However, the Soviets, having previously poisoned Penkovsky and searched his belongings while he was in the hospital, foil the plan and arrest both men. ![]() Worried about Penkovsky's fate should he be left behind, Wynne volunteers against the advice of MI6 to go back to Moscow to help arrange Penkovsky's defection. In Moscow, Wynne realizes that his hotel room had been searched, but leaves the country before he has a chance to warn Penkovsky. However, the Soviets, using their own double agents, realize they have an information vulnerability. The Americans are able to use this early lead to their advantage during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Penkovsky learns that the Soviets want to turn Cuba into a nuclear threat to the United States, and relays this information, along with photographs and military plans to the CIA, who eventually verify this using their own intelligence. However, this takes a toll on his personal life, where he starts behaving agitatedly, leading his wife to think that he may be having an affair. Wynne uses his business travels to Moscow to regularly carry messages and packages provided by Penkovsky to the CIA. Initially opposed to the task, Wynne eventually agrees, partly after CIA officer Emily Donovan emphasizes that his efforts could help prevent a nuclear war and also after Penkovsky visits him at his home and tells him that he is betting his life on Wynne's success. He asks that they continue to use Wynne as their regular courier, reasoning that he will be under the Soviets' radar. Wynne establishes seemingly normal business relations with Penkovsky and the latter makes arrangements with western intelligence agencies to feed them information. They approach salesman Greville Wynne to go to Moscow under the pretense of exploring commercial opportunities. The CIA and MI6 decide that it would be better not to use an officer and instead have an ordinary businessman act as an intermediary. He reaches out to the CIA and offers to provide information that could help de-escalate the situation. Oleg Penkovsky, a high ranking Soviet official and GRU intelligence officer with access to top secret nuclear information, is disillusioned with Khrushchev's leadership in light of the growing threat of a nuclear war with the United States. The film received generally favourable reviews from critics. The Courier had its world premiere under its original title Ironbark at the Sundance Film Festival on 24 January 2020, and was theatrically released in the United States on 19 March 2021, and the United Kingdom on 13 August 2021. Rachel Brosnahan, Jessie Buckley, and Angus Wright also star. The film stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Greville Wynne, and is based on the true story of a British businessman who was recruited by the Secret Intelligence Service to be a message conduit with a Russian spy source Oleg Penkovsky (played by Merab Ninidze) in the 1960s. The Courier is a 2020 historical spy film directed by Dominic Cooke and written by Tom O'Connor.
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