Movies - Spies Like Us

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	Movies - Spies Like Us

Spies Like Us is the name of a 1985 comedy film directed by John Landis, starring Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, and Donna Dixon. The movie presents the comic adventures of two novice CIA agents sent to the Soviet Union, ostensibly to infiltrate Soviet ICBM technology.

Plot

Dan Aykroyd plays Austin Millbarge, a geekish, basement-dwelling codebreaker for the Pentagon, who aspires to escape his under-respected job to become a secret agent. Chase is Emmett Fitz-Hume, a wisecracking pencil pusher who takes the civil service exam under peer pressure. Millbarge and Fitz-Hume meet during the test, which Fitz-Hume is attempting to cheat on.

Needing expendable agents to act as decoys to draw attention away from a more advanced team, the CIA decides to enlist the two and promote them to the ranks of GLG20, Foreign Service Operatives, and put them through minimal training, then send them on an undefined mission into Soviet Central Asia. Meanwhile, professional agents are well on their way to reaching the real objective, the overtaking of a mobile ICBM launcher.

The main team takes a loss, leaving only Dixon's character (Boyer), while Millbarge and Fitz-Hume miraculously escape enemy traps, attacks, and other certain perils. Eventually the bumbling pair team up with Boyer.

In the Pamir mountains of Soviet Tajikistan, the team overpowers a mobile missile guard unit, and following orders in real-time from the CIA (operating from a military bunker located deep under an abandoned drive-in theater), they begin to operate the launcher. At the end of their instructions, the vehicle launches the ICBM into space, presumably targeting the United States. Thinking they have begun a nuclear war, the Americans and Russians all pair up to have sex before the world ends.

Meanwhile, the military commander at the operations bunker (Steve Forrest, looking much like the similarly psychotic General Ripper from Dr. Strangelove) initiates the conversion of the drive-in theater to expose what is hidden beneath the screens and ticket booth: a huge black-op "Star Wars"-esque megawatt laser and collector/emitter screen. The purpose of sending the CIA team to launch a Soviet ICBM is then exposed as a means to test this anti-ballistic missile system. Unfortunately, the laser fails to intercept the nuclear missile, which is heading for the U.S. and will almost certainly trigger a global thermonuclear war. In another parallel to Dr. Strangelove, the general insists they are prepared to survive underground for years "to preserve the American way of life".

Meanwhile back in the Soviet Union, guilt-ridden and horrified at the thought of having launched a nuclear missile at their own country, the CIA team (and their new Soviet friends) use Millbarge's technical knowledge to force a malfunction in the launcher vehicle and use it to transmit junk instructions to the traveling missile (source programmable guidance), sending it off into space where it detonates harmlessly. Immediately afterwards, the underground bunker back at the drive-in theater is uncovered by U.S. Army Rangers, and the CIA and military officials involved in the covert operation are arrested. For their part, Millbarge, Fitz-Hume, and Boyer go on to become nuclear disarmament negotiators, playing a nuclear version of Risk-meets-Trivial Pursuit against their Soviet friends.

Main cast

Chevy Chase
- Emmett Fitz-Hume
Dan Aykroyd
- Austin Millbarge
Steve Forrest
- General Sline
Donna Dixon
- Karen Boyer
Bruce Davison
- Ruby
Bernie Casey
- Colonel Rhumbus
William Prince
- Keyes
Tom Hatten - General Miegs
Frank Oz
- Test Monitor
Charles McKeown
- Jerry Hadley
Terry Gilliam - Dr. Imhaus
Matt Frewer
- Soldier #2
Bob Hope
- Himself
Joel Coen - Drive-In Security
Sam Raimi
- Drive-In Security
Michael Apted - Ace Tomato Agent
B.B. King - Ace Tomato Agent
Larry Cohen - Ace Tomato Agent
Edwin Newman - Himself

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Spies Like Us (film) ]

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