Veteran CIA agent Gene Hackman is recalled to active duty to participate in an exchange of prisoners, swapping imprisoned mole Mikhail Baryshnikov — who is supposed to have been able to infiltrate the American government by pretending not to be Russian (hoo-hah!) — with a quadruple agent in Berlin.
Naturally, Hackman and Baryshnikov have both been set up by their still-evil CIA and KGB superiors, who are intent on carrying on all the fun of the Cold War. Our heroes go on the run across Europe in an obvious and only marginally exciting espionage thriller that winds up with lunch in the Eiffel Tower restaurant. Director-writer Nicholas Meyer was reportedly so annoyed at the studio's botching of this that he felt obliged to repeat his "serious" message about changing East-West relations in his next film, Star Trek VI.