The Courier (2020 film)
The Courier (2020 film)
The Courier is a 2020 historical spy film directed by Dominic Cooke and written by Tom O'Connor. 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 Russian spy source Oleg Penkovsky (played by Merab Ninidze) in the 1960s. Rachel Brosnahan, Jessie Buckley, and Angus Wright) also star.
The Courier (2020 film)
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. The film received generally favourable reviews from critics.
Plot
In 1960, 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. He reaches out to the CIA and offers to provide information that could help de-escalate the situation. 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.
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