Irina Vassilievna (Joanna Cassidy) is a Russian spy and nuclear expert from the 1987 movie version of Frederick Forsyth’s novel “The Fourth Protocol” first published in 1984. The movie was directed by John Mackenzie and stars Michael Caine as MI5 officer John Preston. Top Russian spy Major Valeri Alekseyevich Petrofsky (Pierce Brosnan) is sent on a special mission to England. The mission does not have Kremlin approval so Petrofsky is ordered to kill any witnesses and loose ends that pop up along the way. Petrofsky is a ruthless killer and follows orders without questions, hesitation and without any sign of remorse. While in England Petrofsky uses the name James Edward Ross, an identity that the Russians have been creating a legend around for some time. As James Ross, he rents an apartment next to an American airbase. The Russian plan is to set off an atomic bomb next seemingly at the base causing great loss of life and a political crisis between the Americans and British that could trigger the closing of American bases around the world which would help Russia’s plans for world domination.
Petrofsky and Irina build an atomic bomb.
Bit by bit the Russians have sent James Ross the parts to make an atomic bomb. Each part was brought over by a separate courier and Petrofsky has kept the parts in his refrigerator. While waiting for his plan to take shape Petrofsky meets an American pilot and his wife. Petrofsky all alone is longing for female companionship. Petrofsky is contacted by nuclear weapons expert Irina Vassilievna (Joanna Cassidy) [because in the movies all nuclear experts are beautiful women.] Irina rejects Petrofsky’s advances as she wants to get down to the business of assembling the atomic bomb. Piece by piece the bomb is built. The bombs timer is set for two hours but the timer is not yet turned on. Irina hands Petofsky a small key and tells him to turn on the bomb, when the order is given and then to leave town at once. Irina then hands Petrofsky a coded note. Petrofsky decodes the note as Irina goes back and resets the bomb to explode as soon as it is turned on. She has just sentenced Petrofsky to death by his own hand.
The coded message and the cipher.
She checks on Petrofsky who is burning the coded message and the piece of paper he decoded it on to. Their eyes suddenly lock. The pressure of the build is now over Irina, the bringer of death, decides to have one finally fling with the hansom Petrofsky before fleas ground zero. They begin to kiss passionately. The camera cuts back to them making love in Petrofsky’s bed. The femme fatale shares a tender moment and body fluids with man she’s just doomed to death. Basking in the afterglow after her lover rolls off her, the lovely topless spy notices the writing pad that her doomed lover used to write down the coded message. She can clearly see the imprints in to the pad and the message says “kill her”.
Some spies do.
Realizing that they have both been ordered to double cross each other, Irina rolls back into her former lover’s arms and attempts to warn him as he shoots her to death in the chest. Later we see that he has partly wrapped her body in a bed sheet and placed her in the bathtub. Realizing that she may have been ordered to double cross him he goes into the bathroom. On a gold chain around her neck she is still wearing the little key that she used to lock the control panel on the bomb after the timer was set for two hours.
The lovers have one last look before the end.
Irina sees her future decoded.
He pulls the key off her body and reopens the control panel on the bomb. He was double crossed! He was going to be killed just like every other loose end on this mission. However, before he has a chance to reset the time his apartment is raided by the men from MI5 and Petrofsky is killed. The bomb is disarmed and Irina’s body is found in the bathtub. Trivia: Pierce Brosnan who had recently been selected to play James Bond but was unable to play the part do to contractual obligations plays the parts of Russian Agent Major Valeri Alekseyevich Petrofsky who poses as a British civilian James Edward Ross.
She tried to warn him.
Watching this movie I can’t help but think that this was Brosnan’s attempting to audition for James Bond. His portrayal of the Russian agent matches perfectly with that of Ian Flemings description of James Bond in the Bond novels, where 007 is described as having dark hair, cruel eyes and a scar on his cheek. In The Forth Protocol Brosnan has jet black hair, cruel eyes and a scar on his cheek. It bothered me when I first saw this movie that the coded message that Petrofsky receved was in English using the Latin alphabet and not Russian using Cyrillic script. However Petrofsky was in deep cover and being caught with a piece of paper with Cyrillic script on it might give him away. So it does make sense that the message was in English.