The Brink of War

In October 1986, during the Cold War, United States President Ronald Reagan travels to Reykjavík, Iceland, to meet Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev for talks on nuclear arms. The film opens near the end of the summit, with Reagan telling Secretary of State George Shultz that he has failed to secure what he considers an extraordinary agreement because Gorbachev is walking away over "a single word". The story then moves back 72 hours to the beginning of the negotiations.

Reagan and Gorbachev meet at Höfði, where Reagan initially raises the Soviet Union's treatment of dissidents and asks Gorbachev to allow the sister of Soviet-born cellist Mstislav Rostropovich to visit her brother in the United States. Gorbachev instead surprises Reagan by proposing a 50 per cent reduction in the two countries' nuclear arsenals.

Reagan supports the proposal but argues that they should go further, eventually suggesting the elimination of their nuclear arsenals altogether. The negotiations consequently expand far beyond the limited arms-control discussions originally anticipated. Although the two leaders remain deeply suspicious of one another, each discovers that the other is prepared to consider reductions that their respective advisers had not expected.

Their discussions repeatedly broaden into arguments over the competing political systems of the United States and Soviet Union. Reagan condemns the imprisonment of Soviet dissidents and restrictions on individual freedom. Gorbachev counters by citing homelessness, high murder rates and the history of racism in the United States. When Reagan refers to Soviet citizens being punished for opposing their government, Gorbachev observes that Reagan's own opponents are sufficiently free to shoot him, referring to the 1981 assassination attempt.

The shooting continues to affect Reagan privately. He examines the scar left by the attack and experiences lingering trauma associated with it, while regarding his survival as reinforcing his sense that he has a purpose to fulfil.

Outside the negotiations, Raisa Gorbacheva attracts considerable press attention during public appearances, including a visit to the Blue Lagoon. Nancy Reagan, who remained in the United States, regrets her decision not to accompany her husband. An American radio reporter and the other Western journalists in Reykjavík find it difficult to obtain substantive information about the negotiations because they are kept away from the principals. KGB and Secret Service personnel are stationed around Höfði House as the talks continue.

Reagan and Gorbachev eventually move close to an agreement involving unprecedented reductions in nuclear weapons. Their principal remaining disagreement concerns the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), Reagan's proposed missile-defence programme. Gorbachev argues that an effective American defensive system would upset the nuclear balance between the countries and insists that SDI research be restricted.

Gorbachev agrees to the wider arms-reduction proposals only if American SDI work remains confined to the laboratory for ten years. Reagan refuses, arguing that he cannot abandon research into a system intended to defend the United States from nuclear attack. Neither leader is willing to compromise.

The narrative returns to the scene shown at the beginning of the film, revealing that "laboratory" is the single word preventing an agreement. Despite having come close to a settlement that could lead to the elimination of their nuclear arsenals, Reagan and Gorbachev allow the negotiations to collapse over SDI.

Before leaving, Reagan returns to the humanitarian request with which he began the summit and again asks Gorbachev to allow Rostropovich's sister to visit her brother in the United States. Gorbachev agrees. The two leaders shake hands, and the final spoken word of the film is "deal".

Although the Reykjavík summit ends without the comprehensive nuclear agreement the two men had discussed, their negotiations are presented as improving communication between the superpowers and laying the groundwork for subsequent arms-control agreements, including the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, signed by Reagan and Gorbachev the following year.