A Soviet physicist, played by Brandauer, weary of the damage the Cold War was doing to his country and the world, wants to secretly broadcast to the West the greatly weakened state of the Soviet Union during the 1980s - his message to a British publisher (Connery) sent via Pfeiffer, is intercepted by British intelligence, who then attempt to use (in conjunction with the CIA) the publisher to contact the Soviet physicist for their own agenda. Inevitably the Soviets catch on and the physicist is tortured to death, the publisher ends up betraying both sides (East and West) in order to uphold higher values - love of one's fellow man (and woman...)
What group of people tortured the physicist to death?
The Soviets