A Spool There Was - Recap

Dan arrives at a hotel and asks a maid to inspect one of the private suites. She lets him into a room and gives him a sealed record wrapped in a towel. Dan is instructed to turn on the lights to review some developing photos and is informed that a reel of recording wire contains the details of a chemical warfare project being used. A U.S. agent was carrying the reel and made it to a lakeside village, but was discovered and killed by the secret police. The country’s police have been unable to find the reel so the IMF must find it, before either the police or other enemy agents who also want the info can discover the reel.

Dan selects Rollin and Cinnamon for the mission and they make a pre-recorded tape of romantic flirting. Rollin suggests they bring in a specialist but Dan notes that they’re not looking correctly: the agent hid the tape under extraordinary pressure. Their plan will put Rollin under the same pressure so he discovers the same hiding place.

The secret police are still scouring the lakeside village for the reel and Cinnamon arrives as a photographer. She talks with their local contact, a concessionaire, and she “makes the acquaintance” of Rollin, who is working as a boatworker. Inspector Gulik, the man in charge of the investigation, notices Rollin and orders his lieutenant to watch him.

That night, Cinnamon goes to Rollin’s hotel room and they stage a conversation for the men listening in electronically. They then switch on the tape recorder playing their conversation and Rollin slips out the window. He goes down to the docks and makes a noise to attract the guards’ attention and the chase is on. Rollin knocks out one guard and hides in the bushes, and finds that the wire, taken off the reel is being used to hold plants up. Rollin knocks out the second guard but the first one recovers and opens fire, forcing him to leave without the wire.

With time running out on the tape, Rollin tries to get back to the hotel. The tape ends and Cinnamon improvises until Rollin can get in and provide his end of the conversation, while whispering what he found and that they’ll recover it the next day.

Rollin lets the concessionaire know how the wire is hidden, while an impatient Gulik orders his men to continue the search and orders in a new crew of men. Rollin starts doing repairs and picking up the wire, but Gulik orders him to help the guards. A young boy, Pieter, tries to order fishing line from the concessionaire, notices the wire, and takes it with him. The divers find the empty reel and realize that they’re looking for loose wire or tape. Two enemy agents watch and notice what’s going on. Rollin approaches Pieter and trades him monofilament line for the wire, while the enemy agents watch. Rollin sees them and lets the boy keep the wire while he leaves, and one of the agents, Sudow, follows Rollin while Cinnamon notes where the boy lives.

Sudow corners Rollin in a warehouse and asks to speak. Rollin denies having the wire and attacks the man and there’s a struggle. Rollin finally disposes of the man and leaves. A guard approaches Cinnamon as she follows Pieter home, and demands to see her papers. She sees the house Pieter goes into and once the guard leaves, she calls Rollin at the hotel. He sets up a scrambler device so they can talk privately and establish their plan. He then stops scrambling the bug, talks about knowing about the wire, and sets up a fake meeting with Cinnamon that the security men can overhear, then leaves.

Cinnamon goes to Pieter’s house and asks for permission to take photos of him. Pieter’s father is a policeman and she pretends to leave with the wire, which is actually a fake she kept in her camera. She leaves and Sudow and the other agent follow her. She leaves her camera behind and they find it and get the wire… just as the police spot and arrest them. Rollin finds Cinnamon and has her go back to the concessionaire and order all of his balloons.

Rollin goes back to the house while Gulik brings in his superior, Holbeck, who soon realizes the tape is a fake. Gulik orders his men to find Rollin, who manages to get the reel and get out of the house. He gets to the concession stand and releases all of the inflated balloons that Cinnamon ordered. Rollin hits the concessionaire who calls out for help. The policemen shoot down the balloons, figuring the wire is attached to one of them. Rollin and Cinnamon get to a boat and take off across the lake to a neutral country, with the real wire.

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