Spies like us

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Movie
German title Spies like us
Original title Spies Like Us
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1985
length 98 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director John Landis
script Lowell Ganz ,
Dan Aykroyd ,
Dave Thomas ,
Babaloo Almond
production Brian Grazer ,
George Folsey Jr.
music Elmer Bernstein ,
Paul McCartney
camera Robert Paynter
cut Malcolm Campbell
occupation

Spies Like Us (original title: Spies Like Us ) is an American comedy film from the year 1985 . The director was John Landis , the writer wrote Dan Aykroyd , Lowell Ganz , Babaloo Mandel and Dave Thomas . The main roles were played by Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd.

action

Austin Millbarge, a cryptography expert, and Emmett Fitz-Hume, an assistant secretary of state for the U.S. Department of State , are running for government specialty agents. They are caught cheating during the aptitude test but are offered an offer to take on a top secret mission for the CIA . They do not know that they are only needed as bait to distract from the other, real agents who are to penetrate Tajikistan and launch a Soviet ICBM that is to serve as a target for testing a laser cannon of the Strategic Defense Initiative .

Millbarge and Fitz-Hume are trained in a crash course for the field and sent to Central Asia . The two managed to escape KGB agents and unknowingly met the right team of agents, Dr. Hadley and Karen Boyer, who went into hiding as doctors with Afghan freedom fighters. After a catastrophic introduction of Fitz-Hume and Millbarge as two doctors who have not yet arrived, they are forced to flee across the Russian border, promptly having an unpleasant encounter with the KGB and the border guards behind them. At the same time, however, the actual agents' mission fails, and Boyer joins Millbarge and Fitz-Hume. Together they overpower the ICBM guards. They then receive instructions from the SDI to perform certain operations on the missile control.

After entering the launch code, the automatic launch procedure of the mobile launch pad begins, and shortly afterwards the rocket launches. However, the attempt to fire the missile through the laser defense device fails. The military executing the test also took this possibility into account: Instead of telling the affected governments, which are now preparing for nuclear war, about the illegal project, they simply decide to hold out the events on the grounds that the cold war and the atomic one Arms race is a pointless undertaking anyway, since the potential of the nuclear arsenal is never really exhausted.

Millbarge and Fitz-Hume find a last-minute way to get the missile off course by correcting the missile's programming. The rocket changes course and self-destructs in space; then the secret base of the conspirators is stormed and the guilty are arrested. Following the affair, Fitz-Hume and Millbarge lead a widely acclaimed disarmament negotiation - with the missile security team as a delegate of the Soviet Union and as a “negotiating instrument ” the game Trivial Pursuit combined with a world map reminiscent of risk .

backgrounds

  • Production costs amounted to about 22 million US dollars . The film grossed over $ 60 million in United States cinemas .
  • Many directors have a cameo appearance in the film : In addition to John Landis , Terry Gilliam , Sam Raimi , Joel Coen , Costa-Gavras and Frank Oz also play in small roles. The musician BB King and the entertainer Bob Hope also have cameo appearances.
  • The Russian sentence about the type of assignment that Dan Aykroyd communicates to the KGB agents translates as: "The less you know, the better!"
  • The geographic coordinates used in the film actually refer to an area in Texas (Paducah, TX 79248, United States).
  • In 2009 there was an episode in the eighth season of the animated series Family Guy with the title Spies Reminiscent of Us , which alludes directly to the film and in which Aykroyd and Chase spoke to themselves. It is subsequently claimed that Reagan liked the movie so much that it actually turned both actors into secret agents.

synchronization

role actor speaker
Emmett Fitz-Hume Chevy Chase Norbert Gescher
Austin Millbarge Dan Aykroyd Thomas Danneberg
General Sline Steve Forrest Jochen Schröder
Karen Boyer Donna Dixon Alexandra Lange
Ruby Bruce Davison Wolfgang number
Keyes William Prince Klaus Miedel
Colonel Rhombus Bernie Casey Helmut Krauss
General Miegs Tom Hatten Hans Nitschke
Jerry Hadley Charles McKeown Lothar Blumhagen

criticism

Spies like us received mixed to negative reviews.

"Agent clothing studded with quotes from relevant agent and war films, which despite all lengths and silliness is to be understood as a methodical attack against hurray patriotism and military power."

- Lexicon of international film

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for spies like us . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , July 2005 (PDF; test number: 56 615 DVD).
  2. ↑ Box office / business for spies like us
  3. ↑ Spies like us. In: synchronkartei.de. German synchronous index , accessed on October 10, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Spies Like Us (Rotten Tomatoes). Retrieved September 23, 2018 .
  5. ^ Spies Like Us (Metacritic). Retrieved September 23, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Spies like us. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used