Hopscotch (movie)
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Hopscotch is a 1980 American motion picture directed by Ronald Neame and produced by Otto Plaschkes. It was written by Bryan Forbes and Brian Garfield, based on his novel of the same name.
The movie is a comedy starring Walter Matthau as renegade CIA agent Miles Kendig intent on publishing a memoir exposing the inner workings of the CIA and the KGB. Sam Waterston and Ned Beatty play Cutter and Myerson, the bumbling CIA agents repeatedly foiled in their attempts to capture him and stop the publication of the damaging memoir. Herbert Lom is Yaskov, the sympathetic KGB agent with an equal interest in his capture. Glenda Jackson plays Isobel von Schonenberg, his Austrian love interest who helps him stay one step ahead of his captors. Matthau's son David plays Ross, a bumbling junior CIA agent.
The movie can be seen as a comedic variation of the 1975 dark thriller Three Days of the Condor starring Robert Redford, using the same premise of one CIA agent pursued by others intent on covering up dark secrets of the agency—or a comedic version of Philip Agee's rebellion. The movie may also be classified in the genre of post-Vietnam American comedies such as Stripes (1982) that played on the perceived incompetence of the federal government.
The movie was received in a lukewarm manner by critics and was a moderate financial success during its release.
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Plot summary
Kendig baits his pursuers by periodically informing them of his location while nevertheless staying one step ahead. He hides out in Myerson's own Georgia country house, which is then heavily damaged by gunfire from the FBI when Kendig sets off firecrackers inside it while making his escape. He foils their pursuit by dumping oil on the road, sending his pursuers' cars into a ditch.
He escapes to Bermuda by seaplane, then to London, to meet with his publisher to give him the last chapter of the book. Yaskov tells Cutter that Kendig is in London. Both the Soviets and the Americans go to London and find his hotel room, where he has left a tape recording telling them he has finished the book and that he will be escaping Britain by a small plane the next morning. He leaves a copy of the last chapter and the location of the airfield from which he plans to make his escape.
In the meantime, Kendig has contacted von Schonenberg, who is under surveillance in Austria by the CIA. She cleverly escapes her watchers and goes to England by hovercraft. Kendig has also contracted with an engineer for a specialized electronic device for the airplane of unknown purpose.
Cutter and Myerson threaten Kendig's publisher but he rebuffs their attempts at intimidation. Kendig, on the way to the airfield, suffers a flat tire. He is picked up by the local police, who cordially invite him to wait in the station until the morning. When one policeman recognizes him from a bulletin, he escapes by short-circuiting an electrical socket and stealing a police car.
He reaches the airfield in the morning, but the Americans and Russians are hovering overhead in a helicopter. He apparently takes off in his vintage biplane and is pursued by Myerson in the helicopter. He performs intricate loops in the plane evading the pistol shots from Myerson.
It is then revealed that the electronic device that Kendig had built is a specialized remote control device. Kendig is actually still on the ground. (How he did this in an open field without being seen from the helicopter is unclear.) Once the plane has cleared the cliffs and is over the English Channel, he presses a button, exploding it. The Americans and Russians rush to the cliff, see the wreckage floating in the sea, and conclude that Kendig is dead.
Kendig meanwhile returns to meet von Schonenberg and they set off for the south of France. Months later, the book has become a bestseller. Kendig is in a bookstore in disguise as a Sikh to purchase a copy. He learns from the clerk that the book is very good and that there is a rumor that Kendig is still alive in Australia. Von Schonenberg pulls him aside and scolds him for taking too many risks.
Credits
Production
- Otto Plaschkes - producer
- Ronald Neame - director
- Bryan Forbes - screenplay
- Brian Garfield - screenplay and novel
Cast
- Walter Matthau - Miles Kendig
- Glenda Jackson - Isobel von Schonenberg
- Sam Waterston - Cutter
- Ned Beatty - Myerson
- Herbert Lom - Yaskov
- David Matthau - Ross