Sam Boyd (Gene Hackman) is a retired CIA agent. He's recalled by Elliot Jaffe (Kurtwood Smith) to do an off-the-books prisoner exchange with the Soviets. He escorts Pyotr Ivanovich Grushenko (Mikhail Baryshnikov) as well as $2 million in exchange for captured U2 pilot Benjamin Sobel in the newly united Berlin. At the meeting, Sam recognizes Sobel as somebody he saw at Dulles Airport. They escape in a shootout. Colonel Pierce Grissom (Terry O'Quinn) tells Jaffe to take them out before they are both exposed for the drug money. Boyd uses his old contacts to stay alive. Grushenko tells him that it was indeed Sobel but he's been turned by the KGB and worked undercover in America as a professor. Grissom and KGB Colonel Grigori Golitsin are still trying to exchange for Sobel. In Paris, Grushenko reconnects with Natasha Grimaud.
This is a familiar and easy role for Hackman. Baryshnikov is doing the acting without the dancing. Writer/director Nicholas Meyer has done plenty of good stuff especially the even numbered Star Treks. This should be a lot better than it actually turns out to be. There is a lack of tension despite the action. There are comedic turns which feel out of place. The main limitation is the plot which tries to be a tightly written spy storycraft. However, it doesn't always makes sense motivationally. It may be wound too tightly. The movie should let the characters be human beings rather than plot devices. Gene keeps this movie working and it functions without excelling.
This is a familiar and easy role for Hackman. Baryshnikov is doing the acting without the dancing. Writer/director Nicholas Meyer has done plenty of good stuff especially the even numbered Star Treks. This should be a lot better than it actually turns out to be. There is a lack of tension despite the action. There are comedic turns which feel out of place. The main limitation is the plot which tries to be a tightly written spy storycraft. However, it doesn't always makes sense motivationally. It may be wound too tightly. The movie should let the characters be human beings rather than plot devices. Gene keeps this movie working and it functions without excelling.