The Fourth Protocol (1987)    Lorimar/Suspense-Thriller    RT: 119 minutes    Rated R (language, violence, sexuality, brief nudity)    Director: John Mackenzie    Screenplay: Frederick Forsyth    Music: Lalo Schifrin    Cinematography: Phil Meheux    Release date: August 28, 1987 (US)    Cast: Michael Caine, Pierce Brosnan, Ned Beatty, Joanna Cassidy, Julian Glover, Michael Gough, Ray McAnally, Ian Richardson, Anton Rodgers. Caroline Blakiston, Joseph Brady, Betsy Brantley, Sean Chapman, Matt Frewer, Jerry Harte.    Box Office: $12.4M (US)

Rating: *** ½

 We all know that late August is typically a period when studios dump their lesser movies into theaters. Once in a while, a good one gets lost in the shuffle. In a season traditionally defined by loud, bombastic action spectacles aimed at teens, one doesn’t expect to find something like the British spy thriller The Fourth Protocol. Unlike the typical James Bond movie, it’s doesn’t feature a hero that makes quips while engaging in wild car chases and crazy scenarios involving hollowed-out volcanoes or laser beams. Agent John Preston (Caine, The Ipcress File) of the British Secret Service prefers brains over brawn. Sure, he can handle himself in a fight, but he relies more on his intellect and excellent investigative skills when dealing with enemies, foreign or domestic.

 In The Fourth Protocol, Preston goes up against a Soviet spy planning to disable US-UK relations by violating a treaty dealing with nuclear proliferation. KGB officer Petrofsky (future Bond player Brosnan) is sent to the UK by his superiors to set off a nuclear device near an American airfield. He’s to gather the various components and await the arrival of a bomb expert (Cassidy, Under Fire) to assemble it. Recently demoted to “Airports and Ports” by the acting MI5 director (Glover, For Your Eyes Only), Preston first becomes aware of the situation when he finds a polonium disc in the possession of a Soviet courier killed at a port. Despite being suspended for his efforts, Preston continues to follow leads that will hopefully lead him to the Soviet terrorist before he sets off the bomb.

 Directed by John Mackenzie (The Long Good Friday) and based on the novel by screenwriter Frederick Forsyth (The Day of the Jackal), The Fourth Protocol is a complex, deliberately-paced spy thriller for adults. I saw it at 19 and didn’t fully appreciate it then. I’ve since changed my mind. Now that I understand more about the politics behind the plot, I like it a lot. It might not move at breakneck speed, but there’s a lot going on nonetheless. Back in the USSR, a KGB official (McAnally, My Left Foot) opens his own investigation of the not-officially sanctioned mission after a KGB department head (Beatty, The Big Easy) complains about being stripped of personnel, Petrofsky in particular. While complex, The Fourth Protocol is never convoluted. It’s consistently suspenseful and compelling. The final third, as Preston closes in on Petrofsky, is especially tense.

 Caine is no stranger to the spy genre. He played secret agent Harry Palmer in The Ipcress File, Funeral in Berlin and Billion Dollar Brain. He played the father of a spy in The Whistle Blower. He could have easily phoned in his performance in The Fourth Protocol, but chooses to give it his all instead. He’s very good as Preston, an intelligent sort always in trouble with his boss for doing things his own way. It’s this streak of independence that makes him the obvious choice to uncover the identity of the Soviet spy planning to do something terrible.

 Brosnan is positively chilling as the villain, a cold-blooded killer masquerading as a British businessman. He’s just following orders when he kills a fellow KGB agent to keep him from talking about his mission. In one scene, he pretends to be gay in order to kill a man who may have witnessed him picking something up from a courier in an airport restroom. I think it’s one of Brosnan’s best performances if not his best. Cassidy, in an all-too-short role, is great as the bomb expert who unwisely loves Petrofsky. She’s one of the best unsung actors of our time. She always brings something good to the table in any movie she’s in.

 I’m actually not surprised The Fourth Protocol went unnoticed in summer ’87. The biggest hit that year was the sequel Beverly Hills Cop II. Of course, it and others like it will eclipse a quieter, more cerebral film like The Fourth Protocol. It’s not made for the short attention span crowd. You really have to pay attention to it. You also need the patience to let the story unfold. It’s an old school spy thriller all the way. I like this kind of movie and wish they still made them that way. Don’t get me wrong. I find the Jason Bourne movies entertaining, but there’s something to be said for spy thrillers comparatively more grounded in reality. The Fourth Protocol is absolutely dated now, but it’s still a hundred times more gripping than BS like the XXX movies.