The Brink Of War Ending Explained And Movie Recap

I think Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” has made us quite aware of how close we were to destroying the beautiful planet we were all blessed to be born in. In the movie, Oppenheimer asks Einstein if he remembers their fear that an atomic chain reaction could end the world. After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Oppenheimer told him, “I believe we did,” realizing they had given humanity the power to destroy itself. This very fear and paranoia reached its peak during the Cold War, when the United States and the USSR were locked in a nuclear arms race and space race, and both of these countries had more than seventy thousand nuclear warheads pointed at each other. Michael Russell Gun’s “The Brink of War” takes us to that time, when President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, the two of the most powerful people in the world, agreed to sit across each other and discuss how to ensure that they don’t end up eradicating all life. Both Jared Harris and Jeff Daniels are the spitting image of Gorbachev and Reagan, but J.K. Simmons as the US Secretary of State George Shultz puts in one of the best shifts in his entire career. I mean, I’m already happy with the man playing J. Jonah Jameson, but Simmons truly shows how good acting can make you forget an actor you cherish so much in real life. “The Brink of War” takes place in Iceland, and The Reykjavik summit is recreated in such incredible detail that I was genuinely stunned when I looked at the photos of the real summit during my research after watching the film. The fact that the makers even rented the Hofoi House, where the actual summit took place, and that level of historical accuracy goes a long way in a film like this. Apart from the two heads of state bickering over two days about matters of global importance, the film gives us another Cold War of sorts, as Raisa Gorbacheva and Nancy Reagan are also locked in a battle over media and PR. It’s great fun, especially because it offers a fascinating perspective into how the PR game works at the very top. 

Spoilers Ahead

What happens in the film?

In October 1986, the Soviet Army pledged to attack the United States before President Reagan’s researchers could work out the development of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), a missile shield also known as the Star Wars Program. This system was supposed to protect the United States from  nuclear ballistic missile attacks. Even though the film makes it seem like the Americans called for the Reykjavik Summit, in reality, it was Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev who wrote to Reagan proposing a meeting where the two countries could negotiate arms control. The film opens with Reagan staring at the North Atlantic Ocean, as his body language suggests that he’s fumbled the talks, and Gorbachev is leaving Iceland without giving him anything. Reagan’s main man, the U.S. Secretary of State, George Shultz, pleads to the president that he should talk to Gorbachev before he leaves for the airport and convince him to sit for a conversation again. But after 30 hours of negotiations coming to a standstill, Reagan isn’t very hopeful that Gorbachev can be reasoned with. Shultz knows that the Americans cannot keep living with the paranoia over the Soviets bombing their country, so he asks Reagan to reconsider, yet again. We’re then taken to thirty hours earlier, moments before this Summit took place. The place for this all important meeting is the Hofoi House, a beautiful house which is rumoured to be haunted. The American Secret Service chose this house, since it is geographically safe from possible attacks. The KGB and the CIA operatives are sharing the basement of the house, where the KGB has drawn a line right in the middle. President Reagan has only three Democrats and one Republican bureaucrat on his negotiating team, and he’s worried about the fact that no Communist country has ever turned back to democracy. The USSR also opposes many of the principles Reagan believes in, so he sees an opportunity to make history by pressuring the Soviet Union to improve its human rights record and allow people to leave the country freely. 

What were the topics of disputes between Gorbachev and Reagan? 

Unlike Reagan, Gorbachev has brought his wife and the First Lady, Raisa Titarenko, along with him. The couple has decided to stay on the ship, and not opt for a hotel in the mainland. Raisa tells her husband to not get his hopes up in this summit, since the talks between the two great countries have fallen apart many times in the past decade. Gorbachev insists that Reagan won’t dare to undermine him. The Soviets offered to host the summit in either London or Reykjavik, and the Americans chose Reykjavik rather than meeting on allied territory, showing their willingness to engage the Soviet leadership as an equal and negotiate on a neutral ground. Gorbachev is also confident of himself and his wife, and he remembers how they survived the Nazis, the Russian Revolution, and the era of Stalin. The Soviet leader knows they can’t keep up with the arms race, and if the United States goes ahead with militarizing space, the Soviet Union could simply go bankrupt. Gorbachev’s primary goal is to convince Reagan to abandon the SDI program, and he’s willing to cut down his own arsenal in exchange. On the other side, Reagan is more concerned about the Soviet Union’s violations of basic human rights. He wants Gorbachev to allow the great Russian maestro Rostropovich’s sister to come to America for her brother’s birthday, while also discussing the immigration rights of Jews and Christians living in the Soviet Union. But as the meeting begins, Reagan decides to ease up on the human rights situation, as Gorbachev insists that their primary discussion should be about the arms control between the two nations. 

How does the first round of negotiations unfold?

Gorbachev makes a very compelling argument about how the United States have moved their intermediate ballistic missiles into an area where President Reagan could take Moscow down in under five to six minutes. He asks Reagan that for someone who campaigned for a world without any nuclear weapons, how can he undermine the USSR and its people by targeting Moscow in such a short time. Gorbachev also mentions that Margaret Thatcher and Helmut Kohl, the leaders of the UK and Germany, have condemned Reagan’s move. President Reagan claims that the Soviet Union has far more missiles stationed throughout eastern Europe, and even though those missiles can’t attack Washington, they can destroy Rome, London, Paris, or Brussels. Gorbachev says he’s quite aware of NATO Article 5, which states an attack on one of the member nations is an attack on all. So in turn, Gorbachev proposes to take all of his nuclear ballistic missiles out of Europe, if the United States can do the same, and Reagan says they can discuss this further. Reagan tells Gorbachev even though there’s a possibility where he can convince the Congress to withdraw the nuclear warheads from Europe, the Soviet Union has a long history of not honouring pacts and agreements. So he recites an old Russian proverb, which translates to “trust, but verify.” Reagan proposes that both the countries should withdraw at the same time, while their representatives on the ground make sure that neither side is playing dirty. Even though Gorbachev is hesitant at first, since his military will not be pleased to let Americans see their most guarded technology, he still agrees to make it work. 

After a short break, during which President Reagan gets spooked by the taxidermied animals scattered around his room and memories of the time he was shot, the meeting resumes between the two heavyweights. Gorbachev mentions the Nuclear triad, which includes the land-based IBMs, strategic bomber planes, and the nuclear powered submarines. He says that following their breakthrough conclusion of reducing nuclear warheads in Europe, they should do the same with the Nuclear triad. But the meeting now involves USSR’s foreign minister Shevardnadze, along with Secretary of State, Shultz. Reagan asks Shultz to take over the negotiations on the nuclear triad, so Shultz promptly points out that even if the United States were to halve its bombers and submarines, the Soviets would still enjoy a massive advantage in land based ICBMs, giving them the upper hand even if both countries agreed to cut their ICBM arsenals in half. Minister Shevardnadze agrees to be reasonable about this, and Reagan says Christmas has come early! But Gorbachev is confused about Christmas, a religious holiday, which has to do with their negotiations, and the two leaders then start beefing about their opinion about the relevance of religion. Reagan goes on to mention an American journalist who saw a frustrated Russian man standing in line for bread and vowed to bludgeon Gorbachev with a hammer and sickle. He doubles down by pointing out that Americans are free to criticise him without fearing a trip to the Gulag. But Gorbachev trumps him in this battle of words, reminding Reagan that his people can’t shoot him, which must have been particularly frustrating for Reagan to hear.

Who proposed the Nuclear Zero option? 

Outside the Hofoi House, the battle between the two First Ladies is an interesting one too. Raisa Titarenko is interviewed while touring the hot springs, where she casually mentions that First Lady Nancy Reagan must be sick that she couldn’t join her husband at the summit. Nancy Reagan issues a press release clarifying that she isn’t ill, a rather unusual declaration brought about entirely by Raisa’s little taunt. Meanwhile, the two presidents also discuss if they could cut down fifty percent of their Nuclear arsenal in the next ten years, why not double down on it and ensure the safety of the future generations. Reagan asks Gorbachev if they’re going to be simply good leaders, or great ones, meaning if they could discuss the possibility of going Nuclear Zero. Gorbachev seems to be on board with the proposal, and he agrees that peace on earth does sound wonderful, which means the USSR also won’t have the massive financial axe hanging over its head by participating in the arms race. So when the two leaders agree to discuss this, Schultz is overjoyed, unlike his counterpart, Shevardnadze. President Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachev ask their teams to draw up a plan that could make nuclear zero a reality by gradually dismantling their strategic arsenals over the next ten years, with both countries agreeing to allow the other to oversee the process. Both Schultz and Reagan are excited about the Nuclear Zero possibility, and Schultz asks his group of bureaucrats to huddle up and get ready to negotiate with the Russians. Shultz says that this deal might be the best one since Russia sold Alaska to the United States, although even that historic bargain doesn’t come close to matching the magnitude of what they’re discussing. It is remarkable to think that two of the world’s most powerful nations came this close to eliminating nuclear weapons from the face of the Earth for good. 

Why did the talks between Gorbachev and Reagan fall apart?

The Soviet bureaucrats and the Americans sit down face to face, and the presence of Marshall Sergey Akhromeyev, a Soviet War hero and four time winner of the Order of Lenin intimidates the American side. Meanwhile, Secretary Schultz calls each of the major NATO allies late at night to get them on board with the historic deal that is about to take place. Gorbachev tells Raisa that there’s a genuine chance that the Americans are considering Nuclear Zero, but he must convince Reagan to stop development of SDI, else the Russians will starve trying to keep up with their rivals. The meeting resumes the next morning, and Gorbachev tells Reagan that his ministers think it’s unwise to appease a defector like Rostropovich. Reagan tells Gorbachev it’s not about just a single person, as many people from the Christian and Jewish community living in the USSR wish to immigrate as well. Gorbachev argues that, unlike America, the USSR doesn’t have homeless people, and that the record of crime and racism in the United States is so bad that Reagan is in no position to call him out on human rights. He also brings up the CIA’s efforts to manipulate elections and establish puppet governments in other sovereign nations. Gorbachev also brings up the fact that Reagan calls USSR the “evil empire,” while it’s the United States who’s trying to establish dominance by force and manipulate other countries. Both the men get more tense than they’d like to, so they call for a break. Schultz asks Reagan to give up the human rights conversation for the sake of Nuclear Zero. Gorbachev and Reagan sit face to face once again, and they agree on the deal which will require both the nations to reduce their Nuclear arsenal, except the submarines, because they’re harder to track down. But when Gorbachev asks Reagan about the SDI, and how the USSR can’t be expected to reduce their arms while the United States are protecting itself with a shield. He says if the United States were to ask their NATO allies to launch an attack on the USSR, they’d be rendered defenceless. Reagan says the SDI is necessary for the American people because if a rogue nation attacks them, they need a defence. Gorbachev asks Reagan to stop the SDI development at least for the next ten years, while both nations are disarming their Nuclear weapons. Reagan argues that after the use of mustard gas in the first World War, people developed gas masks to protect themselves, and the SDI is no different. Gorbachev says an anti-ballistic missile system, full of lasers and radars and satellite weapons is hardly the equivalent of a gas mask. Reagan then offers to share the defence system to the USSR, but Gorbachev says it’s a rubbish promise. Gorbachev knows that defence contractors like Lockheed and Northrup will never agree to share their most advanced military technology with them. He also accuses Reagan of making a false promise, since the Americans won’t even give them the milking machines. In the real summit, however, the Russian leader said that Reagan hadn’t even given them the oil drilling machines. Gorbachev accuses Reagan of always gatekeeping every technology that the West has ever developed, which includes basic agricultural tractors, plows, and milking machines. But Reagan eases up after this compelling argument from his counterpart, and for a brief moment, both the leaders come closer than they’ve ever had before, to discuss how they could establish world peace. In the end, Reagan says that he will not deploy the SDI, the shield, however, he must let his researchers test it in a real world scenario. Gorbachev famously asks Reagan to do the tests in a laboratory, and he knows very well that he cannot allow Reagan any more room than he’s already had. He fears that if the United States manages to get the shield working, they’ll immediately deploy it and use it against the USSR, while they’re weakening themselves in terms of nuclear power. When Reagan refuses to test the system in a laboratory, which might be an unreasonable ask, Gorbachev claims that he simply couldn’t have offered a better deal than this, before walking out of the room. In reality, the SDI was still at a very early stage of development when this summit took place, and Reagan could have agreed to Gorbachev’s proposal without making much of a practical difference. But it ultimately came down to a battle of egos, and Reagan simply couldn’t bring himself to back down.

How did the Reykjavik summit help end the Cold War?

While Gorbachev is preparing to leave Iceland, Reagan finds himself staring into the ocean, and we’re right back where the film started. Reagan tells Shultz that he failed, and that Gorbachev is walking away from the deal of a lifetime. Shultz tries telling his President to reconsider this, and ask Gorbachev to come to Washington, but hearing Reagan talk makes him realise that the President’s primary goal was never the possibility of Nuclear Zero, but to show Gorbachev that the communist ideology itself is fundamentally wrong. Reagan came into this summit to end the Soviet Union, for good, and everything that was on his agenda was very thoughtfully crafted, including the issue of human rights. He wanted to convince Gorbachev to ease up on immigration so that his own people would start to oppose him. Shultz decides it would be best for his boss to ask Gorbachev to let Rostropovich’s sister come to Washington, believing that a single step towards friendship is better than walking away with nothing. Reagan does exactly that, asking Gorbachev to tear down the invisible wall between their nations with a small gesture. But that single step outside the Hofoi House would eventually lead to both great nations signing the first arms reduction treaty in history a year later, when Gorbachev and Reagan signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty at the White House. Two years later, the Cold War was over with the fall of the USSR, and Rostropovich played Bach while the Berlin Wall fell. Reykjavik was the tipping point of it all, and despite Raegan’s arrogance, he was proved right when the Soviet Union ended for good. 

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