The Interrogator - Recap

Jim picks up his briefing at an empty glass-blowing office and is informed that Norvan Kruger is an agent who knows the details of his country’s plan that will devastate the world. All they know is that the plan will go off in two days. Kruger has been captured by a country unfriendly to the West and interrogator Friedrich Spindler won’t tell the U.S. of the plan in any case. The IMF must find out what Kruger’s country has planned.

Jim assembles the usual team and the Hartford Repertory Company. In the final briefing, Barney reveals they have duplicated Kruger’s house in a chateau they’re using as a base of operations. Jim is sure that Kruger won’t break as a prisoner, and figures he’ll be identifying with the interrogator rather than himself. Barney has composite photos prepared inserting Cinnamon into Kruger’s photos of himself and his wife, as well as one of Rollin with Kruger’s wife. They also have a drug that will give Kruger amnesia but it isn’t sure how much of his memories will be wiped out. They now have only 24 hours to find the information and they have to make sure Kruger only remembers what they want him too.

Spindler prepares for one last interrogation before they move Kruger. Barney sneaks into the garage at Spindler’s headquarters and rigs a remote control to the bottom of the car. Spindler has no luck with Kruger and has him transferred. En route, they use the remote to disable the car and Barney and a Hartford Repertory Company driver show up in a van. Spindler takes their van and Barney suggests they drive themselves. As they go along Barney pumps gas into the back where Spindler and the others are, knocking them out. Rollin and Willy take out the motorcycle escort with a strung-up piece of wire.

Spindler wakes up at the chateau in a prison cell but can’t get any answers from guard Willy. Rollin comes in as a doctor and Jim as a major, and they assert that Spindler is an insane man. To prove who he is, he reveals they know that the plan is for Kruger’s country to launch nuclear missiles from submarines, and they must find out their location.

Kruger wakes up in a duplicate of his bedroom at home, with a shattered picture frame containing a picture of himself and Cinnamon, who he vaguely remembers through his scrambled memories. He also finds an ID badge identifying himself as a state interrogator, although he can barely remember his own name. Kruger then receives a call from his superior Kutzof telling him that despite his road accident he has three hours to break the prisoner. Cinnamon comes in and identifies herself as his wife Anna, and says he has been hostile toward her for several months. Jim comes in as a doctor to explain Kruger has no brain damage and his amnesia may be psychological. They warn Kruger that he has been unable to break the prisoner and Kutzof doesn’t tolerate failure. Kruger realizes he must break the prisoner or he’ll be killed, and must do it in three hours despite his memory loss. Jim reluctantly agrees to help him.

Kruger and Jim go to see the prisoner in the interrogation room, the room that Spindler used to interrogate him. The prisoner is brought in: Rollin. In the file there’s a picture of Rollin with Kruger’s wife. There are also orders for Kruger to find out the location of the submarines. Kruger begins to interrogate Rollin while flashing back to other interrogations he’s held in the past. Rollin claims he is Spindler, triggering more of Kruger’s confused memories. Rollin starts to give away the information the IMF already knows then passes out. He’s taken to his cell but Kruger runs after him and briefly hallucinates that Rollin has his face. Kruger goes to his room and they need three minutes for Rollin to assume his disguise so Jim and Willy delay him while Rollin disguises himself as Spindler then walks in front of Kruger who gets a glimpse of him. Rollin goes into Kruger’s quarters and stages a conversation with Cinnamon about how he can’t protect her when Kutzof arrives. Rollin says he’s Dietrich Verner, not Spindler, even though Kruger remembers him as his interrogator. Rollin/Dietrich leaves with Cinnamon while Kruger appeals to Jim to help him break the prisoner. Jim explains that Kruger is psychologically merging Spindler with Dietrich.

With less than 40 minutes left, Kruger goes to break Rollin and demands the location of the submarines. Rollin suddenly turns it around and starts demanding answers of Kruger, having apparently snapped. The guards take Rollin away and Jim says Kruger broke Rollin, as he wouldn’t have broken otherwise. But Kruger says he couldn’t hear what Rollin said and Jim asserts that Kruger wants to fail so that Kutzof will kill him, because Kruger wants to die after his wife left him. Jim tells Kruger that Kutzof has arrived and Kruger must remember what Rollin told him. Kutzof (a Repertory member) comes in and Kruger says nothing. When Kutzof orders his execution, he tells them what he remembers of his country’s plans as Barney records the information on a hidden mike.

Once they have the information, they leave both Spindler and Kruger in the van and leave them to recover on the road.

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