History Literature / TheFourthProtocol

* TakingYouWithMe: Petrofsky is shocked when he finds the timer has been set to zero, but the SAS choose that moment to blast through the door, so he does his best to fulfill the mission.

* AllThereInTheManual: The film doesn't even explain what the Fourth Protocol ''is''. You have to read the novel to find out.

* AdaptationDistillation: The film drops the burglary, the search for the leak, and digging up evidence of TheMole in South Africa. Instead MI5 already know who the traitor is, and the film opens with Caine's character committing the burglary to make him contact and thus identify his handler.

* SpiesInAVan: The MI-5 Watchers have one outside the flat of a British politician who is stealing NATO secrets. They listen to a wiretap of the politician cancelling a date with his mistress, then watch him walking to the subway where he dodges various people in case they are following him...all of whom are shown sitting in the van after he reaches his rendezvous with TheHandler.

* ShootTheMessenger

* FeedTheMole: At the beginning of the novel, the protagonist uncovers a FalseFlagOperation feeding information to the Soviets. As the mole is a fervent anti-communist (he thought he was giving information to South Africa), British Intelligence decide to make the best of a bad situation and use him to funnel false information to the Soviets, which comes in handy later in the novel.

* ReassignedToAntarctica: Preston is first reassigned to Ports and Airports, then forced to go on leave.
* ReassignmentBackfire: Preston is reassigned to Ports and Airports, but this puts him in a position to search for the other bomb couriers.
* ScaramangaSpecial: The novel features a ''nuclear bomb'' fitting this trope. Components are either concealed in or disguised as everyday items (including a rubber ball and a transistor radio, as shown in the film version) as they are smuggled in.

* AdaptationDistallation: The film drops the burglary, the search for the leak and digging up evidence in South Africa. Instead MI5 already know who the mole is, and the film opens with Caine's character committing the burglary to make him contact and thus identify his handler.

* YouKnowTooMuch: Even more than the novel, where only Petrofsky and the KGB weapon specialist are killed. The movie opens with Kim Philby (who planned the operation) getting shot (TakeThat, you dirty traitor!), then the man who executed Philby is killed by Petrofsky, then an innocent bystander who walks in on Petrofsky picking up one of the parts, then Vassilievna.

''The Fourth Protocol'' is a 1984 thriller novel by Creator/FrederickForsyth. The plot involves a plot against Britain involving smuggled nuclear weapons and a Soviet-friendly faction of the Labour Party.

* PillowPistol: The KGB agent Petrofsky and the female Soviet weapons expert Vassilievna have just finished having sex. She rolls over in bed and [[WritingIndentationClue sees the imprint of Petrofsky's latest orders on a notepad]]: KILL HER. Petrofsky promptly shoves a pillow against her chest and fires his Makarov pistol through it as an improvised silencer.

* PointyHairedBoss: The acting head of [=MI5=] refuses to do anything about Preston's initial investigation (implied to be about the Communist plan to seize power) or the courier carrying an atomic bomb component.

* DrivingQuestion: Three questions drive the plot.

* ImproperlyPlacedFirearms: Averted as Petrofsky is using a Soviet Makarov. However as an 'illegal' KGB agent carrying out a mission that can't be linked to his country, that's the last weapon he'd be carrying.

* YouKnowTooMuch: Even more than the novel, where only Petrofsky and the KGB weapon specialist are killed. The movie opens with Kim Philby (who planned the operation) getting shot (TakeThat, you dirty traitor!), then the man who executed Philby is killed by Petrofsky, then an innocent bystander who walks in on Petrofsky picking up one of the parts, then Vassilievna.
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* TortureFirstAskQuestionsLater: KGB thugs torture a Dutch fence of stolen diamonds by PuttingAHandOverHisMouth and snapping his fingers one by one. When the thug takes his hand away, the fence is begging to be asked questions.

* YouKnowTooMuch: Even more than the novel, where only Petrofsky and the KGB weapon specialist is killed. The movie opens with Kim Philby (who planned the operation) getting shot (TakeThat, you dirty traitor!), then the man who executed Philby is killed by Petrofsky, then an innocent bystander who walks in on Petrofsky picking up one of the parts, then Vassilievna.

* WarForFunAndProfit: The Soviet plan involves stirring up a crisis that might lead to war, though plan was to allow the head of the British Labour Party to avert the crisis at the last minute; the resulting popularity would enable him to win the election, whereupon he would be [[DayOfTheJackboot toppled by a hard-left faction]] inside his own party.

* PillowPistol: The KGB agent Petrofsky and the female Soviet weapons expert Vassilievna have just finished having sex. She rolls over in bed and sees the imprint of Petrofsky's latest orders on a notepad: KILL HER. Petrofsky promptly shoves a pillow against her chest and fires his Makarov pistol through it as an improvised silencer.