater Eurasia under Muscovy’s domination, and each time adding
more territory to its sphere of influence. Russia’s imperialism became a socio-political
convention under Ivan that has endured to this day. After Ivan rose to power, Russia
added an average of 14,000 square miles of territory each year over 150 years.
It has proven to be very addictive and has not faded away.”
NSA ALLEN
“Why didn’t
the Bolshevik Revolution and its crushing of religion end this desire for a
Greater Eurasia?”
RICHARD
PIPES
“Good
question, Richard. If anything it reinvigorated it. Revolutions come and go in
Russia. But each has been in pursuit of new leaders to elevate Moscow as the
new Rome, to control what it considers as a restless, militant Europe as Rome
once did. This imperialism represents nationalism over patriotism and terrorism
and oppression over justice and liberty. Religion remains in the Soviet Union
but, officially, only Russian Orthodoxy and more so as a function of statecraft,
control and national identity rather than as a source of spiritual strength. At
the end of World War Two, Russia saw its best chance to dominate all of Europe
just as America shed its isolationism and rebuilt war-torn Western Europe under
America’s protection. So we’re the latest and biggest barrier in the path of
Russia’s drive for a Greater Eurasia.”
PRESIDENT-ELECT
REAGAN
“Very
interesting. Let me ask you – do you want a job? (LAUGHS AROUND THE ROOM) “I
could use more men like you.”
The subtle,
tense background music fades out.
“Given all of this history, it seems that the
Russians’ culture is quite defined by their institutionalized imperialism.”
VICE PRESIDENT-ELECT BUSH
“It would seem so,” he says, as one of the
generals lights a cigarette.
PRESIDENT-ELECT REAGAN
“Mister Pipes, since the Russians are playing
the long game, perhaps you can tell me where there’s a happy ending in all of this?”
RICHARD PIPES
“I'm a history professor, not a prognosticator,
Mister President. Sorry.”
“But by
understanding their
history, you know the Russians’ tendencies, including their weaknesses, correct?”
RICHARD PIPES
“The Russians do back down when confronted with
strength, but they don’t stay down. Like water, they persist in finding a new way
through. They're also very paranoid, like Ivan. It's a trait found throughout
Russian aristocracy. That makes them vulnerable to feints and provocations but they’re
also very dangerous and unpredictable. So if you scare them too much to where
they become convinced that you’re going to attack them, they may try to attack
you first.”
REAGAN nods and jots down some notes.
NSA ALLEN
“That brings me to another question, and it’s
admittedly a leading question. So before we get to the nuclear football, can
the Chiefs tell us how many different response scenarios to a nuclear attack
exist in the Single Integrated Operational Plan?”
CHAIRMAN JONES
“There’s literally dozens of options within
each of the limited, intermediate and major attack options. And each of these
are based on a response to what we believe is the Red SIOP being carried out
against us by the enemy which can range from requiring a launch-on-warning in
the event of a decapitation strike to...”
PRESIDENT-ELECT REAGAN
“Chairman, the decision to launch, regardless
of the attack scenario, is mine to make. And you say there are dozens of these
contingency responses to a nuclear attack? Everything would happen so fast that
I wonder how much planning or reason could be applied in a crisis like this. As
I understand, the Russians’ submarines off the East Coast could destroy
Washington DC within six minutes. Six minutes to decide how to respond to a
blip on a radar scope and whether to unleash Armageddon! How can anyone apply
reason at a time like that?”
CHAIRMAN JONES
“That’s why we need launch-on-warning as an
option. And it’s why our military trains repeatedly on the SIOP options so that
they can act quickly and instinctively, sir. And you will too, Mister President
and Mister Vice President. You’ll be a part of it starting with your first
briefing on the SIOP in March.”
NSA ALLEN
“But RON’s concern is my concern -- albeit from
the other side. Look at it from the Soviets’ perspective. Perhaps the Joint
Chiefs have some reassurances, but think about what happened last summer when a
malfunctioning computer chip made us think we were under attack. If it’s happening
to us, it’s happening to them. I find it very unsettling that we are confronted
by an incredibly paranoid opponent at a time when the military technology of
the day has grown so powerful and so fast that it has reduced warning times to
so little that our nation’s survival, indeed the survival of the world, is at
the mercy of an enemy who must decide our fate in less time than it takes the
general to finish his cigarette.”
One of the generals was extinguishing his
cigarette by stabbing it into an ashtray, with the smoke rising from the ashes.
CHAIRMAN JONES
“I appreciate your concern, but after that
computer malfunction last June, we expanded the access points for MOLINK to
include the Joint Chiefs and the Stavka.”
PRESIDENT-ELECT REAGAN
“MOLINK?”
CHAIRMAN JONES
“That’s the so-called hotline, a teleprinter
system between the White House and Moscow that was established after the Cuban
Missile Crisis. It now includes the military leadership so we can avoid
escalations resulting from technical malfunctions like the one that MISTER
ALLEN was talking about. So we’ve already addressed that.”
Music “Breathing” by Kate Bush fades in from
3:00
NSA ALLEN
“What about escalations caused by something
else?” His question is answered only by puzzled looks. “What about a cultural
or political misunderstanding?”
CHAIRMAN JONES
“I think we would see that coming.”
NSA ALLEN
“Do you? Look, given the incredibly short
warning times of attack and the fact that neither side trusts the other, we
need to beef up our intelligence gathering. We need to know that an attack may
be coming BEFORE they give the order. I don’t know about you, but I’m someone
who prefers to have an umbrella ready before it rains.”
PRESIDENT-ELECT REAGAN
“Yes, agreed. Let’s make it happen. Now, I’m
dying to see what’s inside that nuclear football. General?”
STANDARD CUT:
12 EXT. 100
MILES ABOVE EARTH 12
Music “Breathing” continues
LOOKING
DOWN FROM SPACE AT A STORM over the Atlantic Ocean from an ICBM-level
view travels east over Europe, passing satellites every so often that are
conveying news of the day – A news report in English is heard.
NEWS
REPORTER’S VOICE 1
“Following
the attempt on his life in March, PRESIDENT REAGAN has ordered a sweeping
review of the continuity of government operations in the event of a sudden nuclear
attack. In the chaos after REAGAN and three others were shot by would-be assassin
John Hinckley Junior, some members of the president’s cabinet could not be
located for up to 30 minutes. Pursuit of the review, the details of which are
classified, show the concern...” The news report fades.
Music
“Breathing” fades.
Music
“Soviet Union anthem – instrumental” starts from beginning.
The camera begins descending at a threatening rate of speed, zooming
in on Moscow and, specifically, Lubyanka Square and its KGB headquarters.
BRIGHT FLASH TRANSITION:
13 EXT.
KGB Headquarters – DAY 13
The camera travels like a drone toward the yellow building and
enters it.
Text on screen: “KGB Headquarters, Sunday, May
10, 1981”.
FADE:
14 INT.
KGB Headquarters 14
The camera enters the building and travels down so many halls in
the labyrinth to the point that it becomes comical, past numerous security
stations to the inside of a small, non-descript auditorium lined with cellulose
acoustic wall panels. A late-arriving man in a suite enters the room, passes through
a metal detector and is patted down by armed guards before taking his seat. Fewer
than 100 people are seated in the auditorium, many of them Soviet military and
the others dressed in suits. There are few women. An older man is speaking at a
podium without a microphone, set on a stage where several other older men are
seated alongside.
Music
“Soviet anthem” slowly fades
Text on screen: “Soviet General
Secretary Leonid Brezhnev”
GENERAL
SECRETARY LEONID BREZHNEV
In English:
“Premier Tikhonov. Chairman Andropov. Ladies and
gentlemen of military, republics and directors of our residenturas. (BREZHNEV coughs
twice into his fist). You are brought here so we are not looking for umbrellas
after storm hits. We face threat from West without precedence – a threat that
has worsened by this last American election and has survived the assassin’s bullets.
This born-again Roman Christian, fascinated with Apocalypse and End Times, is
who opposes us. You are called to defend Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and
its allies not with guns or tanks or planes but with your eyes and ears. And so
Chairman Andropov will inform you of Chekist works in silent preparation over
two years to identify and diagnose symptoms like doctor would to warn patient
before he is stricken (BREZHNEV coughs again). So in coming months, I will meet
our European allies to establish protocols for a rapid military response while you
learn and report requested information no matter how unimportant they may seem
– at that moment. We cannot risk missing information, for this risk of surprise
attack is greater than ever before. And so I defer...”
Brezhnev steps from the podium to polite applause, shakes the
hand of ANDROPOV and sits as ANDROPOV takes the podium.
Text on screen: “KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov”
KGB
CHAIRMAN YURI ANDROPOV
“General
Secretary...” He nods. “On behalf of Committee for State Security, I am here to
tell you, directorates in all our republics, our rezidenturas, the GRU, Glavnyi
protivnik United States of America is, even today, preparing for nuclear war
against Soviet Union and its allies. To deny this is insanity!”
WHILE
ANDROPOV IS SPEAKING, we see historical footage of Germany’s Operation
Barbarossa in 1941, showing a large number of German armored vehicles and
infantry firing and moving fast during its blitzkrieg invasion of the Soviet
Union. German bombers are seen dropping many bombs, and we see the result, of
Russian cities being destroyed and citizens running in fear from the explosions
and buildings collapsing.
“Have we not learned the lessons of 1941, a
surprise attack leading to the greatest disaster in our history? Twenty-seven
millions of our countrymen dead. Cities destroyed. A nation wrecked, requiring
vast sums to rebuild. Never again, we said! Yet, we see this aspiration again
today, to upend delicate military-strategic balance not only in imperialist’s words
but in its deeds. To that solemn purpose, Institute for Intelligence Problems,
coordinated by our First Chief Directorate, was tasked to develop new
intelligence concepts to provide preliminary warning of preparations by the
U.S. and NATO for Raketno Yadernoye Napadenie as Operation RYaN. Such intelligence
works will predict a sudden outbreak of war by a decadent enemy. We will stop
them with our eyes, ears and brains! We will turn them back with our
creativity! We will destroy them with influences of their weaknesses, of thirst
for political corruption and hunger for power!”
SCENE of
the audience erupting into enthusiastic applause. The camera returns to show
ANDROPOV.
YURI
ANDROPOV
“To achieve
this, your residenzies will actively obtain information on military and
strategic issues, aggressive military and political plans of imperialism by USA
and its criminal accomplices. As General Secretary assures, no morsel may be
too small to consume to ease threat of nuclear attack. We will add 300 comrades
to your ranks for this purposes. We will have list of seven immediate and
thirteen prospective tasks for each residency to complete and report for transmission
and evaluation.”
The camera
scans the audience as ANDROPOV speaks. Many are smiling proudly. The camera
returns to ANDROPOV.
Music
“Soviet Anthem” 1977 version with vocals fades in from 2:30.
YURI
ANDROPOV
“Your
coordination with GRU will be unprecedented. We will have technology to
organize and analyze vast amounts of data. And you will have my gratitude as
your chairman in thwarting catastrophe by the imperialist aggressor. Your
success will be seen by everyone, not just in our Party of Lenin but across the
globe! For the strength of our party is in our people. To communism’s triumph,
lead us on!”
As BREZHNEV
and ANDROPOV stand and walk off the stage, all of the KGB and GRU directors simultaneously rise with a snap, stand at attention
and applaud with much energy.
Music ends.
STANDARD CUT:
15 EXT. 100 MILES ABOVE EARTH 15
Music:
"Just Can’t Get Enough" by Depeche Mode.
THE CAMERA
LAUNCHES TO ABOVE MOSCOW AND LOOKS DOWN from space, again at the city lights
across Northern Europe as the view looks and travels west.
A woman’s
voice conveys news of the day in a French accent:
NEWS
REPORTER’S VOICE 2
“Italian
police are investigating claims by Pope John Paul II’s would-be assassin Mehmet
Ali Ağca that the KGB hired him to kill the Polish pontiff for supporting the
Solidarity labor movement in Poland.”
It is
followed by static and another new report.
NEWS
REPORTER’S VOICE 3
“The Soyuz
40 spacecraft returned to Earth after an eight-day mission. It was the final
flight of its type and commanded by Leonid Popov and Dumitru Prunariu, a collaboration
of the Soviet Union and Romania....”
The camera
descends like an ICBM on the northeast side of Brussels onto the 1967-built
headquarters of NATO that looks from above like an LED figure-8 on its side,
connected to a two-story office building facing the south side of Avenue
Leopold III.
BRIGHT FLASH TRANSITION:
16 EXT.
OF NATO HQ 16
At ground
level, its public entrance and southerly façade would be unexceptional if not
for the impressive row of poles and wind-flapping flags of its 15 member
nations surrounding the oxidized steel sculpture known as the ‘NATO star.’
Text on
screen: “Headquarters, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Brussels,
Belgium.”
CONTINUE:
17 INT.
NATO HEADQUARTERS 17
THE CAMERA
RAPIDLY TRAVELS THROUGH NATO’S FRONT DOOR, heading straight back through its
lobby and enclosed walkway into the main building as the camera turns down a
long corridor to the left. It enters the Presentation Room with its high
ceiling, huge maps on the walls and, in the right corner, flags of member
nations. It is a venue for organizing remarkable military power. The camera
shows a woman pouring water into glasses set on a large U-shaped table and
another turning on and tapping microphones at each seat. A bearded man, with
short dark hair, thick glasses and wearing a black suit coat, pants and tie is walking
his way around the U-shaped table, from right to left. On the table in front of
each low-backed leather chair are black placards with the names of the member
nations: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg,
Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States and
Germany. The bearded man stops briefly to place on the table next to each
country’s placard a manila folder with a few papers inside. The camera follows
him when he passes the bottom of the U-shaped table. When he gets to the last
seat, for the representative from Germany, he places all of the remaining, extra
folders.
We then see
the bearded man walking down a hall, passing military officers who are heading
in the opposite direction. No salutes are exchanged.
Text
briefly appears: “Ranier Rupp, West German Rapporteur for NATO”
Text
briefly appears: “Thursday, May 28, 1981”
RAINER RUPP
opens the door to an office with the words “General Secretariat’s Economic
Directorate” on the door.
Music “Just
can’t get enough” fades out.
There, in a
messy office with many books and binders and stacked papers, RAINER RUPP sits
at his wide desk. A man walks in and dumps a thick binder of papers on his already
cluttered desk as he looks exasperated.
RAINER RUPP
“Was jetzt?”
(speaking in an American accent) “Secretary Luns
wants an economist’s view of how this’ll affect your budget.”
RAINER RUPP
(in a
German accent) “Which budget?”
ASSISTANT
SECRETARY GENERAL
“West
Germany’s active and reserve forces in NATO.”
RAINER RUPP
“When does
he want it?”
ASSISTANT
SECRETARY GENERAL
“By the
middle of next week.”
RAINER RUPP
He partly
stops a burst of disbelieving laughter as he reads out loud the title of the
binder.
“Proposed
enhanced U.S.-Saudi Arabia trade policies... Verdammt! Does REAGAN want to make
an arms deal with the Saudis to produce more oil?”
ASSISTANT
SECRETARY GENERAL
“Sure sounds
like it.”
RAINER RUPP
“That won’t
make the Soviets very happy.”
“Good.
Whatever it takes to weaken their economy, cut funding for their military, cut
inflation in the west, end our recession, those sorts of things.”
RAINER RUPP
“My staff
and I are not finished das report from the last Current Intelligence Group. And
we’re about to start budget meetings for Autumn Forge. I’m afraid I can’t spare
the time unless I can take this binder home and read it on the weekend?”
ASSISTANT
SECRETARY GENERAL
“Yeah sure.
It’s not like it’s a secret war plan or anything. Just keep it secure in that clunky
briefcase you always bring your lunch in.”
STANDARD CUT:
18 EXT.
NATO PARKING LOT, ROAD TO RUPP’S HOME-EVENING 18
Music “Just
can’t get enough” fades back in at about 2:39.
THE CAMERA
FOLLOWS RUPP TO HIS CAR AND then follows his car through suburban Brussels to RUPP’s
modern, well-kept suburban house.
STANDARD
CUT:
19 INT. INSIDE RUPP’S HOME 19
RAINER RUPP
enters the house with the briefcase, opens it and removes the thick binder.
Music ends.
RAINER RUPP
“Schatz,
ich brauche deine Hilfe.”
Text on
screen: “Honey, I need your help.”
(her disembodied voice from somewhere else in
the house speaks in a British accent) “Ich bin bei dem
Baby.”
Text on
screen: “I’m with the baby.”
RAINER RUPP
“Ich werde
im Keller sein und den Kopierer aufwärmen.”
Text on
screen: “I’ll be in the basement warming up the copier.”
(After RAINER
descends into the basement, ANN comes to the top of the basement stairs)
(She
switches to English and her British accent becomes more noticeable) “RAINER!
Did you... I've told you a million times I'm not doing this anymore. And I've
asked you a million times to please stop. Please! Stop!
(Baby
starts crying)
RAINER RUPP
(In the basement, he flips a
switch on the Gestetner copier which turns on its fan and the copier makes a
series of clunking noises while he clicks open the binder and starts pulling
out its pages)
“There's
hundreds of pages here, ANN. And I can't stop. Not now. This is too important.”
“Important
enough to go to prison for? Important enough to leave your child without a
father? I would have thought that would have meant something, especially to
you.”
(Baby cries
harder)
RAINER RUPP
“That's not fair, ANN. This isn't about my
father or even my stepfather. I'm doing things they never did. Things they
couldn't even imagine me doing. And my father didn't get me a job at NATO.”
ANN-CHRISTINE
RUPP
“No, but my
father did! And so did I when I hid your extra-curricular activities in college.”
ANN quickly
turns to go back upstairs as the copier finishes warming up. With his head
down, RAINER quietly opens the copier lid and places the first document on the
glass, closes the lid and makes a copy. He opens the lid, removes the page,
puts in the next sheet, lowers the lid and hits the copy button again.
A short
time later, RAINER walks into the living room where ANN is nursing the baby. He
sits down next to her on the couch and caresses her hair, then gently places
the back of his hand on the baby’s cheek as she nurses quietly.
Music
“Games Without Frontiers” by Peter Gabriel plays from the beginning.
“All done?”
RAINER RUPP
(He looks
up from the baby to look into her eyes) “Yes.”
ANN-CHRISTINE
RUPP
“Do we have
to deliver it?”
RAINER RUPP
“Yes.”
ANN-CHRISTINE
RUPP
“So where
are we going on holiday this time?”
STANDARD CUT:
20 EXT.
100 MILES ABOVE EARTH
20
Music
“Games without frontiers” continues
LOOKING DOWN FROM SPACE AT CLEAR SKIES OVER WESTERN EUROPE, the
view is from an ICBM’s apogee, traveling east above Eastern Europe and
descending into the Soviet Union. The music plays as a news report in a British
accent is read.
“Prime
Minister Margaret Thatcher today said she supported President Reagan’s goal to begin
deploying Pershing II and ground-launched cruise missiles in the UK, West
Germany and other NATO nations as early as mid-1983. This is in response to the
Soviet Union deploying SS-20 intermediate-range nuclear missiles in
Soviet-controlled Warsaw Pact countries, only minutes from Western European
capitals. The NATO deployments however are seen as a deterrent to a possible
invasion of Western Europe by numerically superior Soviet conventional forces.”
The camera’s view descends upon Moscow, dropping onto the Dorogomilovo
District, west of the Moscow River, and across the Kutuzovsky
Prospekt from the gothic Hotel Ukraine.
BRIGHT FLASH TRANSITION:
21 EXT.
OF Kutuzovsky apartment house, Moscow 21
Music
“Games without frontiers” continues
The
sidewalk in front of an eight-story house of flats on Kutuzovsky Prospekt is
lined with Moscow’s finest shops and social elite, including some of the everyday
foreign diplomats who still get odd glances from locals and KGB minders trying
not to look obvious while pretending to read Pravda.
Text on
screen: “7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 29, 1981, Dorogomilovo District, Moscow,
Soviet Union.”
A British
MI6 officer wearing green trousers and carrying a green Harrods bag in one hand
and a KitKat candy bar in the other walked up to a bakery across from the Hotel
Ukraine. The officer bought a loaf of bread, slipped it into the Harrods bag,
walked out, opened the KitKat bar, took a bite of it, expressed disgust at the
taste of it, looked around, and walked on.
22 EXT.
OF Moscow-DAY 22
Music
“Games without frontiers” continues
Starts silent but gains an increasing sound of wind, the camera
fast-travels from the prior scene, along and above the Moscow River upstream
around the oxbow of the Khamovniki District, to the Moskvoretskaya Embankment
in the administrative district of Moscow.
Music
“Games without frontiers” fades after the first chorus.
The Kremlin and the domes of St. Basil’s are seen in the
background and blur as the camera slows and closes in on a brown-haired man
jogging, wearing a dark blue tracksuit and glasses.
Music “Concerto
For Two Violins” by Bach starts from beginning.
Camera nears the jogging man, OLEG GORDIEVSKY. Camera follows
the nearly 43-year-old man while he jogs along the river toward Kitaygorodskiy
Proyezd. The camera angle changes to an elevated view, as if it were from a
surveillance position atop a nearby building. GORDIEVSKY crosses the street and
heads away from the river, with the Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building
dominating the background. GORDIEVSKY jogs toward Lubyanka Square. He runs
through a puddle on the sidewalk but instead falls into it knee-deep.
Music ends
abruptly.
His glasses fall off into the water. He immediately jumps out,
his tracksuit soiled by the mucky water.
“Блядь!!”
BABUSHKA
BYSTANDER
“Young man,
are you hurt?”
“My glasses, where are they? They're gone!”
“Go into
water and take them.”
“The water smells like shit.” He says
looking down at his soiled tracksuit. “I am not going back in. Terrible, this
country – I hate it!”
“Police! The
horror! Police!”
OLEG
GORDIEVSKI
“Woman, calm
down please. I am Lieutenant in Committee for State Security.”
BABUSHKA
BYSTANDER
“And I am wife
of Lenin...” she says as she walks away, waving her hand by her ear as if to
swat away a fly.
STANDARD CUT:
23 INT. Sauna and locker room at KGB HQ 23
OLEG
GORDIEVSKY is seen showering himself and rinsing his tracksuit next to a sauna
in which several older men are taking a schvitz and talking to each other in
hushed voices. Next, OLEG GORDIEVSKY is hanging up his tracksuit in a locker
and putting on a business suit.
STANDARD
CUT:
24 INT. Classroom at KGB HQ 24
The camera enters a classroom of about 50 young
adults mostly in their 20s and 30s and moves down the rows of people sitting in
chairs with tablet arms while an instructor points to images
inserted into a slide projector. The people in the room call out the identities
of the images in English but with Russian accents:
“Duck, dog,
tank, cat, airplane, snake, bomb, car, house, gun...”
With the
camera finally stopping at OLEG GORDIEVSKY, who is older than the rest of his
classmates. He is among those trying to quickly identify the pictures with
English words despite him squinting at the screen without his glasses.
OLEG GORDIEVSKY notices a man in a suit
standing in the doorway to the classroom. The instructor and some students also
see him too but continue their lesson. The man in the door motions to OLEG
GORDIEVSKY to come to him which he does. They both exit the classroom for the
hallway.
Text on screen: “Nikolai Gribin, Head of KGB’s
Scandanavian-British Section”
“Олег, можешь рассказать, что с тобой сегодня
случилось, когда ты потерял очки?
Text on screen: “OLEG, can you tell me what
happened to you today when you lost your glasses?”
OLEG GORDIEVSKY
(Looking at the envelope in GRIBIN’s hand)
“Ничего, товарищ Грибин.”
Text on
screen: “It was
nothing, Comrade Gribin.”
NIKOLAI GRIBIN
“И почему ты берешь больше уроков английского,
если ты сдала экзамен по английскому?”
Text on screen: “And why are you taking more
English classes when you passed English exam?”
OLEG GORDIEVSKY
Speechless from surprise, he then gathers
himself.
“Я не знал, что я прошел” he says with a hint
of a smile.
Text on screen: “Uh, I did not know I had
passed.”
NIKOLAI GRIBIN
(matter-of-factly)
“Да. Я хотел, чтобы вы знали, что вы сдали свой
последний дипломатический экзамен, и я отправил ваше имя.”
Text on screen: “Yes. I wanted you to know you
passed your final diplomatic exam and I have submitted your name.”
OLEG GORDIEVSKY
Restraining his smile. “Это приятно знать, сэр.”
Text on screen: “That is good to know, sir.”
NIKOLAI GRIBIN
“Очень хорошо. And how is your English?”
OLEG GORDIEVSKY
“It good fine very.”
STANDARD
CUT:
2 EXT.
city of Moscow – TWILIGHT 25
Music “Waltz
No. 2” by Dmitri Shostakovich, whimsical-sounding version, starts from
beginning.
Exterior
view starting at Lubyanka Square from near the ground by the original statue of
Iron Felix Dzerzhinsky, founder of the first communist secret police. In the
background, OLEG GORDIEVSKY emerges from the yellow KGB HQ building and walks
silently while looking down like everyone else nearby but a little more quickly
than others, and heads towards and past the camera.
The view
turns 180 degrees to see him from behind, walking in the direction of the
Lubyanka subway station. The camera quickly catches up to him, takes over his
viewpoint and rapidly descends down the very long escalator into the Metro
station. It shoots down the Bolshaya Koltsevaya Line tunnel for seven miles to
the Vernadsky Avenue station where the camera rapidly emerges up another long
escalator, slows and turns to show GORDIEVSKY emerging from the subway, walking
past a sign with an arrow pointing north and that reads “Приют 28”
Text on
screen: “Shelter 28.”
A soldier
stops GORDIEVSKY, speaks to him inaudibly, GORDIEVSKY shows him his
identification and the soldier salutes before turning to confront another
passerby. The camera again travels quickly, this time down the heavily wooded
and pothole-filled Udaltsova Ulitsa. GORDIEVSKY makes extra efforts to avoid
the water-filled potholes. He crosses the wide Leninskiy Prospekt, to a row of
shop-lined, tall apartment buildings along the prospekt. GORDIESVSKY enters one
of the more modern apartment buildings.
STANDARD CUT:
26 INT. Gordievsky’s Moscow Apartment 26
Music “Waltz No. 2” continues.
The camera view is
inside an apartment showing LEILA GORDIEVSKY preparing
dinner and tending to her toddler daughter MARIA and newborn baby daughter ANNA.
OLEG GORDIEVSKY enters the apartment, says nothing, quickly kisses his wife,
pats his daughters, and goes to the lavatory. His wife goes back to preparing
the meal.
A toilet
flush is heard. OLEG GORDIEVSKY emerges seconds later smiling and happy,
holding a letter and an opened envelope, kissing his wife and daughters, this
time with more enthusiasm and joy.
Music ends abruptly.
STANDARD CUT:
27 EXT.
100 MILES ABOVE EARTH
27
Music “London
Calling” by The Clash starts from the beginning.
LOOKING
DOWN FROM SPACE AT SCATTERED CLOUDS above the Baltic Sea from an ICBM-level
view travels west over northern Europe, passing a few satellites. A news report
is heard in German: “West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt today condemned a
massive Soviet military attack exercise called Zapad-81 now underway and
involving 150,000 troops, with ground, naval and air forces in Poland as a show
of force to NATO and to Polish opponents of communist rule. The exercises,
Schmidt said, violated the Helsinki Accords regarding notification of military
exercises...” The camera begins descending at a threatening rate of speed onto Central
London.
We see
London from the Thames River. The cars, buses and people are crossing the Tower
Bridge. Big Ben is shown. Then we see the Waterloo section of London and the
MI6 headquarters at Century House.
BRIGHT
FLASH TRANSITION:
28 EXT. Century
House – DAY 28
At eye level on
Westminster Bridge Road, the camera moves toward the base of the 22-story-tall,
modernist-style Century House.
Text on
screen: “Sunday, Nov. 15, 1981”
Text on screen: “MI6 headquarters, Century
House, London, England.”
There is no
name displayed on the building’s bland façade, the main entrance to which is on
Pearman Street.
29 INT. Century House 29
The camera enters the
building’s stark, undecorated lobby except for a wall-mounted portrait of Queen
Elizabeth II. It travels into the elevator and emerges onto an upper-floor
hallway with office workers coming and going. The camera enters an unremarkable
office that is largely devoid of furniture except for a desk, chair and a table
with an in/out box for interoffice correspondence. A man in a collared shirt
and tie is sitting at the desk making a phone call.
Music
“London Calling” fades slowly after about 1:00.
Text on
screen: “John Scarlett, head of MI6’s Soviet Operations Section”
JOHN
SCARLETT
“Good
morning. Will you kindly connect me to an outside line, please?”
STANDARD CUT:
30 EXT.
Garden at a home in West Clandon, Surrey – DAY 30
A short,
middle-aged woman with graying hair is tending to her very neatly kept garden
of flowers outside her unattached comfortable brick home among others of a
similar 1970s suburban design in the rural village. Sounds of birds chirping
are heard.
Text on
screen: “West Clandon, Surrey, England”
Text on
screen: “Valerie Pettit, Deputy Head of MI-6’s Soviet Section.”
The yard is
surrounded by a two-meter-high wooden fence. The phone inside the house rings
with an obnoxious tone.
“Oh blast it!”
She picks
herself up and rubs her hands together to get most of the dirt off her hands as
she rushes into the house via the back patio door.
“Don’t answer that, mum! I’ve
got it!”
VALERIE
PETTIT cleans her hands on a towel before picking up the handset of one of two
phones on the kitchen counter. This phone has no rotary dial or push buttons.
Just a round, blank plastic cover where a rotary dial would otherwise be.
VALERIE PETTIT
She answers
curtly. “I trust this is an emergency?”
JOHN
SCARLETT
“Sorry to
bother you at home on a Sunday but if you can come in this afternoon, something
important has come up.”
VALERIE
PETTIT
“Can’t it
wait until tomorrow? I just got back from church and I’ve been in my garden. I
look a fright.”
JOHN
SCARLETT
“Can you
get a train from Clandon or drive up to Woking?”
“Oh rubbish. I’ll get
there as soon as I can. The Britrail schedule is horribly thin on Sundays. This
better be important.”
JOHN
SCARLETT
“Thank you.
I’ll see you as soon as you can get here.”
VALERIE
PETTIT
Hangs up
the phone and yells to the other room. “Mum, I’m heading to the office. I’ll
probably get dinner in the city.”
MUM PETTIT
She walks
into the kitchen. “Alright my dear. Did you see we have new neighbors? They’re
unloading a lorry next door.”
VALERIE
PETTIT strolls out the front door with her purse strap over her shoulder and heads
over to the neighbor’s house in the village setting, with brick dividers and
tall hedgerows lining the lane. She walks right up to the family unloading the
truck.
Music from
inside the house grows louder as she nears the house.
Music
“Urgent” by Foreigner is heard fading in from about 1 minute into the song.
VALERIE
PETTIT
“Hello new
neighbors!”
TREVOR
SMITH
STARTLED. “Oh
hello. I hope we weren’t making too much noise.”
VALERIE
PETTIT
“Not at
all. My mum saw you moving in so I dropped by to say hello and to welcome you
to you West Clandon.”
TREVOR
SMITH
“Thank you.
The name is TREVOR and we’re actually very familiar with West Clandon. My wife
and I lived in a small flat just over in Guilford Town Center but we’re
starting a family. Do you have children?”
VALERIE
PETTIT
“Just my
mum and sister.”
TREVOR
SMITH
“Ah, I’m
sorry, but I didn’t catch your name.”
VALERIE
PETTIT
“Did I not
say? Terribly sorry. It’s JOAN.”
They shake hands. “My wife CAROL is
inside someplace. I’m sure she’ll be back out here in a minute.”
VALERIE
PETTIT
“What is
that -- that music? Is it new?”
TREVOR
SMITH
“Yes, a new
release by Foreigner.”
VALERIE
PETTIT
“Are they
foreign?”
TREVOR
SMITH
“A mix of
British and American, I believe.”
VALERIE
PETTIT
“British?
Ah, well then, very good! I don’t mean to be rude but unfortunately I have to go
into the office right now -- but I wanted to say hello.”
TREVOR
SMITH
“You work on
Sunday?”
VALERIE
PETTIT
“I’m a
secretary in the Foreign Office.”
TREVOR
SMITH
“Oh how
exciting!”
VALERIE
PETTIT
“Not really.
Until the next time, then. Cheers.”
The
background music “Urgent” ends.
STANDARD CUT:
31 INT.
Century House
31
The camera
heads down a mostly empty hall at Century House. From behind, the camera catches up to a man
and woman walking together who present their identifications to a security
officer standing at a door. He unlocks the door for them. The man and woman walk
into an outer office and are greeted by a man seated at a desk.
AIDE TO THE
DEPUTY CHIEF
“Good afternoon.
I’ll ring the deputy chief. (He turns to talk into the desktop intercom) Sir, VALERIE
and the Chief of P5 are here.”
“You forgot my name already?”
AIDE TO THE
DEPUTY CHIEF
“You never
told me your name.”
MI6 DEPUTY
CHIEF COLIN FIGURES
“Send them
in.”
JOHN
SCARLETT
“It’s SCARLETT.
JOHN SCARLETT.”
(The aide
gives JOHN SCARLETT an indifferent look. A buzzer sounds and the door to the
deputy chief’s office opens. JOHN SCARLETT and VALERIE PETTIT walk in).
JOHN
SCARLETT
“Good afternoon,
COLIN.”
COLIN
FIGURES
“Good afternoon
to you both. My schedule today is a chock-a-block so I’m afraid I haven’t much
time.”
Text on
screen: “Colin Figures, Deputy Chief of MI6”
JOHN
SCARLETT
“Yes, I
heard. More of the Troubles in Belfast?”
COLIN
FIGURES
“Sadly. Ten
Maze Prison hunger strikers dead so far this year. And each funeral escalating into
more riots and violence. It’s a deadly cycle.”
JOHN
SCARLETT
“Indeed,
but I won’t honor criminals by calling them political prisoners. But I will
honor your service, sir. Allow me to offer you my best wishes. We’re going to
miss you.”
“I’m not dying, for crissakes. But I’m going to miss
spending as much time on developing new comrades. You said something important
has come up?”
JOHN
SCARLETT
“Indeed it
has. SUNBEAM was submitted to our Foreign Office to fill a counselor vacancy at
the Soviet’s embassy here in London.”
PETTIT laughs
with joyful surprise, then hugs SCARLETT. He reacts with shock.
“Uh, right.
They’ve requested a visa for him.”
COLIN
FIGURES
“SUNBEAM...
That name is very familiar. KGB, correct?”
“Indeed. He is a junior-grade leftenant in
the KGB’s Third Department covering Britain and Scandinavia.”
Start of SCENES
of historical footage of the Soviets putting down the Prague uprising.
“He
approached the Danish intelligence service after the Soviet army crushed the Prague
Spring. SUNBEAM was already horrified by seeing firsthand the Berlin Wall go up
after he was posted there in sixty-one. He had hoped the Prague Spring was the
spark of democratic reforms behind the Iron Curtain that would spread to Russia
but the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia drove him to despair and henceforth
into our arms.”
End
historical scenes from Prague Spring.
“We were
very patient in developing him just in case he was a dangle. But SUNBEAM’s
information proved very valuable to us and to PET and led to the arrest of
three spies for the Soviets -- Arne Treholt, Gunvor Haavik and Stig Bergling.”
“Those sound familiar. From a few years ago,
right?”
“Yes. We
hadn’t heard a thing from him since he was recalled to Russia in seventy-eight after
he divorced his wife and married a woman he was having an affair with. The KGB
frowns on that, as you know.”
COLIN
FIGURES
“Of course...”
VALERIE
PETTIT
“Everything was deadly quiet until a few weeks
ago when he attended a consular reception and spoke to a Danish diplomat who
was tasked with finding out what happened to SUNBEAM. So he, SUNBEAM, told the
diplomat he was learning English from the KGB. When PET passed along that
information to us, JOHN and I got the bees knees. But this development is simply
glorious news!”
“Forgive me but I have to ask...
I assume SUNBEAM spoke Danish to be posted in Copenhagen and could speak German
to be posted in Berlin, correct?”
“Yes, he speaks Swedish, too.”
COLIN
FIGURES
“And now he
has learned English. So the KGB pays salary increases if you pass their
official foreign language courses.”
“That’s
right. Ten percent more for each foreign language with a maximum of two
languages...”
COLIN
FIGURES
“So he’s learned
another language for which he’s receiving no additional compensation. And now apparently
he wants to be transferred here? Doesn’t that ring any alarm bells?”
VALERIE PETTIT
“He helped
us catch three high-level Soviet spies, but what has he done for us lately?”
“VALERIE, my experience with the Homo
Sovieticus is that they are a creature borne of fear of their own authorities,
fear of foreigners, fear to the point of paranoia and fear of arrest for
stepping out of line with desires beyond those which are sanctioned by the
state. So here is a man who has gone above and beyond an oppressive system to
become a candidate to serve in the Soviet embassy across the Thames and no one
in the KGB has blocked his candidacy? If that’s not ringing alarms in Moscow,
shouldn’t it be ringing them here in London?”
VALERIE PETTIT
“I
understand your concern, COLIN, but let’s leave the paranoia to the Soviets.”
“I’m about to take the reins of
her Majesty’s Secret Service. And the only time the public hears about us is
when they go to a James Bond movie or when we fuck up like with George Blake or
the Cambridge Five. So when you tell me this man wants to help the West, I want
to know why.”
STANDARD CUT
31A Street
scenes of people enjoying freedoms of expression and protest in London give way
to street scenes of oppression in Moscow, displayed as SCARLETT reads the
following letter. 31A
STANDARD CUT
JOHN
SCARLETT
“COLIN, allow
me to read this letter from SUNBEAM, to your late predecessor Maurice Oldfield,
before SUNBEAM returned to Moscow. He wrote:
‘I must
emphasize that my decision is not the result of irresponsibility or instability
of character on my part. It has been preceded by a long spiritual struggle and
agonizing emotion, and an even deeper disappointment at developments in my own
country and my own experiences have brought me to the belief that democracy,
and the tolerance of humanity that follows it, represents the only road for my
country, which is European in spite of everything. The present regime is the
antithesis of democracy to an extent which Westerners can never fully grasp. If
a man realizes this, he must show the courage of his convictions and do
something himself to prevent slavery from encroaching further upon the realms
of freedom’.”
COLIN FIGURES
“Why did he write it?”
“It was in
response to a letter from your predecessor in which he personally expressed his
appreciation to SUNBEAM, to reassure him and to show that SIS took him
seriously.”
COLIN
FIGURES
“So why did
SUNBEAM disappear for three years without a word?”
VALERIE
PETTIT
“We can’t
know for certain yet, but it appears it was to get back in the good graces of
the KGB following his divorce so he would be chosen for a foreign assignment.
And with his studies of English it is clear he positioned himself for
assignment to London, whenever one might open up. One has opened, the KGB has
chosen him for it and they would like our Foreign Office to approve it. The
only question we should be asking ourselves here is how quickly we should approve
it without raising suspicions of the KGB.”
JOHN
SCARLETT
“COLIN, I
quite agree. It appears this chap has used incredible discipline and
demonstrated remarkable care over these three years. We also need to look at
sunsetting Operation PIMLICO, at least for the time being.”
Music “It’s
more fun to compute” by Kraftwerk slowly fades in from 1:02.
COLIN
FIGURES
“PIMLICO? Refresh my memory.”
“VALERIE has had our
Moscow station parade its people around a Kutz bakery eating a KitKat or Mars
Bar every Tuesday evening at seven-thirty for as long as SUNBEAM was out of
pocket.”
“I think they’ll be relieved they no
longer have to eat the same candy bars they’ve been eating for the past three
years.”
COLIN
FIGURES
He smiles. “Very
well, then. Let’s get SUNBEAM to London. And with this new phase, let’s give
him a new codename for crissakes.”
JOHN
SCARLETT
“Indeed, I
quite agree. NOCTON is next.”
COLIN
FIGURES
He shakes
his head with a blank expression. “Not much better.”
He looks up
and directly at SCARLETT and PETTIT.
“Try not to
muck this up, you two. We desperately need some wins against the Soviets and if
what you say is true, this can be huge one for us. That will be all.”
SCARLETT
and PETTIT nod, turn and leave the office, closing the door behind them.
SLOW
FADE TRANSITION:
32 EXT. 100 MILES ABOVE EARTH 32
Music “It’s
more fun to compute” continues.
THE CAMERA VIEW IS HIGH ABOVE THE EARTH, above the Austrian Alps.
Two satellites are passed and a news report is heard: “PRESIDENT REAGAN today
clarified remarks he made last week that the USA was insensitive to European fears
of a nuclear war with the Soviets breaking out in Europe. It came as protests
against the deployment of American nuclear missiles in Europe spread across
West Germany, the Netherlands and Great Britain...”
The camera descends into the Danube River valley northeast of Vienna.
The camera approaches a speeding passenger train. The camera follows the train
for a bit through the beautiful snowy countryside in the fading light of
evening.
Music “It’s
more fun to compute” fades.
STANDARD
CUT:
33 EXT. SCENES OF VIENNA-NIGHT 33
The music transitions to “Vienna” by Ultravox.
THE TRAIN
HAS ARRIVED VIENNA with a station sign visible and steam
being expelled from heating pipes under the train. Among those exiting the
train are RAINER RUPP, ANN-CHRISTINE RUPP and their baby girl in a stroller.
Text on screen: “Vienna, Austria”
Text on
screen: “Thursday, Dec. 24, 1981”
The RUPPs make their way down the crowded station platform
toward the camera and the scene blurs.
CUT TO THE RUPP FAMILY EXITING their Vienna hotel. ANN-CHRISTINE
RUPP and RAINER RUPP carry their baby’s stroller down the hotel’s front steps.
RAINER RUPP gives his daughter her doll and a kiss. They head out into the city
on a cold night.
CUT AGAIN TO THE RUPP FAMILY WALKING on the Freyung after dusk amid
the sparking lights, crowds and vendors of the Altwiener
Christkindlmarkt while the song “Vienna” enters its chorus and slowly fades
away after it. They get some hot chocolate from a vendor and sit down at a
table away from the crowds and fire pits. RAINER RUPP lights a cigarette. A older
man comes over to sit near them and asks for a light for his cigarette. RAINER
RUPP gives him a light but never smokes his own cigarette. The man takes a drag
on the cigarette.
Text on
screen: “Oberst Karl Rehbaum, First Deputy, East German Stasi, HVA, Department
A XII”
Music “Ami,
Go Home!” DDR Song fades in from the start but remains in the background, as if
it is being performed live nearby.
In a German
accent “You don't smoke, do you?”
“Not even
in college.”
KARL
REHBAUM
“Ah yes, in
Mainz where our mutual friend Kurt Berliner enlisted you, disenchanted with
capitalism, its relegation of 3 million West German children to poverty, and all
in the name of serving its American puppeteer. Are you still as disenchanted
with the former as you are the latter?”
RAINER RUPP
“What do
you mean?”
“Only that
you joined NATO with the sole purpose of destroying it. ‘One well-placed man
can be worth an entire army,’ is how Kurt described you. Yet you pick for our
meeting place one of the most infamous bastions of capitalism in Europe -- the
Old Viennese Christmas market. Tsk tsk.”
He drags on
the cigarette, then turns to Ann.
“And how
are you, Frau RUPP? How is the baby?”
SPEAKING ANGRILY. “We are both fine, KARL, but
we
would be happier if the wonderful folks at Department Twelve didn’t pick
Christmas Eve as our meeting time. It doesn’t quite put me in the Christmas
spirit.”
“You put us
in the Christmas spirit -- when you bring us documents like the war plan for
the Americans’ 5th Army Corps in Germany. Our friends in Moscow were happy to
learn the revelation that the Americans would use tactical nuclear weapons on
Western European soil to stop a Soviet invasion and destroy the very nations
they’re trying to save!” HE SMILES AND PUFFS ON THE CIGARETTE.
RAINER RUPP
“We are
already using that to stir up ever-growing protests in West Germany, Belgium
and the Netherlands to create opposition in their parliaments to the American
missile deployments. Our dissident organizations are having wonderful successes.”
KARL
REHBAUM
“That is
glorious, RAINER. But you are not having success in returning one dissident to
the fold. Or are you like Lorelei luring armies to their demise by your charms?
Like this song...” HE PUFFS ON THE CIGARETTE AND STARES DIRECTLY AT ANN AS HE
CARELESSLY POINTS TOWARDS THE SOURCE OF THE MUSIC.
ANN-CHRISTINE
RUPP
She laughs
out loud. “I won’t come back to you. NATO pays my husband more than four
million Belgian Francs per year. And what does the Stasi pay? Less than
one-fourth as much.”
“ANN... Bitte.”
The baby starts to cry. He turns to the baby and kisses her forehead. She calms
down.
KARL REHBAUM
STILL
SPEAKING TO ANN. “Are you his advocate? Are you negotiating for more? Was the
home loan not enough? We asked to meet at Christmas. It was you who assumed it
was the Roman Christmas. If you had waited two weeks, maybe you could properly ask
Ded Moroz for more money.”
ANN-CHRISTINE
RUPP
“I think we
should work directly for the KGB since you have to get their permission for everything
anyway.”
KARL
REHBAUM
“Your frau
is unhappy, Rainer.” HE TAKES A DRAG ON THE CIGARETTE AND EXHALES AWAY FROM THE
RUPPS. “What shall we do about her?”
RAINER RUPP
“Nothing. I came here to exchange Christmas
gifts. That’s all.”
RUPP hands over a wrapped gift with a bow on it. It is about the
size of a documents folder. The HVA handler turns the combination locks on his
briefcase, opens it, deposits the present and retrieves two items before closing
it. Then he turns the combination locks again.
KARL
REHBAUM
“That was
the last time we do that.”
RAINER RUPP
“Hmm?”
KARL
REHBAUM
“We are no
longer accepting documents this way. We are going to be doing things
differently from now on. It is a world of technology, Rainer. Everything is
getting smaller. Suchen...”
HE HANDS THE TWO ITEMS – both wrapped – to RAINER RUPP. One is a
small gift and the other a pouch-sized present. RAINER opens the small gift
first.
“It’s the
latest high-resolution camera that uses microfilm so tiny it fits on the head
of a pin. You are to photograph documents and send us the microfilms.”
RAINER RUPP
“How?”
“Open the
other gift. Inside that pouch are several beer cans, you see?”
RAINER RUPP
“Show me.”
HE HANDS
THE POUCH BACK TO KARL WHO SHOWS HIM A TUBORG CAN AND HOW TO USE IT.
KARL
REHBAUM
“This end has
a tiny hole to insert the microfilm. It is a small area in a false bottom of
the can so you can fill the rest of it with beer.” HE OPENS IT AND TAKES A
DRINK. “Ugh, I prefer it warmer. You then post each can with some regular full beer
cans back to our drop site inside a padded box. Let us know when you need new
cans sent to your site. The timing for this is critical.” HE PUFFS AGAIN.
Music ““Ami,
Go Home!” ends with laughter and applause, replaced by
Music “Oh,
Susanna!” - DDR Song
RAINER RUPP
“Critical?”
KARL
REHBAUM
“Our department and especially the KGB are
becoming increasingly concerned about military threats by America and NATO. We
are now participating in the largest information-gathering effort since the war
to learn when and how the Americans will strike us.”
RAINER RUPP
“You are
certain they will attack first?”
KARL
REHBAUM
“The KGB
is. What are you seeing?”
RAINER RUPP
“I see a
very concerted effort to increase American and NATO forces in Europe, and not
just the infrastructure for the planned nuclear missile deployments. The
conventional forces buildup is überdimensional.”
KARL
REHBAUM
“Ah, you
see. Oh, here is one more Christmas present... A codeumwandler that looks like the
Texas Instruments’ common SR-52 calculator. It even works like a calculator,
see?” HE TURNS ON THE BLACK CALCULATOR.
RAINER RUPP
“I have used
analog devices like this before.”
KARL
REHBAUM
“Das ist
gut, so I doubt you’ll have much trouble with it. This is the latest in digital
technology. It seems Mielke and Wolfe very much want to take care of you. Use a
pin to activate it here, and type or record short, urgent messages to send to us
by phone. Call us from any kiosk and play back your messages to us. There will
be some signal quality loss on the analog phone lines but we can still run it
through de-encryption since all of the calls to our center are recorded.”
ANN RUPP
“That’s a
shock...” she says sarcastically.
KARL
REHBAUM
“Frau RUPP,
we are grateful for your past service. And I understand the demands on your
time now that you have a baby. But if she truly is your most important concern,
then I needn’t to remind you how important it is for you to keep your silence.”
RAINER RUPP
“All right,
that’s enough! My wife never...”
KARL
REHBAUM
He raises
his hand like a stop sign.
“I don’t
care. Our business is done. RAINER... ANN? Merry Roman Christmas to both of you
and your little girl.”
KARL REHBAUM takes a final puff on his cigarette and flicks it
away into a pile of shoveled snow as he gets up and walks away into the cold,
snowy Vienna night.
FADE TO BLACK:
CREDITS
ROLL
Music “Oh,
Susanna! - DDR Song” ends to laughter and applause from an unseen crowd.
** END FIRST EPISODE *
