The Assets
| Television series | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The Assets |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| year | 2014 |
| Production company |
Baltic Film Services, Lincoln Square Productions |
| length | 42 minutes |
| Episodes | 8 in 1 season |
| genre | thriller |
| idea | Sandra Grimes, Jeanne Vertefeuille |
| music | H. Scott Salinas |
| First broadcast | January 2, 2014 (USA) on ABC |
| occupation | |
The assets is a US-based series from 2014 in the genre of spy - thriller .
action
It tells the story of Aldrich Ames , the most dangerous mole in the history of the CIA , who was convicted of espionage for the Soviet Union and Russia in 1994 .
April 16, 1985: After a failed meeting with a Soviet attaché, CIA agent Aldrich Ames enters the Soviet embassy in Washington DC and hands over top-secret documents.
Five months later, at the CIA headquarters in Langley, there was an argument about a cash delivery (20,000 rubles) in Moscow in the form of a dead mailbox : Ames is against at the meeting, Sandra Grimes for the operation. The handover failed and both the spy, KGB General Leonid Poleshchuk, who handed over material of “priceless value” in the 1970s and reported back 10 weeks ago, and the embassy employee were arrested. The embassy employee is soon released from the KGB Lubyanka prison; Poleshchuk is shot.
The CIA is shocked because this was not an isolated incident: more spies have been exposed in the past few months than ever before. A mole is suspected within the CIA and Grimes considers the exposed surrender in Moscow to be staged and suspects that the KGB officer was arrested and executed long before that.
August 1985 in Rome, Vitaly Yurchenko , a senior counterintelligence officer of the KGB, calls the US embassy there and announces that he is overflowing. Ames reacts to the news with panic, because he is supposed to question Yurchenko after his arrival in the USA and has to fear that he will expose him, but he (he) does not know him. He only knows a cover name: "Mr. Robert “and that this person has money, relationship and alcohol problems.
Grimes fears for the assets in the Soviet Union, such as B. Dmitri Polyakov, with whom she has been working since 1972, because if Yurchenko knows about a mole in the CIA, then the Soviet Union knows about the assets in the Soviet Union. In a further conversation with Yurchenko it turns out that it is Edward Lee Howard , who was dismissed two years ago for disciplinary reasons (suspected alcohol and drug abuse).
Barwicha , a settlement near Moscow, 1985: The retired Polyakov is playing with his niece and is warned by his son that Moscow is being talked about and that he, Polyakov, for whatever reason, should not go to Moscow if he is should be called from there, even if it was only because of a triviality. In a later scene the phone rings ... Polyakov was about to leave the house, so turns around and picks up the receiver.
Penobscot County , Maine : The suspect Howard is being followed by the FBI at the request of the CIA - he notices the shadowing, blows the camouflage and is ready to talk, but he denies an offered polygraph test, stands up and refers to his lawyer if the FBI should him bother again. Howard is now alarmed and he manages to leave the country for Moscow. In a flashback, 2 years before these events, Howard can be seen participating in counter-espionage training in Washington DC. He was top of the class and was summoned to the embassy in Moscow , but failed a lie detector test and had to write his resignation. You can see him shooting bottles in front of his house two months later, obviously drunk, and ranting about the CIA. A month later, at a secret meeting in Vienna, he handed over secret material to the KGB.
Yurchenko, who is in a secret hideout, demands a trip to Montreal, Canada, before he continues, because there is a woman there, whom he met while resident in Washington DC, is married to a senior Soviet diplomat, and she is still there loves. The money offered for the cooperation ($ 1,000,000 immediately and $ 62,500 per month) does not distract him from wanting to go to Montreal. In the end he is allowed to travel to Montreal with Ames and another agent to visit his past love. He meets her, but she loved the then KGB officer Yurchenko and not the current traitor Yurchenko. Yurchenko is dejected and manages to escape over dinner in a restaurant. At a press conference at the Soviet embassy in Washington, he speaks of kidnapping and torture by the CIA.
In response to these two other hard blows, the CIA set up an internal investigation team led by Jeanne Vertefeuille , an expert on counter-espionage who was specially ordered back from Gabon, Africa . She begins to review all the logs and everyone who has dealt with the degenerated assets and takes on the task of finding the mole.
East Berlin, 1985: Another asset is exposed and executed, which leads to the conclusion that Edward Lee Howard is not the mole, because he was released 14 months ago and the asset in East Berlin was only sold 13 months ago and 7 Days. The investigation team resumes its work. Ames then meets with the Soviet ambassador and demands a million dollars for his safety. In a flashback, three years earlier, you can see Ames meeting his partner Rosario in Acapulco , Mexico, whom he met earlier at the embassy ball in Mexico City. Rosario is cultural attaché for the Colombian embassy. Back in 1985 one learns what Ames' motive is for the espionage, because he is not a sympathizer of communism, which he considers a disaster: He needs the extra money for the expensive lifestyle of his partner and the imminent divorce from his still -Wife, which is why he steals the documents of all CIA assets for the 1 million dollars, including one from a Martynov who works in the Soviet embassy, accompanies Yurchenko back to Moscow and "disappears" upon arrival.
Within a week, two people contact the US embassy in Moscow, a "prologue" from the middle level of officers of the KGB who wants to be brought to the USA for his information, and a "Mr. X ”, which states that the KGB has infiltrated the communication channel. But Grimes and Vertefeuille do not believe this and suspect a diversionary maneuver that would disrupt or prevent the search for the mole. During this time, several employees of the US embassy in Moscow secretly received information and Prologue reveals to the ambassador the KGB's plan to keep the embassy busy, but the embassy had to play along, otherwise it would come out that there was a mole within the KGB .
A marine who works in the embassy starts a liaison with a Russian translator and, after long requests, allows her "Uncle Sasha" to enter the embassy - it turns out that he is a KGB agent, whereupon the embassy is complete evacuated and all records for the past five years must be sent to CIA headquarters in Langley for review. Because no asset has been exposed for six months and the US embassy is classified as uncompromised after the above-mentioned check, it is decided by "Above" to dissolve the investigation group with Grimes and Vertefeuille and look ahead. But neither of them want to give up and keep looking.
Ames receives confirmation that he will be CIA resident at the US embassy in Rome next year, but before that, like every five years as a CIA employee, he has to take a lie detector test. He contacts the Soviet ambassador, who reassures him and gives him tips: Ames just passed the test.
In the Barwicha settlement near Moscow: Polyakov has put on his parade uniform, says goodbye to his beloved niece and is driven to Moscow by his son - Polyakov is captured, photographers and cameras are present. Grimes, who had worked with him since 1972 and then convinced the CIA that he was a real defector, would like to quit her service after the arrest of Polyakov became known. She is offered to listen to the tape of Polyakov's interrogation in the Lubyanka KGB prison, and she agrees. Polyakov is questioned, then tortured ( waterboarding ) and after guaranteeing that his family will be spared, he confesses and reveals everything he has betrayed to the Americans. When the interrogating general said that he hated his own country, Polyakov replied that he did not hate the country, but the people who ran it. After listening to the tapes, Grimes revokes her release to resume the investigation team and the search for the mole. In a later scene you see the beaten up Polyakov signing his confession and how he is shot in the inner courtyard of the Lubyanka.
Washington DC, 1991: Ames returns from Rome by plane with Rosario and her newborn baby, buys a large house for $ 540,000 in cash, an expensive car and suits - he looks changed when he's back at the CIA. The investigation team, in turn, is still looking for the mole five years later. The list of potential people could be narrowed down to eight. Grimes has Ames as the prime suspect and wants the investigation team to report him “up” as the prime suspect, but that impression is not shared by all members of the group and the decision is adjourned over the weekend. Grimes doesn't leave the adjournment alone and she stays behind in the office.
Ames, one of the eight suspects, has to take another polygraph test and passes it almost perfectly, but Grimes continues to distrust him. In another oral questioning, Ames is the only one to stumble upon a trick question interspersed by Vertefeuille, namely how, purely hypothetically, he would sell information to the KGB. The FBI agent advising the investigation team suggests that Grimes send Ames files to an FBI project that is looking for common ground in exposed spies, which Grimes gladly accepts. There it is found that Ames' behavior in polygraph tests has changed, as has almost everything in his behavior, right up to the last, almost perfect, lie detector test mentioned, which, according to the FBI analysis, makes Ames a perfect spy: because he passed it Test without being nervous at all - and everyone is nervous about a polygraph test, especially the innocent.
But the investigation team, which has decided to unanimously report a prime suspect “to the top”, is still undecided. Louisa Tilton, part of the investigation team who has long been friends with Ames' wife, Rosario, tells Grimes that Rosario comes from a poor background and that she therefore doubts the allegedly rich legacy that explains the luxurious lifestyle. Further investigation reveals that Ames has deposited money into the bank after every meeting with a KGB officer, less than $ 10,000 each, otherwise the bank would have had to report this as an abnormality to the federal IRS . The breakthrough for the investigation team: You report Ames as your main suspect "to the top".
Ames is now guarded around the clock, his house, car and office are bugged and wiretapped, his rubbish ransacked and a torn note is found that leads to his arrest by the FBI after four weeks of complete surveillance. Ames does not want to make any statements at first, but then accepts the offer that his wife can live with her son after five years in prison and subsequent deportation through his unrestricted cooperation. The interrogation is held by Grimes and Vertefeuille.
Five years later, Grimes and Vertefeuille are signing their book in a bookstore when Polyakov's niece asks for a signature and tells how they moved to the United States after the fall of the Soviet Union.
End credits: Polyakov's niece is now American and lives with her husband and two daughters in Washington DC - she and Grimes are close friends.
Rosario Ames was sentenced to five years in prison for complicity in espionage and tax fraud. After her release, she was deported to Colombia, where she works today as a translator of scientific texts.
Jeanne Vertefeuille, who served the CIA for 58 years, died at the age of 80 in December 2012 - Grimes visited her daily in her final months.
Sandra Grimes left the CIA after Ames' arrest confession in 1993 and wrote the book Circle of Treason with Vertefeuille for over nine years. Grimes continues to live in a Washington suburb.
Aldrich Ames is serving his life sentence (no early release) at the Federal Correctional Complex, Allenwood , Pennsylvania . He is inmate # 40087-083
background
- The story is based on the 2012 book Circle of Treason: A CIA Account of Traitor Aldrich Ames and the Men He Betrayed by two former CIA employees, Sandra Grimes and Jeanne Vertefeuille , who helped convict Ames.
- (The) Assets are people within spied organizations or states who provide information for an external spy.
- After only 2 of the total of 8 episodes, ABC temporarily stopped broadcasting due to poor audience numbers (3.77 and 2.92 million) and an audience rating of 0.7 and 0.6 respectively among the 18–49 year olds The worst start of a Big Four drama was, five months later it broadcast episodes 3 and 4 (1.25 and 1.46 million viewers) on a different slot within a week, and after another month, again on a different slot, within one week Week the remaining episodes each as a double episode.
occupation
| role | actor |
|---|---|
| Sandra Grimes | Jodie Whittaker |
| Aldrich Ames | Paul Rhys |
| Jeanne Vertefeuille | Harriet Walter |
| Wallace Austin | Ralph Brown |
| Arthur O'Neill | Stuart Milligan |
| Louisa Tilton | Christina Cole |
| Rosario Ames | Catalina Denis |
| Mitch Weaver | Lex Shrapnel |
| Gary Grimes | Julian Ovenden |
| Victor Cherkashin | Goran Kostic |
| Vitaly Yurchenko | John Lynch |
| Kelly Grimes | Amelia Clarkson |
| Eric D'Amaro | Akie Kotabe |
| Dmitri Polyakov | Peter Guinness |
| Randy | Kieran O'Brien |
| Agent Waters | Richard Brake |
| Mack | Noel Clarke |
| Laura | Sarah Greene |
| Jim | Julian Lewis Jones |
Episode list
| No. | German title | Original title | First broadcast in the USA | German language first broadcast (-) | Director | script |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | - | My name is Aldrich Ames | Jan. 2, 2014 | - | Jeff T. Thomas | Drew Chapman |
| 2 | - | Jewel in the Crown | Jan. 9, 2014 | - | Jeff T. Thomas | Drew Chapman |
| 3 | - | Trip to Vienna | Jun 21, 2014 | - | Adam Lucas Feinstein | Alex Berger |
| 4th | - | What's Done Is Done | Jun 28, 2014 | - | Rudy Bednar | Bruce Terris |
| 5 | - | Check mate | Jul 21, 2014 | - | Trygve Allister this one | Karen Stillman |
| 6th | - | A Small Useless Truth | Jul 21, 2014 | - | Trygve Allister this one | Sarah Byrd |
| 7th | - | The Straw Poll | Aug 3, 2014 | - | Peter Medak | Bruce Terris |
| 8th | - | Avenger | Aug 3, 2014 | - | Peter Medak | Drew Chapman |
Errors / differences
- In the scene change picture "Germany 1985" you can see an empty grassy area on the left edge of the picture, where at that time the Palace of the Republic stood and now (as of 2020) the Berlin Palace is being rebuilt.
- The scenes that take place in Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin, were probably shot in Eastern Europe, although the street scenes contain some errors, such as a sales sign with "Sale around the corner" or a license plate number "B - T7 734".
- The Ames and Rosario prisoner transport was apparently not filmed in the United States, but presumably also in Eastern Europe.
- The complete surveillance of Ames by the CIA and FBI did not last four weeks, but lasted four months (November 1993 to February 21, 1994) or the surveillance as such for almost a year (from March 1993).
- Unlike the plot (5 years after Ames' arrest), Grimes and Vertefeuille's joint book Circle of Treason: A CIA Account of Traitor Aldrich Ames and the Men He Betrayed didn't come out until 2012.
- Aldrich Ames is serving his life sentence not at the Federal Correctional Complex, Allenwood , Pennsylvania , but at the Federal Correctional Institution of the Terre Haute Federal Correctional Complex , Indiana .
criticism
The website Metacritic rated the film - based on reviews in English - with a Metascore of 58 percent; Rotten Tomatoes rates The Assets as rotten ( rotten ) with 56% , while the audience scores 76%; the average rating by IMDb users is 7.5 out of 10 possible points (as of March 19, 2020).
Web links
- The assets in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The assets at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ The Assets. In: canceled + renewed TV shows - TV Series Finale. November 20, 2013. Retrieved March 19, 2020 (American English).
- ↑ Counterintelligence - Recruiting And Operating Counterintelligence Assets | From China With Love | FRONTLINE | PBS. Retrieved March 21, 2020 .
- ^ INTelligence: Human Intelligence - Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved March 21, 2020 (American English).
- ↑ What is an intelligence asset? | Intelligence 101.Retrieved March 21, 2020 .
- ↑ Thursday Final Ratings: 'The Big Bang Theory', 'Two and a Half Men' & 'The Taste' Adjusted Up; 'The Millers' Adjusted Down. In: TV By The Numbers. January 6, 2014, accessed March 19, 2020 .
- ↑ Thursday Final Ratings: 'The Big Bang Theory' & 'Parks and Recreation' Adjusted Up. In: TV By The Numbers. January 10, 2014, accessed March 19, 2020 .
- ↑ Matt Webb Mitovich, Matt Webb Mitovich: ABC Pulls The Assets After Two Episodes. In: TVLine. January 11, 2014, accessed March 19, 2020 (American English).
- ↑ Michael O'Connell: TV Ratings: ABC's 'Assets' Bombs, Dipping 'Community' Tops NBC Comedies in Return. In: The Hollywood Reporter. January 3, 2014, accessed March 19, 2020 (American English).
- ↑ The Assets on ABC: latest ratings. In: canceled + renewed TV shows - TV Series Finale. June 29, 2014. Retrieved March 19, 2020 (American English).
- ^ The Assets: ABC Cancels Spy Drama Again. In: canceled + renewed TV shows - TV Series Finale. July 1, 2014, accessed March 19, 2020 (American English).
- ↑ Aldrich Ames. In: FBI History. Retrieved March 19, 2020 (American English).
- ↑ Inmate Locator. In: Federal Bureau of Prisons. Retrieved March 19, 2020 (American English).
- ^ The Assets. In: Metacritic. Retrieved March 19, 2020 (American English).
- ^ The Assets. In: Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved March 19, 2020 (American English).
- ^ The Assets. In: IMDb. Retrieved March 19, 2020 (American English).