1987 Directed by John Mackenzie
Led by Kim Philby, Plan Aurora is a plan that breaches the top-secret Fourth Protocol and turns the fears that shaped it into a living nightmare. A crack Soviet agent, placed under cover in a quiet English country town, begins to assemble a nuclear bomb, whilst an MI5 agent attempts to prevent it's detonation.
Michael Caine Pierce Brosnan Ned Beatty Joanna Cassidy Julian Glover Michael Gough Ray McAnally Ian Richardson Anton Rodgers Caroline Blakiston Betsy Brantley Matt Frewer Matthew Marsh Ronald Pickup Philip Jackson Sean Chapman Joseph Brady Jerry Harte Michael J. Jackson Alan North Aaron Swartz Julia Verdin Johnny Allan Roy Alon Michael Bilton Sarah Bullen Rebecca Burrill Peter Cartwright Rosy Clayton Show All…
A negyedik záradék, O 4º Protocolo, O Quarto Protocolo, 核战风云, 北极光, Le Quatrième protocole, Το 4ο πρωτόκολλο
High speed and special ops War and historical adventure Politics and human rights spy, agent, intrigue, thriller or suspense action, explosives, exciting, action-packed or villain war, wwii, combat, military or duty political, democracy, president, documentary or propaganda destruction, disaster, earth, scientific or mankind Show All…
"The Fourth Protocol" is a solid conspiracy thriller starring Michael Caine as a British MI5 agent, John Preston. Preston catches wind of a false flag plot that a KGB agent is planning to carry out atomic attack on a U.S airbase located on British soil, which would effectively dissolve NATO.
There's not a whole lot to say about this film. If you like conspiracy/spy movies then this'll more than hit the mark. However, it does absolutely nothing to reinvent the genre and aside from a couple of neat set pieces, "The Fourth Protocol" is a fairly benign affair.
The film features an excellent performance from Pierce Brosnan as the KGB agent. He's an absolute cold-hearted bastard in this film and it's great, it's clear to see that this role would latter influence how he approached his early Bond performances.
Again, this is nothing spectacular but it makes for a fun, lazy Sunday afternoon flick.
The rogue KGB plan in this is almost the same as in OCTOPUSSY. Okay, fine, there isn't a troupe of sexy babe jewel thieves and Michael Caine doesn't dress up as a clown, but it's basically the fuckin same, jeez.
Hey this was pretty good! For the way these films go, anyway. A real sweet spot hitter. Plus you get a nice dollop of early Pierce Brosnan hurt acting right before it ends.
The Fourth Protocol is a dry and talky spy film, but provides sufficient Cold War tension to not be a drag. It's really well shot for something so perfunctory and that helps. Plotwise it's more haphazard as so much relies on chance. Scenes in Russia where everyone speaks English and has Western mannerisms are particularly strange too. Michael Caine is an odd lead, having none of the energy of a spy like Bond, nor the professionalism of a spy like Smiley. He's like a bland middle-aged British father in spy form, which is hardly a compelling middleground. In a more interesting role is a young Pierce Brosnan as the main villain, despite his character being saddled with some puzzling subplots. The Fourth Protocol may be a strange film in many ways, but ultimately it's actually quite safe and just a decent spy film disguised as something that should be more interesting.
"I usually try to keep my limit to a gallon or so."
I was mighty intrigued to watch The Fourth Protocol once I realised it shared the same director as The Long Good Friday, John Mackenzie. Having now seen the movie, I suppose I should've attributed some of the excellence of that earlier effort to screenwriter Barrie Keeffe. Although The Fourth Protocol carries over some of Mackenzie's dynamic visual flourishes, it is seriously hampered by a leaden script from Frederick Forsyth (author of the original book). I know Forsyth isn't a bad storyteller - he also wrote the underrated Christopher Walken actioner The Dogs of War - but this just never comes together. It's an action thriller that is seriously…
Although I felt the plot going dead somewhere after the first quarter or so, I kept myself engaged to get my curiosity checked out. The ending was just loose and I wasn’t surprised or was supposed to be irritated but I wasn’t either. Pierce Brosnan kept his part better than anyone else and I think it all went to waste in the end. Michael Caine did very well but sorry I was drawn to Brosnan.
John Mackenzie’s British thriller in which a British agent tries to stop the Russians detonating a nuclear device. Starring Michael Caine and Pierce Brosnan.
Adapted from the novel of the same name by Frederick Forsyth, which was published three years earlier, the story concerns British scout John Preston (Michael Caine), who is newly downgraded by his manager for a well-intentioned but illegal assignment.
He blunders onto a clandestine scheme by KGB agent Valeri Petrofsky (Pierce Brosnan), who is trying to make and explode a nuclear bomb on British earth and fault it on the Americans.
With the assistance of the poorly MI5 director, John, who continues to be in conflict with a number of his bosses, tries to expose and…
Part cold war revisionism (complete with Michael Caine pretty much playing a middle-aged Harry Palmer), part an exercise in eurocentrism nostalgia. Director John Mackenzie has a nice touch that allows it to never bogs down too much on the excessive overplotting, the film becomes a very serious comedy about two extreme competent man of action trying to finish their missions unaware of the multiple machinations of a large power structure set on trying too perpetuate itself despite Perestroika, only one that never forgets that tense ticking clock at the center of it. There's lots of good meaty acting particular by Joanna Cassidy. Also Brosnan has rarely been better. Co-written by George Axlrod (his last screen credit).
This movie has its moments, but it’s mostly a mess with some meh action and a meh story. Michael Caine randomly has a son in this and it adds nothing to his character. The movie has no stakes and honestly thinks it’s better than it actually is. Some books just aren’t meant to be adapted.
30th Anniversary of The Fourth Protocol today. Another film that I've never seen (the day is full of them, save one). And this was decent. It's more of a slow burn spy thriller with two good leads in Pierce Brosnan and Michael Caine. The late John Mckenzie directs this in almost a procedural way. And it's got a very mid-80's, height of the Cold War plot involving the Soviet Union and nuclear proliferation agreements. My only complaint against this film is that it's a little too dry and long at nearly 2 hours. This was an adaptation of the 1984 novel of the same name.
Several years ago a book was published called Hey, it's That Guy!, a reference work on character actors, the faces you know you've seen before in big films, but can't put a name to. The Fourth Protocol is a movie full of those sort of guys. This has Zhora from Blade Runner (1982), Bogs from The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Mon Mothma from Return of the Jedi (1983) and Michael Gough as the second guy in the movie to play Batman's butler Alfred. The other Alfred is, of course, Michael Caine who stars as a British intelligence officer who earns the ire of his boss, played by Brian Glover (another “that guy”), and is kicked sideways into what is supposed to…
