Cold War thriller adapted by Frederick Forsyth from his own bestseller. When Soviet spy Valeri Petrofsky (Pierce Brosnan) is charged with bringing about the demise of NATO, he decides his best bet is to detonate an American nuclear bomb at a British air base. The only man who can stand in his way is veteran counter-espionage expert John Preston (Michael Caine), but he must fight the opposition of his bosses before they agree to take the threat seriously.