The Coldest Game

The Coldest Game
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Łukasz Kośmicki
Screenplay by	Łukasz Kośmicki Marcel Sawicki
Produced by	Piotr Woźniak-Starak Krzysztof Terej Daniel Baur
Starring	Bill Pullman Lotte Verbeek James Bloor Robert Więckiewicz
Cinematography	Paweł Edelman
Edited by	Robert Gryka Wolfgang Weigl Krzysztof Arszennik
Music by	Łukasz Targosz
Production company	Watchout Studio
Release date	November 8, 2019 (2019-11-08)
Running time	96 minutes
Country	Poland
Language	English

The Coldest Game (Polish: Ukryta gra) is a 2019 English-language Polish spy film starring Bill Pullman.

This spy thriller is the last film produced by Piotr Woźniak-Starak, who died in an apparent boating accident shortly before the premiere.

Plot

The film starts with a text card setting the historical background: it is the height of the Cold War, with Soviet troops stationed in Cuba after the revolution, and President Kennedy being informed in 1962 that the USSR is likely preparing for war, with the Cuban Missile Crisis unfolding.

The first scene is one of a Grandmaster chess match. One of the players (the American) walks onto the stage, towards the table where the other player (the Russian) is already sitting. The American looks dazed and has a blood stain on his hand. We cut back to 7 days before where the American chess player, an unkempt middle aged man, is talking to a taxi driver who addresses him as "professor" and drops him off at his New York apartment. As the chess player walks in, a car pulls up outside the apartment. In a bar, the chess player is in a card game with three others; he casually makes a remark about the destructive power of the Soviet Tsar Bomba, and switches off a TV news report about an upcoming chess match between Soviet champion Alexander Gavrylov and the American Konigsberg. The chess player wins the card game, takes the money and then receives his cut from the bartender - this seems to be a source of income for the chess player.

A woman in the bar, Agent Stone, approaches the chess player, whom she recognises as Joshua Mansky, her former lecturer and a former champion chess player. She has a proposition for him, but Mansky immediately walks out of the bar before hearing it; he is followed out of the bar by a man, Agent White, who grabs him and forces him into the back of the car that was waiting outside Mansky's apartment. It is later revealed that Mansky knew Stone was lying because in all his years of teaching, he never had a female student. Mansky's kidnappers take him onboard a plane, drugged; he wakes up in a US embassy in another country, in a safe room where their conversations are secure, and meets Agent Novak, who leads the operation. Mansky is a mathematical genius, who defeated Konigsberg 20 years before, but has an unpredictable temperament. He is informed he has some part to play in "winning the Cold War".

He is told he will have to compete in a chess tournament against Alexander Gavrylov of the Soviet Union in the Polish capital Warsaw, as Konigsberg has died (by Soviet poisoning). Per tournament rules, Mansky is the only eligible substitute for Konigsberg because he was the last person to beat him. However, Mansky's drinking problem becomes apparent when he is found unconscious in his hotel room. Amphetamine drugs are used to make him regain consciousness before he has to go to the chess match stage to make his first official appearance as the replacement American player. He is unable to make the first ceremonial move on the chess board after his opponent, as he sees 8900 moves at one time.

Mansky is housed in a hotel located in the building where the match takes place, the Palace of Culture and Science, and meets the hotel director, Alfred Slega, who also seems to like alcohol. The hotel director is told by a Soviet general major (General Krutov, Soviet counter-intelligence) to "look after" Mansky, implying he will keep the American chess player drunk.

The film cuts to 4 days before the opening scene. Mansky recalls he got drunk with the hotel director in the morning and does not recall the day at all, including the first chess game. Agent Stone reveals that he won the game in only 32 moves. Mansky's eccentric behaviour and alcoholism is revealed to be partly due to his sheer brilliance, with alcohol slowing his brain function enough to operate more normally. The Russian general major meets Gavrylov, and encourages him to keep playing on despite losing the first match. He tells Alfred to deny alcohol to the American delegation. However, Mansky is still able to get alcohol, smuggling it out of social events accompanying the match. In the second game, a hypnotist in the audience blocks Mansky's thoughts and Mansky concedes the game. Agent White pursues the hypnotist out of the chess game theatre, but is stopped by members of the Soviet group who threaten his family, who they know a lot about, including the fact that his wife is pregnant.

Among the tournament attendees is a Soviet officer, who is secretly working for the Americans. Agent White tells Agent Stone they call him Gift, but does not mention how Gift can be identified.

Alfred befriends Mansky, and visits him via a secret back door in a wardrobe in Mansky's room that allows passage into the toilets in the lobby, where he hides some alcohol for Mansky to secretly use as needed. He shares his personal experience of Soviet influence over communist Poland with Mansky, and views the Warsaw Pact as merely a continuation of the Nazi occupation. This is despite the fact that Alfred possesses a little red book (an identification of a member of the ruling party) that makes him a privileged person in communist Poland, and shields him from questioning by the police and the Soviets. Together, they sneak in and out of the hotel through the Warsaw sewers. They go to a bar where they meet many of Alfred's friends, who cheer for Mansky, not Gavrylov, in the match, and who are sympathetic to the US and like American culture.

The next day Agent White visits Mansky’s room, which is now shown to be bugged by the Soviets. He tells Mansky that a man in a Soviet uniform might approach him; that man can be trusted, and has a scar on the back of his right hand. Before Agent White can say anything else, he starts vomiting blood and dies in Mansky’s arms, poisoned with Ricin. Agent Stone asks Mansky why Agent White came into his room. Mansky says the room is bugged, but Agent Stone tells him the room is clean. Mansky becomes distraught, and Stone takes him to the US embassy (it is announced that Mansky fell ill; the third game is considered a draw due to his feigned illness), where they brief him on the events in Cuba. The agents tell Mansky about John Gift, a code name for a high ranking Soviet officer who is a double agent for Americans; only Agent White was working with him. Gift was going to deliver the blueprints of the Soviet warheads destined for Cuba, but the Soviets stung the Americans in Moscow, with the assistance of a spy within the American intelligence. Gift was coming to Warsaw for the tournament along with other Soviet officers, which gives Gift an opportunity to provide critical information to the Americans regarding Soviet capabilities and intentions in Cuba. The Americans want to know if Soviet nuclear warheads are already in Cuba, or if the first warheads are yet to arrive. Gift knows he can trust Mansky, as Mansky clearly he cannot be a spy. Agent Stone tells Mansky he needs to get the microfilm of the blueprints, hidden in a champagne cork, from Gift. To allow this, Mansky needs to make the next game a draw, to ensure the Soviet delegation comes to the after-match social event.

General Krutov talks to a member of his staff about his impressions of an American book, describing postwar history, that he apparently came across: in the book Americans portray Soviets as buffoons, or as mindless followers of orders of bloodthirsty psychopaths. It is possible Krutov found that incriminating book among the staff member's belongings. Krutov says that what Americans call a democracy is a system in which they "treat women like servants" and "won't even let black people use the same shitter", perpetuate social inequality between the rich and the workers, and force poorer nations to give away their riches to the USA, waging war against those who nationalize their industries instead of following the American model. While explaining this, an angry Krutov makes the staff member spread out his fingers, and takes stabs with a knife (at the book) in between the staff member's fingers.

Mansky relates to Agent Stone his prior assistance to Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project, which birthed the profoundly destructive power of nuclear weapons into human hands, for which he remains regretful.

During the fourth game, Mansky often looks at the audience, his mind obviously not on the game, wondering who might be John Gift. In a break period, he goes to the lobby toilets to drink some of the hidden alcohol, whereupon General Krutov’s staff member (the one Krutov was talking to earlier) enters his cubicle and hands him a cork. Agent Stone then enters the cubicle, and tells Mansky to keep the cork when Mansky tries to give it to her. Then both she and the Soviet staff member are attacked and killed in the toilet by a man in a Soviet uniform. Mansky returns to the game, which is the opening scene of the film. His brain, suddenly transformed by the alcohol, switches on and he proposes a draw. His opponent turns this down disdainfully, as Mansky is clearly in a bad position from the earlier passage of play. Mansky then makes a number of quick moves in the game interspersed by countermoves by an increasingly frustrated Gavrylov. When he again proposes a draw, Gavrylov agrees and he applauds Mansky, squaring the series 2-2. When Mansky asks to go back to the US embassy, he is told the American delegation is quarantined in the hotel. Mansky goes back to his room, and the usual social event after the match carries on without him, the rest of the Soviet delegation being present along with Gavrylov. Alfred smuggles some alcohol out of the event and brings it to Mansky’s room via the secret entrance in the wardrobe. Mansky asks him for help; Alfred switches on the radio loud, clearly knowing the room is bugged. Alfred says he cannot help Mansky leave the hotel, but gives him the red book, and says to not allow the Soviets to trace it back to him in case Mansky gets caught. Mansky goes into the lobby toilets via the secret passageway, and escapes into the city to head to the US embassy.

The world is now 24 hours from a confrontation between the USA and the USSR. At the US embassy, in the safe room, he recounts the events to Agent Novak. The man who killed both Stone and the Soviet staff member seems to be Gift. After he killed Stone, he revealed a syringe full of alcohol in Stone's purse; apparently, Stone was going to kill Mansky by injecting alcohol straight into his bloodstream and make it look like accidental death from alcohol overdose. Gift gave Mansky another cork, and soaked the one Mansky had gotten earlier in Stone’s blood, to mark is as the bad one. He then told Mansky to remember the word "rakirovka". Novak says it is not clear to him whether Stone was a Soviet spy or not, and he has four hours to give President Kennedy a decision on whether to place a blockade around Cuba or not. Mansky is not sure who to trust, as Agent White did not tell Novak that Gift has a scar on his hand.

Novak tells Mansky that the cork soaked in Stone’s blood says the nuclear weapons are already in Cuba; the one given by Gift suggests the Soviets are bluffing. President Kennedy wants to communicate with Mansky by secure telegram. Mansky wonders whether Gift is not on the American’s side at all. Mansky explains his reasoning, invoking "the riddle of the two guards", and passes a message to the President. Kennedy announces a naval blockade of Cuba, which is going to stop any ship carrying military material from reaching Cuba. Novak thanks Mansky; Mansky tells him to thank Gift instead.

General Krutov and the Soviets find the dead bodies in the lobby toilet. Krutov also discovers Mansky’s secret alcohol, realising that the Alfred the hotel director must have befriended Mansky. With Kennedy’s announcement, Krutov realizes that the Soviets have lost this battle; he orders a search for the spy in their midst; in addition, he has Alfred summoned, and tortures him. Alfred accidentally reveals the existence of a secret passageway leading from the building through the sewers into the city.

Novak tells Mansky that "rakirovka" (castling) was a code word meaning imminent danger: Gift needs extraction. At the fifth and deciding game, Mansky sees Gift outside in the lobby. A man in Soviet uniform is then seen exiting the hotel via the secret passages Mansky has been using all this time, whilst Gavrylov awaits for Mansky to appear at the chess table. At the exit of the secret passages into an alley leading into the streets of Warsaw, Krutov and his team are waiting. The man in the Soviet uniform - whom they apprehend when he comes out of the secret passages - is actually Mansky, whilst Gift uses the red book which Alfred gave to Mansky to simply walk out of the cordoned-off hotel. Gift is wearing Mansky’s clothes. Novak rushes into the alley and stops Krutov from killing Mansky as he is protected by diplomatic immunity. Mansky cannot appear in the final game, which is forfeit, and Gavrylov wins the tournament.

Novak flies Mansky back to the US. The press at the airport accuse Mansky of having humiliated the US, despite him having prevented a nuclear war without their knowing. Novak says to Mansky he cannot determine Stone's motivation for betraying the US. He tells Mansky that he is a citizen hero and will be looked after, and hands him a hip flask. Novak exits the car; Gift enters the car to join Mansky and gives him Alfred’s red book, saying that Alfred was killed. Gift says he has seen the Soviet order of attack. Mansky tells Gift that Novak wants to take care of them - but hands the hip flask to Gift, and leaves the car, saying he does not want Novak’s protection.

Talks commence between the United States and the Soviet Union, which result in mutual de-escalation steps, such as the withdrawal of nuclear-tipped missiles from some territories. The final montage goes on to mention later nuclear arms control agreements such as the INF of 1987, and later US assistance with nuclear disarmament in former communist countries in the Eastern Bloc after the revolutions of 1989. However, the epilogue notes: "In February 2019, the United States suspended compliance with the INF treaty. The same day, Vladimir Putin announced that Russia also suspended the INF treaty and will develop new intermediate-range missiles."

The movie ends with the following quote: "Our moral imperative is to work with all powers for that day when the children of the world will grow up without the fear of nuclear war." - Ronald Reagan.

Cast

• Bill Pullman as Joshua Mansky
• Lotte Verbeek as Agent Stone
• James Bloor as Agent White
• Robert Więckiewicz as Alfred, director of the Palace of Culture and Science
• Aleksey Serebryakov as General Krutov
• Corey Johnson as Donald Novak
• Nicholas Farrell as Griswald Moran
• Evgeniy Sidikhin as Alexander Gavrylov

Production

Filming took place from February to April 2018 in Warsaw. William Hurt, originally cast as Joshua Mansky, suffered an accident while returning from the film set to his apartment, just a few days into shooting, and was replaced by Bill Pullman.

The Coldest Game was the last film produced by Piotr Woźniak-Starak, who died shortly before the premiere. His death was ruled an accident. The cause of death was head trauma caused by a "sharp-edged tool", and it was claimed that the movie producer fell off his boat into a lake and had his head crushed by the propeller of his own boat. His cell phone remained on the boat. A 27-year-old woman who was also on the boat survived, and the movie producer's bodyguard reportedly attempted a suicide soon after.

Release

The film had its premiere at the 44th Gdynia Film Festival in September 2019 and received positive critics' reviews. It was scheduled to be launched in Polish cinemas on November 8, 2019.

The international premiere is planned for early 2020. As of early 2020, Netflix is streaming The Coldest Game.

Relationship to real events

Cuban Missile Crisis

An important question in the movie is whether the Soviets already have nuclear warheads in Cuba, or are yet to ship them to Cuba. As told by Soviet general Gribkov in 1992 (and repeated in the 2003 book Wilson's Ghost by McNamara & Blight), Soviet forces in Cuba at that point did have nuclear warheads there: 162 of them, including at least 90 tactical nuclear warheads; these warheads were just 90 miles from US shores. Furthermore, on October 26, 1962, the warheads were moved from their storage sites to positions closer to their delivery vehicles, to be launched in case of American invasion. According to McNamara, the Americans did not believe Soviet warheads were already in Cuba; if what Gribkov says is true, then the Americans decided on the course of action while not knowing how real the threat was.

The last vodka

The method of killing shown in the movie, dubbed "the last vodka" in the movie - injecting alcohol directly into the victim's bloodstream to fake accidental death from overdrinking - has long been alleged to be used by former communist secret service operatives in Poland to eliminate opponents and witnesses (or to perform example killings to scare others into silence). These allegations came mainly from anti-communists, including members of the opposition from the times when Poland was a one-party authoritarian communist state. A notable example is Sylwester Zych, a priest whom the police blamed for the death of one of their own. In 1989, Zych died, officially from alcohol poisoning, but surprisingly the concentration of alcohol in one of his arms was much higher than elsewhere in his body, suggesting the alcohol was injected in the arm, not taken orally.

See also

• A Beautiful Mind
• Polish People's Republic
• Cold War

External links

• The Coldest Game at IMDb
• The Coldest Game on ChessBase.com