Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy () is a 2011 British Cold War spy thriller film directed by Tomas Alfredson. The screenplay was written by Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan, based on John le Carré's 1974 novel of the same name. The film stars Gary Oldman as George Smiley, with Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Toby Jones, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ciarán Hinds, David Dencik and Kathy Burke supporting. It is set in London in the early 1970s and follows the hunt for a Soviet double agent at the top of the British secret service.
The film was produced through the British company Working Title Films and financed by France's StudioCanal. It premiered in competition at the 68th Venice International Film Festival. A critical and commercial success, it was the highest-grossing film at the British box office for three consecutive weeks. It won the BAFTA Award for Best British Film. The film also received three Oscar nominations: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, and for Oldman, Best Actor.
The novel had previously been adapted into the award-winning 1979 BBC television series of the same name with Alec Guinness playing the lead role of Smiley.
Plot
In 1973, "Control", head of British intelligence ("The Circus"), sends Jim Prideaux to Budapest to meet a Hungarian general who has the name of a mole at the top of British Intelligence. Prideaux, realising the meeting is a trap, is shot as he tries to flee. Control and his right-hand man George Smiley are forced to retire, and Control dies soon after. Percy Alleline becomes the new Chief, Bill Haydon his deputy, and Roy Bland and Toby Esterhase his lieutenants. They had already begun receiving Soviet Intelligence from a secret source (Operation "Witchcraft").
Field agent Ricki Tarr warns permanent undersecretary Oliver Lacon that there is a mole at the top of the Circus. Knowing that Control had the same theory, Lacon asks Smiley to investigate, helped by Tarr's boss Peter Guillam and retired Special Branch officer Mendel.
Smiley interviews analyst Connie Sachs, who was sacked for deducing that Soviet cultural attaché Alexei Polyakov was a military officer and suspecting he was running a mole in London.
Tarr tells Smiley that in Istanbul Soviet agent Irina wanted to exchange the identity of the mole in return for asylum. Hours after Tarr cabled London that a Soviet defector could identify a double agent, the local station chief was murdered and Irina abducted. Fearing for his life, Tarr went into hiding. Smiley sends Guillam to steal the duty officer's logbook for the night Tarr contacted London. Guillam is unexpectedly brought before Circus leadership and told that Tarr is a traitor. Smiley finds that the logbook pages for the relevant night have been removed, supporting Tarr's story. Smiley is convinced the mole is trying to discredit Tarr.
Smiley tells Guillam that in 1955 he had urged Moscow's spymaster Karla to defect, begging him to "think of his wife" and realised too late that he had revealed his own weak spot: his love for his wife. Former duty officer Jerry Westerby tells Smiley of how Prideaux's shooting sent Control into shock. Westerby left a message with Ann Smiley - Haydon then arrived and took charge. Guillam wonders how Haydon could have learned of the emergency, but Smiley tells him Haydon was having an affair with Ann.
Prideaux, who is in fact alive and now a schoolmaster, tells Smiley that his Budapest mission was to relay the identity of the mole to Control, via one of the code names assigned by Control to each of the members of the Circus suspected to be the mole - “Tinker”, “Tailor”, “Soldier”, “Poorman” and “Beggarman”. He was tortured by the KGB, and saw Irina shot in front of him.
Smiley informs Lacon and the Minister that Operation Witchcraft is a ruse. The service believes Polyakov is bringing it Russian secrets, when in reality the mole is using the meets to send British secrets to Karla. The high quality of Witchcraft's intelligence is designed to lure the CIA into sharing intelligence with Britain, which the mole can then also leak to Karla.
Smiley threatens Esterhase with deportation to obtain the Witchcraft safe house address. Tarr visits the Paris station and informs London that he has vital information. Smiley waits at the safe house for the mole to alert Polyakov that Tarr is about to blow their cover, and arrests Haydon at gunpoint. Haydon later confirms that he seduced Ann on Karla's orders to cloud Smiley's judgment. After Smiley's departure Prideaux shoots and kills Haydon from a distance. Ann returns home, and Smiley returns to the Circus as its Chief.