Q&A USA

감독: Steven Spielberg

주연: Tom Hanks/Mark Rylance/Amy Ryan/Alan Alda

1957년 미국과 소련의 냉전으로 핵무기 전쟁의 공포가 시작되는데, 보험 전문 변호사로 일하는 '제임스 도노반'(톰 행크스)은 소련 스파이인 '루돌프 아벨'(마크 라이런스)의 변호를 맡게 된다.

미국의 반공운동이 극도에 달했던 시기에 상대 적국의 스파이를 변호한다는 자체가 자신의 목숨과 가족의 안전까지 위협받는 일이었다.

제임스 도노반은 “변론의 기회는 누구에게나 주어져야 한다”며 자신의 신념과 원칙에 따라 스파이인 아벨의 변호에 최선을 다하는데, 이 시기에 소련에서 붙잡힌 CIA 첩보기 조종사의 소식이 전해들은 제임스 도노반은 조종사를 구출하기 위해 스파이를 맞교환 하는 비밀협상에 나서게 되는 story

In 1957 New York City, Rudolf Abel is arrested and charged with spying for the Soviet Union. Insurance lawyer James B. Donovan is appointed to defend Abel, so that Abel's trial will be seen as fair. Committed to the principle that the accused deserves a vigorous defense, he mounts the best defense of Abel he can, declining along the way to cooperate in the CIA's attempts to induce him to violate the confidentiality of his communications with his client.

Abel is convicted, but Donovan convinces the judge to spare Abel the death penalty because Abel had been serving his country honorably, and he might prove useful for a future prisoner exchange; Abel is sentenced to 30 years. Donovan appeals the conviction to the Supreme Court based on the lack of a search warrant for the seizure of Abel's ciphers and photography equipment. For his principled stand Donovan and his family are harassed, including shots being fired at their home. The conviction is upheld.

In 1960, Gary Powers, a pilot in the CIA's top secret U-2 spy plane program, is shot down over the USSR. He is captured and sentenced in a show trial to ten years confinement, including three years in prison.

Donovan receives a letter from East Germany, purportedly sent by Abel's wife, thanking him and urging him to get in contact with their lawyer, whose name is Vogel. The CIA think this is a back-channel message hinting that the USSR is willing to swap Powers for Abel. They unofficially ask Donovan to go to Berlin to negotiate the exchange; he arrives just as the Berlin Wall is going up. Crossing in to East Berlin, he meets with a KGB officer in the Soviet Embassy and is then directed to Vogel, who represents the Attorney General of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) (East Germany). The Attorney General seeks to swap Abel for an American graduate student named Frederic Pryor, who had been arrested in East Germany; in the process the GDR hopes to gain official recognition by the United States.

The CIA wants Donovan to disregard Pryor but he insists that both Pryor and Powers be swapped for Abel. In a message to the Attorney General he bluffs that they will either release Pryor with Powers or there will be no deal. The exchange of Powers and Abel takes place at the Glienicke Bridge, with Pryor to be released simultaneously at Checkpoint Charlie. Tension builds as Pryor fails to arrive. The CIA, still primarily concerned with Powers, tell Abel he can go, but he refuses to move. It is confirmed that Pryor has been released, and the exchange takes place.

The next day, back in the United States, the government publicly acknowledges Donovan for negotiating the deal that rehabilitates his public image.