October 4, 2015 (New York Film Festival)
October 16, 2015 (United States)
November 26, 2015 (Germany)
Bridge of Spies is a 2015 biographical historical spy drama thriller film directed and co-produced by Steven Spielberg, written by Matt Charman and the Coen brothers, and starring Tom Hanks in the lead role, Mark Rylance, Amy Ryan, and Alan Alda. Set during the Cold War, the film tells the story of lawyer James B. Donovan, who is entrusted with negotiating the release of Francis Gary Powers—a convicted Central Intelligence Agency pilot whose U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960—in exchange for Rudolf Abel, a convicted Soviet KGB spy held by the United States, whom Donovan represented at trial. The name of the film refers to the Glienicke Bridge, which connects Potsdam with Berlin, where the prisoner exchange took place. The film was an international co-production of the United States and Germany.
Bridge of Spies was shot under the working title of St. James Place. Principal photography began on September 8, 2014, in Brooklyn, New York City, and the production proceeded at Babelsberg Studios in Potsdam. The film was released by Touchstone Pictures on October 16, 2015, in the United States and Canada and distributed by 20th Century Fox in other countries. It received critical acclaim for its screenplay, the performances of Hanks and Rylance, Spielberg's direction, Thomas Newman's musical score, and the production values. The film was a box office success, grossing $165 million worldwide on a $40 million budget, and received six Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay, and won Best Supporting Actor for Rylance.
Storyline[]
In 1957 New York City, Rudolf Abel is arrested and charged with spying for the Soviet Union. Lawyer James B. Donovan, formerly general counsel to the Office of Strategic Services but now in private practice in insurance law, is appointed to be Abel's legal counsel. Committed to the principle that the accused deserves a vigorous defense, he mounts the best defense of Abel he can, declining along the way to cooperate in the attempts of the Central Intelligence Agency (the successor to his former employer, the OSS) to induce him to violate the confidentiality of his communications with his client.
Abel is convicted, but Donovan convinces the judge to spare Abel the death penalty because Abel had been serving his country honorably, and he might prove useful for a future prisoner exchange; Abel is sentenced to 30 years. Donovan appeals the conviction to the Supreme Court based on the lack of a search warrant for the seizure of Abel's ciphers and photography equipment. For his principled stand, Donovan and his family are harassed, including shots being fired at their home. The conviction is upheld in a very close margin.
In 1960, Francis Gary Powers, a pilot in the CIA's top-secret U-2 spy plane program, is shot down over the USSR. He is captured and sentenced to ten years' confinement, including three years in prison.
Donovan receives a letter from East Germany, purportedly sent by Abel's wife, thanking him and urging him to get in contact with their lawyer, whose name is Vogel. The CIA thinks this is a back-channel message hinting that the USSR is willing to swap Powers for Abel. They unofficially ask Donovan to go to Berlin to negotiate the exchange; he arrives just as the Berlin Wall is going up. Crossing into East Berlin, he meets with a KGB officer in the Soviet Embassy and is then directed to Vogel, who represents the Attorney General of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). The Attorney General seeks to swap Abel for an American graduate student named Frederic Pryor, who had been arrested in East Germany; in the process, the GDR hopes to gain official recognition by the United States.
The CIA wants Donovan to disregard Pryor but he insists that both Pryor and Powers be swapped for Abel. In a message to the Attorney General, he bluffs that they will either release Pryor with Powers or there will be no deal. The exchange of Powers and Abel is to take place at the Glienicke Bridge, with Pryor to be released simultaneously at Checkpoint Charlie. Tension builds as Pryor fails to arrive. The CIA, still primarily concerned with Powers, tell Abel he can go, but Abel, out of respect for Donovan's dedication to both his own case and securing Pryor's release, refuses to move. It is confirmed that Pryor has been released, and the exchange takes place.
The next day, back in the United States, the government publicly acknowledges Donovan for negotiating the deal, rehabilitating his public image.
Sound Effects Used[]
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- Hollywoodedge, Baby Crying Slowly PE144001
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- Sound Ideas, TELEPHONE, DOMESTIC - OLD DIAL PHONE: BELL RINGING