"Times change — The stakes remain the same."
Warsaw, Poland, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962. Josh Mansky, a troubled math genius and former US chess champion, is recruited to hold a dangerous public match against the Soviet champion, while playing the deadly game of espionage hidden in the darkest shadows of a hostile territory.
Bill Pullman
Joshua Mansky
Lotte Verbeek
Agent Stone
James Bloor
Agent White
Robert Więckiewicz
Alfred
Aleksey Serebryakov
Gienadij Krutow
Corey Johnson
Donald Novak
Nicholas Farrell
G. Moran
Evgeniy Sidikhin
Jurij Gawryłow
Cezary Kosiński
'John Gift'
Warsaw, Poland, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962. Josh Mansky, a troubled math genius and former US chess champion, is recruited to hold a dangerous public match against the Soviet champion, while playing the deadly game of espionage hidden in the darkest shadows of a hostile territory.
What does make this espionage thriller remarkable is it's plausibility... Now, in 2020, we would never give a second thought to an international chess competition but like many others, I recall the fuss made when the world championships really did become an intellectual version of the cold war between the USSR and the USA. Go back to the Cuban missile crisis, when the world was on the brink of an holocaust; and "Josh Mansky" (Bill Pullman) is a neglected US chess champion called upon to take on a Russian Grand Master "Gavrylov" in Warsaw. It's clear from the outset that this is far more than just a series of games of chess; though the strategy and nerve garnered from his skills playing certainly add to those required to carry through with his perilous mission and sure don't do "Mansky" any harm. The one thing it does lack, however, is any degree of sophistication. The Russians are portrayed as little short of ignorant brutes and Pulman's alcoholism, though central to his character, is overplayed to the extent that it distracts quite a bit from the subtlety of the scheme - and makes him a really unlikeable hero. Not sure I'd watch it again, but it does give quite an interesting retrospective on the world frequented by John le Carré!
Marty Mauser, a young man with a dream no one respects, goes to hell and back in pursuit of greatness.
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Based on a true story from 1998, five Latino and Black teenagers from the toughest underserved ghetto in Miami fight their way into the National Chess Championship under the guidance of their unconventional but inspirational teacher.
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A homicide detective teams up with a criminal profiler to catch a serial killer whose crimes are inspired by the children's game, Hangman.
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Following the murder of his fiancée, Mitch Rapp trains under the instruction of Cold War veteran Stan Hurley. The pair then is enlisted to investigate a wave of apparently random attacks on military and civilian targets.
Poland, 1970. Firmly determined to fight against Soviet tyranny and prevent the destruction of the world, the high-ranking officer of the Polish army Ryszard Kukliński makes a serious decision that will put his life, his family and the fate of an entire nation at risk.