Recovery - Recap

Jim picks his up briefing at a booth on a public parking lot. He’s informed that a SAC bomber crashed behind the Iron Curtain and its fail-safe mechanism failed. The mechanism has been taken to the Vatzia Institute where an American scientist, defector Paul Shipherd, is going to figure out how to take it apart. That would compromise American security. The IMF must recover the fail-safe and bring Shipherd back.

Jim warns the team they need the fail-safe back to figure out why it didn’t’ self-destruct. They go over blueprints of the Institute and note that a shredder has shafts that go throughout the entire building. Rollin and Cinnamon will replace two American citizens and Jim gives Rollin a special bottle of pills. The State Department will give them VIP treatment when they arrive and an invitation to a party. The bomber crew is safe but Jim will be taking the place of the pilot.

As Jim parachutes into the country, Shipherd is at the party where Rollin (in a wheelchair) and Cinnamon are attending. They chat and Rollin mentions that he works in Duluth before leaving. Shipherd then goes to the institute and examines the fail-safe mechanism, which has an intricate disarming method. Shipherd ignores the computer recommendation and goes on his own, despite the possibility the fail-safe will explode. They get the first part of the fail-safe disarmed and then get word that Jim has been captured and brought to the institute. Jim admits that he doesn’t know how to take apart the fail-safe and angrily responds that Shipherd would have to write to Duluth where they make it. Jim is taken away and Shipherd, suspecting a trap, makes sure that Rollin and Cinnamon were in the country when the bomber went down.

Shipherd then invites Rollin and Cinnamon to tour the Institute, but Rollin notes that Cinnamon is off seeing art museums and will have to come without her. He does make sure that Shipherd knows he’ll be bringing a man from the American Embassy. Rollin and Barney arrive at the Institute and are given a brief tour. Barney is put in an office to wait while Rollin is taken into a high-security area. Barney sabotages the teletype machine while Shipherd shows Rollin the fail-safe. Rollin refuses to help and Shipherd shows him the chamber… with Cinnamon inside. Rollin has to help or the explosive will detonate, killing Cinnamon. After taking a pill for his heart, Rollin agrees to help.

The teletype explodes and Barney takes advantage of the distraction to drop a jamming device into the shredder shaft. The next time it’s used the mechanism jams and they call in a repairman. Willy takes out the repair truck’s tire with a rifle and Jim intercepts the repairmen’s call and sends them back to base. He and Willy then go in, while Rollin slow proceeds with disarming the fail-safe.

Jim and Willy inspect the shredder mechanism and Jim gets inside the shaft. He then hooks up a microphone on the inside and climbs up the shaft, using a radio headset to make it appear for the unsuspecting guard that he is back down in the machine. Jim then opens the shredder hatch in the fail-safe chamber as Rollin finishes the second stage and removes the device. Cinnamon signals Rollin who fakes a heart attack and Cinnamon has them take him to the infirmary. As his doctor, they’re forced to take her with them. Barney insists o going inside with them.

Once they’re gone, Jim enters the room and starts defusing the fail-safe. Shipherd’s assistant goes back to the fail-safe chamber and Jim knocks him out, then finishes his work. In the infirmary, Rollin “dies” and an upset Barney demands to meet with Shipherd in private. They then knock out Shipherd and disguise him as Rollin while Rollin disguises himself as Shipherd. Meanwhile, Willy tries to keep the impatient guard at bay as Jim ties the failsafe to a string. Barney then pulls it up the infirmary level via the shredder shaft, and Jim crawls down just in time to emerge to the guard’s satisfaction.

Every heads out to the lobby and Rollin/Shipherd convinces his assistant Laso that Barney has agreed to let them “find” the body somewhere else to avoid an international incident. Rollin/Shipherd leaves with Cinnamon, while Willy and Jim sign out, and the team makes its escape.

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