The Glass Cage - Recap

Jim picks up his briefing at an out-of-order viewing device at a train station and is informed that Anton Reisner is the leader of a movement against his country’s dictatorship. He has been captured and held at the automated Trast Prison, where he is being interrogated for the names of other resistance members. The IMF must get Reisner out.

Jim assembles the usual team and Jim reveals they’ve set it up for Barney and Willy to be captured as resistance members and taken to the prison. Barney has a device that can change video footage and Rollin has a fake ID as an officer to get him in to see Major Nicholas Zelinko, who runs the prison. Jim concludes that Trast Prison is escape-proof… sot hey need Zelinko to give them Reisner.

Zelinko and his aide, Captain Gulka, are interrogating Reisner inside the glass cell where he’s kept under constant observation, but Reisner refuses to speak as always. Jim and Rollin tap into the phone lines and inform Zelinko that they will be arriving as government officers to finish interrogating Reisner. Zelinko has Gulka run a background check on them and then has Reisner’s cell door opened. Each operation is carefully logged, and Zelinko informs Reisner that he’ll undergo brain surgery since they can’t break him.

Barney and Willy are brought in as prisoners, while Cinnamon arrives as the head of the prison system. Zelinko orders her to be searched since he hasn’t met her, and notes he has recommended Gulka as his replacement. Zelinko calls headquarters to confirm her identity and Rollin intercepts the call to ask him to wait while they check her credentials. Cinnamon briefly discusses the matter of Zelinko’s successor and then Zelinko is informed that the real government official that she claims to be has arrived, accompanied by a man he knows.

Cinnamon bluffs it out and forces Zelinko to reveal that he’s brought in an imposter to test her. He shows off the security system while Jim and Rollin arrive and Zelinko recognizes Rollin’s disguise. Cinnamon acts nervous at Rollin’s presence and when they come in, switch her searched case with their identical one that wasn’t searched since Zelinko “knows” Rollin. Jim and Rollin demand to interrogate Reisner while Cinnamon has Gulka take her to the file room and says that Zelinko recommended someone else as his successor. Once he’s gone, Cinnamon puts a new fingerprint paper in Reisner’s file and puts fake files in for Barney and Willy.

Jim and Rollin are taken to the chamber to see Reisner and the event is duly logged. Cinnamon comes into the monitoring chamber and detaches a fake lock from the rigged briefcase and slips the device beneath a console. Jim and Rollin give up and leave for the night, while Cinnamon confesses to Zelinko that she had an affair with Rollin and it didn’t go well. She then goes to inspect the cell holding Barney and Willy, and uses the briefcase to leave a package concealed in a towel. The guard then shows Cinnamon the electrified hallway leading to the control room.

Zelinko leaves the prison with Cinnamon to see if he can use her against Rollin, putting a now-disgruntled Gulka in command. Barney and Willy use the equipment in the package to burn through their cell door. They then disable the cameras with a flare and fire a miniature grapple and line across the electrified hallway and pull themselves across. Meanwhile, Cinnamon’s device releases knockout gas into the control room, rendering the guards unconscious.

Barney and Willy enter the high security area and Barney places a gas device and destroys Cinnamon’s. He then uses his equipment to rig the tape, then gives Reisner the code word identifying themselves as legitimate. Barney the opens the cell door (advancing the counter) and closes it, while telling Reisner over the loudspeaker to stay put and tell Zelinko something unimportant the next time he’s interrogated. Willy cuts the power, which alerts the guards, then restores it a few seconds later. The guards arrive and capture both of them.

Zelinko returns and is angry at Gulka, having discovered Barney and Willy’s files are fakes. They refuse to answer his questions about why their plan failed and Zelinko concludes it was a diversion. He goes to the control room and finds the gas device, then conceals the fact that the cell door counter has advanced by one. They check the tapes and find the new section that Barney has inserted of Reisner escaping. Meanwhile Cinnamon collects the guards as well as Jim and Rollin and goes to the control room. They watch on the cameras as Zelinko interrogates Reisner, who speaks for the first time. Zelinko and Gulka figure it’s not Reisner and discuss the fact that an imposter was put in and they have to cover the whole thing up so Zelinko isn’t discredited. Zelinko goes to the file room to check Reisner’s files, but Rollin confronts him and takes the file.

They check Reisner’s fingerprints files against those on file, while Zelinko figures out that Reisner is the real one. Cinnamon accuses him of trying to switch the fingerprints and when the prints don’t match, Zelinko is implicated. Jim, Rollin, and Cinnamon take Willy and Barney away for interrogation at headquarters along with the “fake” Reisner.

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