Plot: It's April 14, 1991, the final day of work for CIA case agent Nathan Muir before he retires. It has been a job that has not made him opulently wealthy, he planning on using his life savings of $282,000 to purchase a retirement property in the Bahamas. This day, he is called by a task force led by Charles Harker and Troy Folger to provide any personal information on Tom Bishop, a CIA undercover field agent who has just been apprehended by the Chinese government in China, and who will be executed in twenty-four hours by the Chinese on charges of espionage unless the US government claims him, which if they do means answering to what was Bishop's unauthorized operation in China. Bishop, a former US Army sharpshooter, was recruited into the CIA as a contract agent by Muir, who acted as his trainer, mentor and case agent in his early CIA career, hence the reason for Muir being called by the task force to provide personal information which may not be in Bishop's official file. What Muir does not tell the task force is that he had heard about Bishop's predicament earlier by one of his CIA colleagues, Harry Duncan, who is currently working an operation in Hong Kong. Although the task force members do not come right out and say so, Muir knows they are working on a different agenda than him, they whose main goal is to protect an imminent trade negotiation between the US and China which means possibly sacrificing Bishop as collateral damage, while Muir is determined to stop the execution and ensure Bishop's safe return as one of CIA's own and as his friend. Muir spends much of the day with the task force, which takes up much of his time to achieve his goal, but which also allows him to feed the task force information or misinformation which may assist his own cause while gleaning information from the task force which he may not know. Assisting Muir outside the war room is his faithful assistant, Gladys Jennip. Getting Bishop back to safety also means that Muir has to figure out what was Bishop's operation in China.
Alternative Plot: Redford stars as CIA operative Nathan Muir, who is on the brink of retirement from the field, when he learns his prot
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