User:Hat Jul/sandbox

= Nuclear Winter (film) = For the scientific concept, see Nuclear winter.

Nuclear Winter is a 1985 American action thriller film directed by John McTiernan from a screenplay by Kurt Johnstad, loosely based on the 1972 novella Sitting Ducks by Harlan Ellison. The film stars Cynthia Brimhall, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rick Moranis, Michael J. Fox and Nastassja Kinski. The plot follows a CIA agent attempting to determine which of the three men presenting on the concept of nuclear winter is a Soviet spy.

Nuclear Winter premiered on March 10, 1985, and was released in the United States on July 28, by Paramount Pictures. The film was a box-office flop, grossing only $8 million, but received generally positive reviews from critics. It has since become a cult classic.

Plot
In November, 1981, CIA agent Sophie Rhodes (Brimhall) is tasked with killing a scientist known only as "Fernando" who is secretly a spy for the Soviet Union at the 25th annual Nuclear Arms Conference in Berlin. She is presented with three potential suspects: mathematician Bill Carmichael (Moranis), physicist Hermann Anderson (Schwarzenegger), and chemist Sam Bright (Fox). She is meanwhile avoiding detection from Stasi agent Mathilde Donner (Kinski), while posing as her. She hopes that, by speaking to each of these men, she will be able to determine which man is the mole.

Rhodes watches the three men arrive in Berlin on the same train. She does not reveal that she believes that one of them is a spy, but pose as Donner, trying to facilitate the sale of nuclear secrets. This raises the attention of the actual Donner, who was planning on meeting "Fernando" when he exited the train. Donner then orders a hit on Rhodes, who must fight her way out of the train station without alerting "Fernando" to her real identity. She hides in a bar called The Goat's House.

Rhodes confides in her fellow Tanya and Rosie that she truly does not know which of the three scientists is "Fernando." All three scientists then show up in The Goat's House. Rhodes, as Donner, joins them for a round of drinks. They all tell her stories from their carefree youths. Rhodes attempts to contact her supervisor at the CIA with this information, but realises her line was tapped by Donner.

At the Nuclear Conference the next day, Rhodes is distressed by the presence of the Stasi agents, but Rosie and Tanya assure her that they will take care of them. An action scene occurs outside the conference hall. Rhodes decides to talk with each of the men alone, but leaves Carmichael and Bright questioning their loyalties. She learns from Anderson that he received the money to travel to the conference from a communist institution in Sofia. Rhodes comes to believe that Anderson is "Fernando"; she asks him to meet her at the theatre that evening. Rhode's happiness is short-lived, as Carmichael and Bright each pull her aside to tell her that they are also willing to sell nuclear secrets.

Realising she may be on the right track, Donner attempts to kill Rhodes herself in a fight sequence choreographed to ABBA's Lay All Your Love on Me. Wounded, Donner retreats to the hotel room of Carmichael, her secret lover and the real "Fernando."

Rhodes finally phones the CIA to ask for help; they advise the killing of all three men. Realising this goes against her moral code, Rhodes refuses. Still, she prepares plans to kill each one of them as they present their topics. Donner, meanwhile, prepares to kill Rhodes. As Rhodes approaches the conference, Donner intercepts Rhodes in a final fight, which results in Rhodes killing Donner. She finds Carmichael's phone number in Donner's breast pocket, and realises he is "Fernando." She kills Carmichael.

Cast

 * Cynthia Brimhall as CIA agent Sophie Rhodes
 * Nastassja Kinski as Stasi agent Mathilde Donner
 * Arnold Schwarzenegger as physicist Hermann Anderson
 * Rick Moranis as Mathematician Bill Carmichael
 * Michael J. Fox as Chemist Sam Bright
 * Jodie Foster as CIA agent Tanya
 * Kathleen Turner as CIA agent Rosie
 * Martin Short as Conference convener Maxwell Greer
 * Fred Thompson as Rhodes' CIA handler
 * Courtney B. Vance as Petty Officer Ronald Jones
 * Tomas Arana as Igor Loginov, a Soviet agent
 * Timothy Carhart as Lt. Commander Bill Steiner, Stasi agent
 * Daniel Davis as Captain Charlie Davenport, Stasi agent
 * Anatoly Davydov as Donner's commanding officer
 * Michael Welden as Stasi agent
 * Boris Lee Krutonog as Viktor Slavin, Soviet physicist
 * Christopher Janczar as Dr Thompson Peel, American Chemist
 * Gates McFadden as Dr. Caroline Ryan, presenting physicist

Anthony Peck makes a credited cameo apperance as Sam Bright's father.

Production
Producer Mace Neufeld optioned Harlan Ellison's novella after reading it in a New York cafe in February 1978. Due to the complicated plot and the a long, drawn out dream sequence in which a nuclear bomb is dropped on Paris, no Hollywood studio was interested. Neufeld said, "I read some of the reports from the other studios, and the story was too complicated to understand". After a year and a half he finally got a high-level executive at Paramount Pictures to read the novella and agree to develop it into a film.

Due to the success of Alien the studio was interested in another female lead action film. Wayne Cruseturner was thus brought on to write a screenplay featuring a "sexy woman CIA agent" to replace the original, inexperienced Seth Rhodes. Ellison, disliking the change in protagonist and feeling that Rhodes was reduced to nothing but a one-dimensional character, requested the film not be named after his book.

The film is a somewhat faithful adaptation of Ellison's novel, though there are many deviations, including an omission of Rhodes LSD trip and Rhodes' girlfriend Shelly Basking, intense criticism of the CIA, and the entire climax in which Rhodes kills all three scientists, leading to a meltdown at a local nuclear plant. Mathilde Donner was also formerly Matthew Donner, and the relationship between Donner and Carmichael was not romantic.

Reception
The film received positive reviews from critics but due to poor marketing flopped at the box office.