Telefon
After the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Soviet Union planted a number of long-term, deep-cover sleeper agents all over the United States, spies so thoroughly brainwashed that even they did not know they were agents and can be activated only by a special code phrase (a line from Robert Frost's poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," followed by their real given names). Their mission was to sabotage crucial parts of the civil and military infrastructure in the event of conflict.
More than 20 years pass, and the Cold War gradually gives way to détente. Narrowly escaping a relentless purge of old Stalinism loyalists, Nikolai Dalchimsky (Donald Pleasence), a rogue KGB headquarters clerk, travels to America, taking with him the Telefon Book, which contains the names, addresses and telephone numbers of all the sleeper agents. He starts activating them, one by one. American counterintelligence is thrown into confusion when seemingly ordinary citizens blow up what are formerly top secret facilities that were declassified or abandoned years before, then commit suicide.
The KGB dares not tell its political leaders, much less the Americans, about its negligence in not deactivating the spy network. Major Grigori Borzov (Charles Bronson), who is selected for his photographic memory, memorizes the contents of the only other copy of the Telefon Book. He is then sent to find and stop Dalchimsky quietly before either side learns what is happening and embarrasses the KGB or possibly starts a nuclear war. He is given the assistance of only a single agent planted in America, Barbara (Lee Remick).
Eventually, Borzov discovers the method behind Dalchimsky's madness: he chooses the agents by the first letters of their hometowns, "writing" his own name in sabotage across America. Using that information, Borzov is finally able to locate Dalchimsky and kill him.
However, there are a number of twists. Barbara has orders from the KGB to assassinate Borzov once he succeeds to get rid of a dangerous loose end. She is a double agent, but when she informs her American superior, Sandburg (Frank Marth), he also tells her to kill Borzov, so she will gain the confidence of the KGB. However, she has fallen in love with her would-be target. She informs Borzov, and together, they blackmail both sides into leaving them alone, holding the threat of the remaining Telefon agents over their heads.
brainwashing