Spies Like Us (film)
Spies Like Us is the name of a 1985 comedy film directed by John Landis, starring Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, Steve Forrest, and Donna Dixon. The movie presents the comic adventures of two novice intelligence agents sent to the Soviet Union.
Budget US$22,000,000 (est)
Produced by George Folsey Jr., Brian Grazer
Trivia
The
film is an homage to the Road to- films. Bob Hope, who starred in them with Bing
Crosby, makes a cameo as himself.
The film contains a large number of cameos
by filmmakers: Frank Oz, who frequently appears in Landis movies, administers
the aptitude test early in the picture. Doctors in Pakistan were played by director
Terry Gilliam, special effects makers Ray Harryhausen and Derek Meddings, and
cinematographer Robert Paynter. The Drive-In used as a front for the secret base
is guarded by directors Sam Raimi, Joel Coen and Michael Apted, singer B.B. King
and writer/producer Larry Cohen.
The "SS-50" was a fictional missile.
But at the time the movie was made, the Soviets actually did possess a mobile
rocket with the range necessary to reach the United States: the SS-16 Sinner (from
1976 till 1986, more than 50 of these missiles were made).
The theme song
was performed by Paul McCartney, his last US Top 10 hit to date.
The target
of the missile strike on the United States in the movie is revealed to be Detroit,
Michigan. This is spelled in Cyrillic characters on the upper right of the control
panel display on the ICBM launcher when the missile is being guided away from
its target. However, in a later scene, the missile is seen heading down toward
New York.
In the Tajik cabin (set in Norway in real life) in which Fitz-Hume
is interrogated, there were film posters of Reds and Doctor Zhivago.
A map
for the Battlefield 2 mod Point of Existence was made called Spies Like Us. It
is set in the Pamir Mountains and includes the SS-50 as a control point.
Plot
Dan Aykroyd plays Austin Millbarge, a geekish, basement-dwelling codebreaker for the Pentagon, who aspires to escape his under-respected job to become a secret agent. Chase is Emmett Fitz-Hume, a wisecracking pencil pusher who takes the foreign service exam under peer pressure. Millbarge and Fitz-Hume meet during the test, on which Fitz-Hume is openly attempting to cheat.
Fitz-Hume cheats
on the testNeeding expendable agents to act as decoys to draw attention away from
a more advanced team, the unnamed intelligence agency decides to enlist the two
and promote them to the ranks of GLG20, Foreign Service Operatives, and put them
through minimal training, then send them on an undefined mission into Soviet Central
Asia. Meanwhile, professional agents are well on their way to reaching the real
objective: the overtaking of a mobile SS-50 ICBM launcher.
The main team takes a loss, leaving only Dixon's character (Boyer), while Millbarge and Fitz-Hume miraculously escape enemy traps, attacks, and other certain perils. Eventually the bumbling pair team up with Boyer.
In the Pamir Mountains of the Tadzhik Soviet Socialist Republic, the team overpowers a mobile missile guard unit, and following orders in real-time from the intelligence agency (operating from a military bunker located deep under an abandoned drive-in theater), they begin to operate the launcher. At the end of their instructions, the vehicle launches the ICBM into space, presumably targeting the United States. Thinking they have begun a nuclear war, the American agents and their Soviets counterparts pair up to have sex before the world ends.
Russian ICBM just before launchMeanwhile,
the military commander at the operations bunker (Steve Forrest, looking much like
the similarly psychotic General Ripper from Dr. Strangelove) initiates the conversion
of the drive-in theater to expose what is hidden beneath the screens and ticket
booth: a huge black-op "Star Wars"-esque megawatt laser and collector/emitter
screen. The purpose of sending the GLG20 team to launch a Soviet ICBM is then
exposed as a means to test this anti-ballistic missile system. Unfortunately,
the laser fails to intercept the nuclear missile, which is heading for the U.S.
and will almost certainly trigger a global thermonuclear war. In another parallel
to Dr. Strangelove, the general insists they are prepared to survive underground
for years "to preserve the American way of life."
Meanwhile back in the Soviet Union, guilt-ridden and horrified at the thought of having launched a nuclear missile at their own country, the American spies (and their new Soviet friends) use Millbarge's technical knowledge to force a malfunction in the launcher vehicle and transmit junk instructions to the traveling missile (source programmable guidance), sending it off into space where it detonates harmlessly. Immediately afterwards, the underground bunker back at the drive-in theater is stormed by U.S. Army Rangers, and the intelligence and military officials involved in the covert operation are arrested. For their part, Millbarge, Fitz-Hume, and Boyer go on to become nuclear disarmament negotiators, playing a nuclear version of Risk-meets-Trivial Pursuit against their Soviet friends, who lose Eastern Europe when they miss the correct answer to "What Little Richard song was the title of a Jayne Mansfield film ("The Girl Can't Help It".)
Cast
Chevy Chase - Emmett Fitz-Hume
Dan Aykroyd - Austin Millbarge
Steve Forrest - General Sline
Donna Dixon - Karen Boyer
Bruce Davison - Ruby
Bernie Casey - Colonel Rhumbus
William Prince -
Keyes
Tom Hatten - General Miegs
Frank Oz - Test Monitor
Charles McKeown - Jerry Hadley
James Daughton - Bob Hodges
Jim Staahl - Bud Schnelker
Vanessa Angel - Russian Rocket
Crewperson
Svetlana Plotnikova - Russian Rocket Crewperson
Bjarne Thomsen
- Russian Rocket Crewperson
Sergei Rousakov - Russian Rocket Crewperson
Garrick Dombrovski - Russian Rocket Crewperson
Terry Gilliam
- Dr. Imhaus
Costa-Gavras - Tadzhik Highway Patrolman (as Costa Gavras)
Seva Novgorodtsev - Tadzhik Highway Patrolman
Stephen Hoye - Captain Hefling
Ray Harryhausen - Dr. Marston
Mark Stewart - Ace Tomato
Courier
Sean Daniel - Ace Tomato Driver
Jeff Harding - Fitz-Hume's Associate
Heidi Sorenson - Alice, Fitz-Hume's Supervisor
Margo Random - Reporter
Douglas Lambert - Reporter
Christopher Malcolm - Jumpmaster
Terrance
Conder - Soldier #1
Matt Frewer - Soldier #2
Tony Cyrus - The Khan
Gusti Bogok - Dr. La Fong
Derek Meddings - Dr. Stinson
Robert Paynter
- Dr. Gill
Bob Hope - Golfer
Gurdial Sira - The Khan's
Brother
Joel Coen - Drive-In Security Guard
Sam Raimi - Drive-In Security Guard
Michael Apted - Ace
Tomato Agent
B.B. King - Ace Tomato Agent
Larry Cohen - Ace Tomato Agent
Martin Brest - Drive-In Security Guard
Ricco Ross
- WAMP Guard (as Rico Ross)
Richard Sharpe - WAMP Technician
Stuart
Milligan - WAMP Technician
Sally Anlauf - WAMP Technician
John Daveikis
- Russian Border Guard
Laurence Bilzerian - Russian Border Guard
Richard
Kruk - Russian Border Guard
Heather Henson - Teenage Girl
Erin Folsey
- Teenage Girl
Bob Swaim - Special Forces Commander
Edwin Newman - Himself
Nancy Gair - Student
The Tajik SSR or Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic (alternative transliteration: Tadzhik) was one of fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union, located in Central Asia. In 1991 it became the state of Tajikistan.
Established on October 14, 1924, initially it was called Tajik ASSR ("A"-for Autonomous) and was a part of Uzbek SSR. On December 5, 1929 it was transformed to Tajik SSR and became a separate republic of the Soviet Union.
On September 9, 1991 it declared independence from the Soviet
Union and was renamed the Republic of Tajikistan.
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