Let the Right One In director
Tomas Alfredson takes the helm for this adaptation of
John Le Carré's novel about an ex-British agent who emerges from retirement to expose a mole in MI6. England, 1973: British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) head Control (
John Hurt) and his top-ranking lieutenant George Smiley (
Gary Oldman) are both forced into retirement after a mission involving respected secret agent Jim Prideaux (
Mark Strong) turns unexpectedly deadly. As the Cold War continues to escalate, suspicions of a Soviet double agent begin to grow within SIS. Subsequently summoned by Undersecretary Oliver Lacon (
Simon McBurney), Smiley is secretly reemployed by the SIS in order to root out the double agent suspected of sharing top-secret British intelligence with the Soviets. Meanwhile, as Smiley and his new partner Peter Guillam (
Benedict Cumberbatch) begin systematically examining all of the official missions and records involving MI6, the veteran spy can't help but recall an encounter he once had with Karla, a dangerous Russian operative, years prior. At first, uncovering the identity of the infiltrator seems nearly impossible. Smiley and Guillam get a big break, however, when undercover agent Ricki Tarr (
Tom Hardy) reveals that he has fallen for a mysterious woman in Turkey named Irina (
Svetlana Khodchenkova), who may have a crucial lead. Later, upon learning that Control had comprised a list of five possible suspects, code-named Tinker (
Toby Jones), Tailor (
Colin Firth), Soldier (
Ciarán Hinds), Poor Man (
David Dencik), and Beggar Man -- none other than Smiley himself -- the investigation begins to heat up again.
