The Company (TV miniseries)
Encyclopedia
The Company is a miniseries
about the activities of the CIA
during the Cold War
. It was based on the best selling novel
by Robert Littell
. The teleplay
adaptation was written by Ken Nolan.
fiction miniseries that follows the Cold War intelligence
battle between the CIA and the KGB
from the end of World War II
to the fall of the Soviet Union
. The protagonist
is Jack McAuliffe (Chris O'Donnell), an idealistic and naive "true believer" who was recruited from Yale
by his crew
coach
.
Jack begins his career stationed in Berlin
to work with Harvey Torriti (Alfred Molina), who is codenamed "the Sorcerer." Torriti takes Jack under his wing, and the two keep in touch even after Jack's career takes him from Berlin. A string of failed missions from Berlin to the Bay of Pigs Invasion forces Jack to conclude that the CIA has been severely penetrated by a KGB mole
. The miniseries centers on the efforts of Jack and Harvey, along with the increasingly paranoid counterintelligence chief James Angleton
(Michael Keaton), to expose and destroy the mole. Angleton becomes so paranoid he is forced to retire when he argues that evidence apparently clearing a suspected mole was actually incriminating evidence because it was too easily discovered. But at the end of the movie Angleton
is proven right about the mole. At his farewell of the CIA he also mentions some other top KGB-agents in the world,then West
German Chancellor Willy Brandt, US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and the Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme.
Reruns of the first episode, immediately after it premiered on 5 August 2007, were heavily edited by the TNT network, due to commercial breaks that were not included with the first run.
n division from the CIA station over a dingy cinema in 1954 Berlin, a hotbed of spies where secrets are readily sold. His young apprentice, Jack McAuliffe, was recruited straight out of Yale, along with his best friend Leo Kritzky.
Jack and Leo had a third friend at Yale: Russian-born Yevgeny Tsipin. During graduate work at Yale, he returns to Moscow
to attend his mother's funeral
, where he's introduced to a family friend, master KGB spy
Starik, who recruits him. While training, Yevgeny meets beautiful Azalia and falls in love, but Starik gives him an ultimatum
– his country or the woman he loves. Yevgeny leaves for his assignment in the United States
.
An East German, Vishnevsky, has offered information regarding a mole within MI6, in exchange for safe passage for himself and his family to the West
. From the CIA's temporary headquarters in Washington
, counterintelligence chief James Angleton sends orders to Berlin to begin Vishnevsky's exfiltration, sharing, as is his custom, this information with his best friend Adrian Philby
, MI6's liaison to Washington.
Jack believes Vishnevsky might have supplied misinformation but, while he and the Sorcerer are waiting for the family
, KGB agents and Berlin police
burst into the cinema
downstairs. The CIA ops are able to make their escape but the defection has been compromised, proving the existence of the suspected mole.
After conducting a thorough search of everyone in the CIA, Angleton surmises the leak is in the Berlin operation. The Sorcerer is determined to prove him wrong and comes up with a risky plan to flush out the mole by feeding him real information.
Meanwhile, Jack is smitten by Lili, an East German ballerina
, who provides information from a figure known as The Professor, an important scientist
in the East German hierarchy
.
Jack's friend Leo Kritzky has fallen in love with Adelle Swett, a young woman whose influential father Phillip Swett is a personal friend of President
Eisenhower. When Leo proposes marriage
to Adelle, Phillip has him vetted and discovers that he works for the CIA. Despite this, he gives permission for Adelle to marry Leo.
Yevgeny has arrived in Washington D.C. where he is posing as an American and working as a delivery boy for Kahn's Liquor Store. He regularly communicates with Starik via an elaborate series of codes and numbers to get his orders. One of his regular assignments is to make liquor deliveries to the Georgetown
home of Adrian Philby.
In Berlin, the Sorcerer and Jack are ambushed by phony muggers and then "rescued" by phony cops who turn out to be KGB agents, indicating the Sorcerer's plan is working. Discrepancies are found in Lili's information and, when confronted by Jack, she admits being forced into betraying the Professor by the KGB, who threatened both of their lives. She assures Jack her love for him is genuine, but shortly thereafter she and the professor are both dead.
The Sorcerer meets with Angleton and CIA Director Bedell Smith, insisting Philby has been a Russian spy for thirty years. Philby is quickly recalled to Moscow but, before he leaves, Yevgeny tells him he is not indispensable – the KGB has another mole already in place - Sasha. (NB: The adaptation takes liberties with both the historical record and Littell's novel, as Burgess and Maclean's defection to the USSR - and Philby's fall from grace in Washington - occurred in 1951. Philby did not defect to the USSR until 1963).
Two years pass. Jack has been sent to Budapest
on the eve of the Hungarian revolution
in an attempt to persuade the freedom fighters to postpone their uprising. He makes contact with Elizabet, a beautiful museum
guide, who while dodging the AVH (the Hungarian Secret Police), takes him to resistance leader Arpad Zelk. Jack then tells Arpad that if he encourages an uprising, the U.S. will not step in to help.
Jack is abducted and brought to the AVH prison where he is interrogated under torture
. The Sorcerer has a contentious meeting with his KGB counterpart in Berlin, demanding the AVH release Jack (by virtue of the KGB's hold over AVH). however, as Jack is being transported to a new location, Arpad shows up and frees him then togather they rescue Elizabet, who was also being held. As the freedom fighters storm the AVH prison and kill all of the guards, Szabkanko, the commandant
, begs Jack to protect him by revealing that he knows the identity of the mole within the CIA, but Arpad does not comply.
As Hungarian refugee
s pour into Vienna
, Jack sends a message back to the CIA to back up the freedom fighters before the Russians return, but President Eisenhower is adamant - no troops to aid the Hungarians. Angleton insists thousands of Hungarians will die if the president's intentions become known. The solution is to deceive the Russians with misleading radio traffic indicating a U.S. buildup of troop
s.
Jack joins the revolutionaries as the Russia
n tank
s begin rolling into Budapest. He, Elizabeth, and Zoltan, another rebel, join Arpad at the Killian Barracks, where hundreds of demonstrators are taking shelter. Realizing that further resistance is futile against the Russians, Arpad attempts to surrender, but is gunned down. Zoltan helps Jack and Elizabet escape through a series of tunnels in the barracks subbasement. The three make their way to the Austrian border, where the Sorcerer has been watching for Jack. At the refugee camp, Jack is able to re-unite Elizabet with her 10-year old daughter who had been taken away from her some years earlier.
Four years later, Jack is in the Guatemala
n jungle
, where Cuba
n rebel leader Roberto Escalona is training a group of volunteer émigré
s in preparation for an invasion of their homeland after a landing in the Bay of Pigs Invasion
. Roberto believes that President Kennedy
will send in the Navy
to help the rebels but Jack reminds him that if his group gets into any trouble once they land on the beach, they're on their own. The Sorcerer has his own plans for Fidel Castro
which involve calling on his Mafia
contacts to arrange an assassination
. Through a Brooklyn
mobster, the Sorcerer is led to Chicago
mob boss Sam Giancana
who comes up with the idea of poison
ing Castro via one of the vanilla
milkshake
s that the Cuban leader is served every afternoon at the Hotel Libre in Havana
.
In Washington, Yevgeny is nearly arrested by the FBI but is able to construct a new American identity for himself. He gets word to his handler - Sasha – who has vital information about the Cuban invasion to impart to Starik. In the CIA war room, Angleton argues that the Company has no business getting involved in Cuba. As long as Sasha is still operating, all of their vital information is being funneled to the enemy and the operation is doomed to failure. His associates, including Richard Bissell, the architect of the invasion plan, scoff at the notion that Sasha exists at all. In Havana, the head of Castro's Secret Police intercepts the waiter
about to serve the poisoned milk shake to Castro, and forces him to drink it instead.
Jack is part of the first wave of rebel fighters arriving at the Bay of Pigs. Although the landing site has been changed, they set up makeshift headquarters on the beach
, becoming sitting ducks for the tanks and aircraft that Castro is planning to send in. As the Cuban Sea Fury planes appear overhead, raking the shoreline with machine gun
fire, Roberto is desperately expecting the U.S. air cover that never comes. JFK has resolutely refused to commit air forces to combat. Roberto forces a reluctant Jack to swim to the safety of a damaged destroyer in the bay, leaving Roberto and the rebels on the beach to face certain death. Angry with the president and the Company for letting the rebels down, Jack contemplates handing in his resignation. His old friend Leo talks him out of it and Jack is awarded with the Agency's highest honor.
Fifteen more years pass - it is now 1975. Jack and Leo, who has climbed so high at the Company that he is being talked about as the next director, are in their forties. Jack is working on the case of Krushkin, a KGB captain who wants to defect with his family. In exchange, he will provide more information about the elusive Sasha, with whom Angleton has become increasingly obsessed. Angleton thinks that it may be a trick of Starik's but Jack assures him that he believes that Krushkin is credible.
Using a liquor delivery list from Kahn's store, Angleton narrows the names down to Company employees, leading him to Leo Kritzky. Returning with his wife from a vacation in France
, Leo is arrested at the airport and brought to a holding cell where he is strip-searched and then interrogated by Angleton. As he looks on from behind a two-way mirror, Jack is reeling from the possibility that his best friend may be responsible for Lili's suicide
and the deaths of the Cuban rebels and the Hungarian freedom fighters. Jack is shocked by Leo's condition when he visits him in prison
. Still insisting that he is not Sasha, Leo tells Jack that he believes Krushkin has been dispatched by the KGB. But Krushkin mysteriously returns to the Soviet Union, where he is put on trial for treason and shot. Jack and the Sorcerer don't believe it and when it turns out that Krushkin is alive after all, Leo is cleared and returns to his office at the Company. Angleton remains convinced that Leo is Sasha and is forced to resign; in his parting words to the Company, he reels off a list of international statesmen (including Averell Harriman and Henry Kissinger
) he believes are under KGB control as part of a massive scheme to convince the US that it is winning the Cold War and turn the world against it.
In 1987, as the Cold War
winds down, improvements in technology
have enabled the counterintelligence analysts to pinpoint the telephone number
that Moscow Radio broadcast in the early 1950s to its KGB operatives. It leads to Kahn's Liquor Store and to Yevgeny. Jack visits the dying Angleton who figures out that lists of further numbers broadcast by Moscow are not telephone numbers but bank accounts, part of a complicated financial scheme, codenamed Kholstomer
, designed by Starik to wreak havoc on the American economy
. Angleton again accuses Leo of being Sasha. Jack starts to have his own suspicions but is not prepared when he accompanies the FBI to arrest Yevgeny and discovers that it is his old classmate from Yale. Jack then pays a visit to Leo – to whom Yevgeny had been making deliveries over the years – and accuses him of being Sasha. Leo does not deny it – he admits to being recruited to the KGB by a girlfriend
who took advantage of his Socialist
leanings (learned from his father) – and shoots Jack in the gut. Before he disappears into the night, Leo phones for an ambulance for his friend.
While Jack is in the hospital recovering, Starik's financial plot is curtailed by the Company, but not altogether avoided. When he is released, Jack pays a visit to Angleton, who has been proved right about Sasha and was instrumental in identifying Starik's agents in banks around the world.
Several years later: the collapse of the Soviet Union
is imminent. Jack (now 64) offers Yevgeny an early release from prison if he will provide the whereabouts of Leo. He reveals to Yevgeny that his great love Azalia was exiled to the gulag by Starik, after which Yevgeny is happy to oblige. He tracks down Leo in Moscow but warns him before passing his whereabouts to Jack. He pays Starik a visit but revenge is pointless as his mind is gone. Next he finds Azalia, and hope for the future.
Jack, in Moscow, apprises the Company of the prospects that Boris Yeltsin
will take power and bring democracy to Russia. Executing a plan to kill his former friend, Jack has the opportunity to push Leo in front of a car but chooses not to at the last moment, disappearing into the crowd just as Leo realises he is there. Back in Maryland
, the Sorcerer and Jack discuss their work in the Cold War. Jack expresses his misgivings over the things they did at the Company, but Harvey assures him they were the "Good Guys" because they won.
.
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
about the activities of the CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
during the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
. It was based on the best selling novel
The Company (novel)
The Company: A Novel of the CIA is a work of fiction written by American novelist Robert Littell and published by Penguin Press in 2002. The plot interweaves the professional lives of both historical and fictional characters in the field of international espionage between June 1950 and August...
by Robert Littell
Robert Littell (author)
Robert Littell is an American novelist and journalist residing part of the time in France. He specializes in spy novels that often concern the CIA and the Soviet Union....
. The teleplay
Teleplay
A teleplay is a television play, a comedy or drama written or adapted for television. The term surfaced during the 1950s with wide usage to distinguish a television plays from stage plays for the theater and screenplays written for films...
adaptation was written by Ken Nolan.
Plot
The Company is an AmericanUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
fiction miniseries that follows the Cold War intelligence
Intelligence (information gathering)
Intelligence assessment is the development of forecasts of behaviour or recommended courses of action to the leadership of an organization, based on a wide range of available information sources both overt and covert. Assessments are developed in response to requirements declared by the leadership...
battle between the CIA and the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
from the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
to the fall of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. The protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
is Jack McAuliffe (Chris O'Donnell), an idealistic and naive "true believer" who was recruited from Yale
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
by his crew
Rowing (sport)
Rowing is a sport in which athletes race against each other on rivers, on lakes or on the ocean, depending upon the type of race and the discipline. The boats are propelled by the reaction forces on the oar blades as they are pushed against the water...
coach
Coach (sport)
In sports, a coach is an individual involved in the direction, instruction and training of the operations of a sports team or of individual sportspeople.-Staff:...
.
Jack begins his career stationed in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
to work with Harvey Torriti (Alfred Molina), who is codenamed "the Sorcerer." Torriti takes Jack under his wing, and the two keep in touch even after Jack's career takes him from Berlin. A string of failed missions from Berlin to the Bay of Pigs Invasion forces Jack to conclude that the CIA has been severely penetrated by a KGB mole
Mole (espionage)
A mole is a spy who works for an enemy nation, but whose loyalty ostensibly lies with his own nation's government. In some usage, a mole differs from a defector in that a mole is a spy before gaining access to classified information, while a defector becomes a spy only after gaining access...
. The miniseries centers on the efforts of Jack and Harvey, along with the increasingly paranoid counterintelligence chief James Angleton
James Jesus Angleton
James Jesus Angleton was chief of the Central Intelligence Agency's counterintelligence staff from 1954 to 1975...
(Michael Keaton), to expose and destroy the mole. Angleton becomes so paranoid he is forced to retire when he argues that evidence apparently clearing a suspected mole was actually incriminating evidence because it was too easily discovered. But at the end of the movie Angleton
is proven right about the mole. At his farewell of the CIA he also mentions some other top KGB-agents in the world,then West
German Chancellor Willy Brandt, US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and the Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme.
Reruns of the first episode, immediately after it premiered on 5 August 2007, were heavily edited by the TNT network, due to commercial breaks that were not included with the first run.
Synopsis
Harvey Torriti ("The Sorcerer") runs the Company's Soviet RussiaRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n division from the CIA station over a dingy cinema in 1954 Berlin, a hotbed of spies where secrets are readily sold. His young apprentice, Jack McAuliffe, was recruited straight out of Yale, along with his best friend Leo Kritzky.
Jack and Leo had a third friend at Yale: Russian-born Yevgeny Tsipin. During graduate work at Yale, he returns to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
to attend his mother's funeral
Funeral
A funeral is a ceremony for celebrating, sanctifying, or remembering the life of a person who has died. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember the dead, from interment itself, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honor...
, where he's introduced to a family friend, master KGB spy
SPY
SPY is a three-letter acronym that may refer to:* SPY , ticker symbol for Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts* SPY , a satirical monthly, trademarked all-caps* SPY , airport code for San Pédro, Côte d'Ivoire...
Starik, who recruits him. While training, Yevgeny meets beautiful Azalia and falls in love, but Starik gives him an ultimatum
Ultimatum
An ultimatum is a demand whose fulfillment is requested in a specified period of time and which is backed up by a threat to be followed through in case of noncompliance. An ultimatum is generally the final demand in a series of requests...
– his country or the woman he loves. Yevgeny leaves for his assignment in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
An East German, Vishnevsky, has offered information regarding a mole within MI6, in exchange for safe passage for himself and his family to the West
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
. From the CIA's temporary headquarters in Washington
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, counterintelligence chief James Angleton sends orders to Berlin to begin Vishnevsky's exfiltration, sharing, as is his custom, this information with his best friend Adrian Philby
Kim Philby
Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby was a high-ranking member of British intelligence who worked as a spy for and later defected to the Soviet Union...
, MI6's liaison to Washington.
Jack believes Vishnevsky might have supplied misinformation but, while he and the Sorcerer are waiting for the family
Family
In human context, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children...
, KGB agents and Berlin police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
burst into the cinema
Movie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
downstairs. The CIA ops are able to make their escape but the defection has been compromised, proving the existence of the suspected mole.
After conducting a thorough search of everyone in the CIA, Angleton surmises the leak is in the Berlin operation. The Sorcerer is determined to prove him wrong and comes up with a risky plan to flush out the mole by feeding him real information.
Meanwhile, Jack is smitten by Lili, an East German ballerina
Ballerina
A ballerina is a title used to describe a principal female professional ballet dancer in a large company; the male equivalent to this title is danseur or ballerino...
, who provides information from a figure known as The Professor, an important scientist
Scientist
A scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word...
in the East German hierarchy
Hierarchy
A hierarchy is an arrangement of items in which the items are represented as being "above," "below," or "at the same level as" one another...
.
Jack's friend Leo Kritzky has fallen in love with Adelle Swett, a young woman whose influential father Phillip Swett is a personal friend of President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Eisenhower. When Leo proposes marriage
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
to Adelle, Phillip has him vetted and discovers that he works for the CIA. Despite this, he gives permission for Adelle to marry Leo.
Yevgeny has arrived in Washington D.C. where he is posing as an American and working as a delivery boy for Kahn's Liquor Store. He regularly communicates with Starik via an elaborate series of codes and numbers to get his orders. One of his regular assignments is to make liquor deliveries to the Georgetown
Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
Georgetown is a neighborhood located in northwest Washington, D.C., situated along the Potomac River. Founded in 1751, the port of Georgetown predated the establishment of the federal district and the City of Washington by 40 years...
home of Adrian Philby.
In Berlin, the Sorcerer and Jack are ambushed by phony muggers and then "rescued" by phony cops who turn out to be KGB agents, indicating the Sorcerer's plan is working. Discrepancies are found in Lili's information and, when confronted by Jack, she admits being forced into betraying the Professor by the KGB, who threatened both of their lives. She assures Jack her love for him is genuine, but shortly thereafter she and the professor are both dead.
The Sorcerer meets with Angleton and CIA Director Bedell Smith, insisting Philby has been a Russian spy for thirty years. Philby is quickly recalled to Moscow but, before he leaves, Yevgeny tells him he is not indispensable – the KGB has another mole already in place - Sasha. (NB: The adaptation takes liberties with both the historical record and Littell's novel, as Burgess and Maclean's defection to the USSR - and Philby's fall from grace in Washington - occurred in 1951. Philby did not defect to the USSR until 1963).
Two years pass. Jack has been sent to Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
on the eve of the Hungarian revolution
Hungarian Revolution
Hungarian Revolution may refer to:* The Hungarian Revolution of 1848.* The Hungarian Revolution of 1919, which led to the formation of the Hungarian Soviet Republic headed by Béla Kun.* The Hungarian Revolution of 1956....
in an attempt to persuade the freedom fighters to postpone their uprising. He makes contact with Elizabet, a beautiful museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
guide, who while dodging the AVH (the Hungarian Secret Police), takes him to resistance leader Arpad Zelk. Jack then tells Arpad that if he encourages an uprising, the U.S. will not step in to help.
Jack is abducted and brought to the AVH prison where he is interrogated under torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
. The Sorcerer has a contentious meeting with his KGB counterpart in Berlin, demanding the AVH release Jack (by virtue of the KGB's hold over AVH). however, as Jack is being transported to a new location, Arpad shows up and frees him then togather they rescue Elizabet, who was also being held. As the freedom fighters storm the AVH prison and kill all of the guards, Szabkanko, the commandant
Commandant
Commandant is a senior title often given to the officer in charge of a large training establishment or academy. This usage is common in anglophone nations...
, begs Jack to protect him by revealing that he knows the identity of the mole within the CIA, but Arpad does not comply.
As Hungarian refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
s pour into Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Jack sends a message back to the CIA to back up the freedom fighters before the Russians return, but President Eisenhower is adamant - no troops to aid the Hungarians. Angleton insists thousands of Hungarians will die if the president's intentions become known. The solution is to deceive the Russians with misleading radio traffic indicating a U.S. buildup of troop
Troop
A troop is a military unit, originally a small force of cavalry, subordinate to a squadron and headed by the troop leader. In many armies a troop is the equivalent unit to the infantry section or platoon...
s.
Jack joins the revolutionaries as the Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n tank
Tank
A tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities...
s begin rolling into Budapest. He, Elizabeth, and Zoltan, another rebel, join Arpad at the Killian Barracks, where hundreds of demonstrators are taking shelter. Realizing that further resistance is futile against the Russians, Arpad attempts to surrender, but is gunned down. Zoltan helps Jack and Elizabet escape through a series of tunnels in the barracks subbasement. The three make their way to the Austrian border, where the Sorcerer has been watching for Jack. At the refugee camp, Jack is able to re-unite Elizabet with her 10-year old daughter who had been taken away from her some years earlier.
Four years later, Jack is in the Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
n jungle
Jungle
A Jungle is an area of land in the tropics overgrown with dense vegetation.The word jungle originates from the Sanskrit word jangala which referred to uncultivated land. Although the Sanskrit word refers to "dry land", it has been suggested that an Anglo-Indian interpretation led to its...
, where Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
n rebel leader Roberto Escalona is training a group of volunteer émigré
Émigré
Émigré is a French term that literally refers to a person who has "migrated out", but often carries a connotation of politico-social self-exile....
s in preparation for an invasion of their homeland after a landing in the Bay of Pigs Invasion
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was an unsuccessful action by a CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba, with support and encouragement from the US government, in an attempt to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. The invasion was launched in April 1961, less than three months...
. Roberto believes that President Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
will send in the Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
to help the rebels but Jack reminds him that if his group gets into any trouble once they land on the beach, they're on their own. The Sorcerer has his own plans for Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
which involve calling on his Mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
contacts to arrange an assassination
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
. Through a Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
mobster, the Sorcerer is led to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
mob boss Sam Giancana
Sam Giancana
Salvatore Giancana , better known as Sam Giancana, was a Sicilian-American mobster and boss of the Chicago Outfit from 1957-1966...
who comes up with the idea of poison
Poison
In the context of biology, poisons are substances that can cause disturbances to organisms, usually by chemical reaction or other activity on the molecular scale, when a sufficient quantity is absorbed by an organism....
ing Castro via one of the vanilla
Vanilla
Vanilla is a flavoring derived from orchids of the genus Vanilla, primarily from the Mexican species, Flat-leaved Vanilla . The word vanilla derives from the Spanish word "", little pod...
milkshake
Milkshake
A milkshake is a sweet, cold beverage which is made from milk, ice cream or iced milk, and flavorings or sweeteners such as fruit syrup or chocolate sauce....
s that the Cuban leader is served every afternoon at the Hotel Libre in Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
.
In Washington, Yevgeny is nearly arrested by the FBI but is able to construct a new American identity for himself. He gets word to his handler - Sasha – who has vital information about the Cuban invasion to impart to Starik. In the CIA war room, Angleton argues that the Company has no business getting involved in Cuba. As long as Sasha is still operating, all of their vital information is being funneled to the enemy and the operation is doomed to failure. His associates, including Richard Bissell, the architect of the invasion plan, scoff at the notion that Sasha exists at all. In Havana, the head of Castro's Secret Police intercepts the waiter
Waiter
Waiting staff, wait staff, or waitstaff are those who work at a restaurant or a bar attending customers — supplying them with food and drink as requested. Traditionally, a male waiting tables is called a "waiter" and a female a "waitress" with the gender-neutral version being a "server"...
about to serve the poisoned milk shake to Castro, and forces him to drink it instead.
Jack is part of the first wave of rebel fighters arriving at the Bay of Pigs. Although the landing site has been changed, they set up makeshift headquarters on the beach
Beach
A beach is a geological landform along the shoreline of an ocean, sea, lake or river. It usually consists of loose particles which are often composed of rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles or cobblestones...
, becoming sitting ducks for the tanks and aircraft that Castro is planning to send in. As the Cuban Sea Fury planes appear overhead, raking the shoreline with machine gun
Machine gun
A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rounds in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine, typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute....
fire, Roberto is desperately expecting the U.S. air cover that never comes. JFK has resolutely refused to commit air forces to combat. Roberto forces a reluctant Jack to swim to the safety of a damaged destroyer in the bay, leaving Roberto and the rebels on the beach to face certain death. Angry with the president and the Company for letting the rebels down, Jack contemplates handing in his resignation. His old friend Leo talks him out of it and Jack is awarded with the Agency's highest honor.
Fifteen more years pass - it is now 1975. Jack and Leo, who has climbed so high at the Company that he is being talked about as the next director, are in their forties. Jack is working on the case of Krushkin, a KGB captain who wants to defect with his family. In exchange, he will provide more information about the elusive Sasha, with whom Angleton has become increasingly obsessed. Angleton thinks that it may be a trick of Starik's but Jack assures him that he believes that Krushkin is credible.
Using a liquor delivery list from Kahn's store, Angleton narrows the names down to Company employees, leading him to Leo Kritzky. Returning with his wife from a vacation in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Leo is arrested at the airport and brought to a holding cell where he is strip-searched and then interrogated by Angleton. As he looks on from behind a two-way mirror, Jack is reeling from the possibility that his best friend may be responsible for Lili's suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
and the deaths of the Cuban rebels and the Hungarian freedom fighters. Jack is shocked by Leo's condition when he visits him in prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
. Still insisting that he is not Sasha, Leo tells Jack that he believes Krushkin has been dispatched by the KGB. But Krushkin mysteriously returns to the Soviet Union, where he is put on trial for treason and shot. Jack and the Sorcerer don't believe it and when it turns out that Krushkin is alive after all, Leo is cleared and returns to his office at the Company. Angleton remains convinced that Leo is Sasha and is forced to resign; in his parting words to the Company, he reels off a list of international statesmen (including Averell Harriman and Henry Kissinger
Henry Kissinger
Heinz Alfred "Henry" Kissinger is a German-born American academic, political scientist, diplomat, and businessman. He is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and...
) he believes are under KGB control as part of a massive scheme to convince the US that it is winning the Cold War and turn the world against it.
In 1987, as the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
winds down, improvements in technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
have enabled the counterintelligence analysts to pinpoint the telephone number
Telephone number
A telephone number or phone number is a sequence of digits used to call from one telephone line to another in a public switched telephone network. When telephone numbers were invented, they were short — as few as one, two or three digits — and were given orally to a switchboard operator...
that Moscow Radio broadcast in the early 1950s to its KGB operatives. It leads to Kahn's Liquor Store and to Yevgeny. Jack visits the dying Angleton who figures out that lists of further numbers broadcast by Moscow are not telephone numbers but bank accounts, part of a complicated financial scheme, codenamed Kholstomer
Kholstomer
"Kholstomer", also translated as "Strider", is one of the most striking stories in Russian literature. It was started by Leo Tolstoy in 1863 and left unfinished until 1886, when it was reworked and published as "Kholstomer: The Story of a Horse". Georgi Tovstonogov staged it in his theatre in 1975....
, designed by Starik to wreak havoc on the American economy
Economy
An economy consists of the economic system of a country or other area; the labor, capital and land resources; and the manufacturing, trade, distribution, and consumption of goods and services of that area...
. Angleton again accuses Leo of being Sasha. Jack starts to have his own suspicions but is not prepared when he accompanies the FBI to arrest Yevgeny and discovers that it is his old classmate from Yale. Jack then pays a visit to Leo – to whom Yevgeny had been making deliveries over the years – and accuses him of being Sasha. Leo does not deny it – he admits to being recruited to the KGB by a girlfriend
Girlfriend
Girlfriend is a term that can refer to either a female partner in a non-marital romantic relationship or a female non-romantic friend that is closer than other friends....
who took advantage of his Socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
leanings (learned from his father) – and shoots Jack in the gut. Before he disappears into the night, Leo phones for an ambulance for his friend.
While Jack is in the hospital recovering, Starik's financial plot is curtailed by the Company, but not altogether avoided. When he is released, Jack pays a visit to Angleton, who has been proved right about Sasha and was instrumental in identifying Starik's agents in banks around the world.
Several years later: the collapse of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
is imminent. Jack (now 64) offers Yevgeny an early release from prison if he will provide the whereabouts of Leo. He reveals to Yevgeny that his great love Azalia was exiled to the gulag by Starik, after which Yevgeny is happy to oblige. He tracks down Leo in Moscow but warns him before passing his whereabouts to Jack. He pays Starik a visit but revenge is pointless as his mind is gone. Next he finds Azalia, and hope for the future.
Jack, in Moscow, apprises the Company of the prospects that Boris Yeltsin
Boris Yeltsin
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999.Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of...
will take power and bring democracy to Russia. Executing a plan to kill his former friend, Jack has the opportunity to push Leo in front of a car but chooses not to at the last moment, disappearing into the crowd just as Leo realises he is there. Back in Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
, the Sorcerer and Jack discuss their work in the Cold War. Jack expresses his misgivings over the things they did at the Company, but Harvey assures him they were the "Good Guys" because they won.
Cast
- Chris O'DonnellChris O'DonnellChristopher Eugene "Chris" O'Donnell is an American actor. He has played Robin in two Batman films, Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, Charlie Simms in Scent of a Woman, Finn Dandridge in Grey's Anatomy, Peter Garrett in Vertical Limit, and more recently, Jack McAuliffe in The Company. O'Donnell...
as Jack McAuliffe - Michael KeatonMichael KeatonMichael John Douglas , better known by the stage name Michael Keaton, is an American actor known for his early comedic roles, most notably his performance as the title character of Tim Burton's Beetlejuice . Keaton is also famous for his dramatic portrayal of Bruce Wayne/Batman in Tim Burton's...
as James Jesus AngletonJames Jesus AngletonJames Jesus Angleton was chief of the Central Intelligence Agency's counterintelligence staff from 1954 to 1975...
/Mother - Alfred MolinaAlfred MolinaAlfred Molina is a British-born American actor. He first came to public attention in the UK for his supporting role in the 1987 film Prick Up Your Ears...
as Harvey Torriti/The Sorcerer - Rory CochraneRory CochraneRory Cochrane is an American actor. He is known for playing Ron Slater in Dazed and Confused, Lucas in Empire Records, and Tim Speedle in CSI: Miami.-Early life:...
as Yevgeny Tsipin - Alessandro NivolaAlessandro NivolaAlessandro Antine Nivola is an American actor, perhaps best known for his roles in the films Best Laid Plans, Jurassic Park III, Face/Off, and the first two films of the Goal! trilogy.-Personal life:...
as Leo Kritzky - Natascha McElhoneNatascha McElhoneNatascha McElhone is an English actress of stage, screen and television, best known for her roles in Ronin, The Truman Show and Solaris. McElhone also plays a leading role in the Showtime series Californication....
as Elizabet Nemeth - Alexandra Maria LaraAlexandra Maria LaraAlexandra Maria Lara is a Romanian-born German actress. She performs predominantly in leading roles in a variety of historical and crime films...
as Lili - Anthony Sher as CIA Liaison Officer (Mossad) "The Rabbi"
- Simon CallowSimon CallowSimon Phillip Hugh Callow, CBE is an English actor, writer and theatre director. He is also currently a judge on Popstar to Operastar.-Early years:...
as MI6 liaison officer Elihu
Filming
- Summer-Fall 2006: filming in Toronto and Hamilton, OntarioHamilton, OntarioHamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
, Canada. - Fall-Winter 2006: filming in central Budapest, District VIII.
- Spring 2007: filming in Añasco, Puerto Rico.
BD & DVD release
The Company was released on 23 October 2007 on both high-definition Blu-ray Disc and standard-definition DVDDVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
.
External links
- The Company on TNT