The Fourth Protocol

Frederick Forsyth adapted his own novel. John Preston, the MI5 officer played by Michael Caine, is disliked inside his own service and bends the rules; the Soviet agent played by Pierce Brosnan has entered Britain to assemble a nuclear device near an American air base. The plan is to make the explosion look like an accident and sever Anglo-American relations. The tension comes from assembly rather than pursuit: the bomb enters the country piece by piece with separate couriers, and the audience watches the parts come together. Brosnan's character barely speaks, and that silence makes it the coldest of the roles that prepared him for Bond. John Mackenzie directed, with Ned Beatty, Ian Richardson and Joanna Cassidy in the cast. It opened on 20 March 1987 and took roughly twelve and a half million dollars against a budget of six million. Who it is for: viewers who like Cold War espionage and procedural suspense. Who it is not for: anyone expecting action, or wanting both sides given equal weight.