My views
Plot
In 1973, "Control", head of British intelligence ("The Circus"), sends field agent Jim Prideaux to Budapest to meet a Hungarian general and potential defector. In exchange for protection and extraction, the general has offered to identify a mole installed by Soviet spymaster Karla amongst The Circus' senior leadership. When Prideaux realises the meeting is actually a trap, he attempts to flee and is shot in the back. Control and his deputy, George Smiley, are forced into early retirement and Control dies shortly after. The Minister replaces Control and Smiley with four senior officers from Operation Witchcraft, an operation handling a high level source named Merlin within the Soviet political system. Sir Percy Alleline becomes the new Chief, Bill Haydon his deputy, and Roy Bland and Toby Esterhase his lieutenants.
Alleline and Bland meet with Permanent Undersecretary Oliver Lacon, a senior civil servant with day-to-day responsibility for the Circus, to request the purchase of a secret safe house to meet Merlin at. Shortly after the meeting ends, field agent Ricki Tarr telephones Lacon to inform him of a mole within the Circus. Tarr is currently in hiding and on the Circus' 'wanted' list due to being connected to several deaths in Istanbul. Aware that Control had a similar theory, Lacon reaches out to Smiley through Peter Guillam and asks him to investigate. Smiley agrees and recruits Guillam and retired Special Branch Inspector Mendel to assist him.
After setting up a base of operations in the Hotel Islay, Smiley has Guillam steal personnel records and copies of the Circus' slush fund accounts. He discovers several Control loyalists were ousted after Prideaux's shooting, as well as a record of payment made to one "Mr. Ellis", one of Prideaux's identities, after the shooting. Smiley travels to Oxford to interview Soviet analyst Connie Sachs. Sachs reveals that she discovered evidence that Soviet cultural attaché Alexei Polyakov was actually a military officer, and that she suspected his true role was to run a mole through the Soviet embassy in London. Sachs reveals that Alleline suppressed her findings and that she was forced out of the Circus soon after, suggesting that Polyakov is Merlin.
Back in London, Smiley discovers Tarr sheltering in his house and interviews him about his operation in Istanbul. Tarr was assigned to trail Boris, a Russian trade delegate who he quickly discovered was actually KGB. After Tarr witnessed Boris assault his wife and fellow agent Irina, the pair began a sexual relationship that culminated in Irina offering to trade a mole for asylum in the UK. Hours after Tarr cabled London about the existence of a double agent, however, the local station chief was murdered and Irina abducted, confirming to Tarr that the mole existed. Smiley sends Guillam to steal the duty officer's logbook for the night Tarr contacted London from the Circus' records department. Guillam is unexpectedly brought before Circus leadership and told that Tarr is a traitor who has been bought by the Soviets, prompting him to assault Tarr at Smiley's house. However, Smiley finds that the logbook pages for the relevant night have been removed, confirming the mole is trying to silence Tarr.
That night, Smiley recounts his only meeting with Karla to Guillam. Whilst working under the name "Gerstmann" in 1955, Karla was captured and traded to Russia by the Americans. Believing he would likely be executed upon his return, Smiley traveled to Delhi to recruit him. However, his constant urging for Karla to think of his wife only revealed Smiley's weakness: his love for his wife, Ann. A chainsmoker, Karla listened silently, stole a lighter given to George by Ann, and returned to Russia.
Following up on the missing pages, Smiley contacts former duty officer Jerry Westerby, who tells him of how Prideaux's shooting sent Control into shock. Hoping to find George, Westerby had contacted Ann; Haydon then arrived and took command of the operation. Guillam wonders how Haydon could have learned of the emergency, before Smiley informs him Haydon was having an affair with Ann. Smiley follows this up by locating Prideaux, who is in fact alive and working as a French teacher at a public school. Prideaux explains that his Budapest mission was to identify the mole and relay one of five code-names to Control. Alleline was "Tinker", Haydon "Tailor", Bland "Soldier", Esterhase "Poorman", and Smiley "Beggarman". However, he was captured, interrogated and tortured by the KGB instead, during which he witnessed Irina's death. During his interrogation, Karla personally visited and asked how close Control was to identifying the mole before trading him back to the Circus.
With all the testimony he has gathered, Smiley realises that Witchcraft is actually a ruse controlled by the KGB and informs both Lacon and the Minister. The Circus and Witchcraft's lead officers believe Polyakov is providing sensitive Russian military and political intelligence. In reality, however, Polyakov is trading false or insignificant intelligence as a cover to meet the mole. The actual objective of Witchcraft has been to repair the Circus' relationship with the CIA and re-establish the sharing of intelligence after Prideaux's shooting, enabling the mole to leak these materials to Karla. The mole has been trying to find and silence Tarr out of fear Control's investigation would re-open under Smiley and result in him connecting the mole to Polyakov and Witchcraft, identifying him.
Now certain that the mole is one of the four men within Witchcraft, Smiley and Guillam send Tarr to the Paris Station to cable the Circus and draw the mole out. To ensure his compliance, Smiley agrees to Tarr's request to trade the mole for Irina, despite knowing she's dead. Smiley and Guillam surprise Esterhase as he leaves the Circus and drive him to an airstrip. There, they threaten to deport him unless he provides the address of the safe house, which he does. Smiley and Guillam wait at the safe house for the mole to alert Polyakov that Tarr is about to blow their cover. The mole is revealed to be Haydon, and Smiley arrests him at gunpoint.
The Circus holds Haydon at its training and debriefing facility, Sarratt. Smiley visits him to inform him he will be traded for British operatives held in the Soviet Union, after which Haydon asks Smiley to settle several ongoing sexual relationships with various men and women for him. He agrees and Haydon informs him that Karla ordered him to seduce Ann in order to cloud Smiley's judgement. He also confirms that he was tipped off by Prideaux, a long-time friend and suggested lover who suspected the mole could be Haydon, before the latter went to Hungary. As a result, Haydon was able to inform Karla and prevent Prideaux being killed at the hands of the KGB. Prideaux, however, blames Haydon for allowing his torture.
Before Haydon can be traded, Prideaux infiltrates Sarratt with a hunting rifle and shoots his friend underneath his eye. The bullet forms a bloody teardrop that Prideaux watches from a distance before Haydon collapses. Ann returns home, and Smiley returns to the Circus as its Chief.
Comments
Post a Comment