R.Y.a.N.

It's time, once again, for "WarGames"! Except, unfortunately, this actually happened. R.Y.a.N., a Russian acronym for Raketno Yadernce Napadove "Nuclear Attack", was a policy put in place by the ailing Soviet General Secretary Yuri Andropov when he, along with many others, became convinced that the United States was getting ready to initiate a nuclear strike on the Soviet Union during the annual Able Archer exercise at NATO headquarters in Brussels during November 3 - 10, 1983. Through a series of mixed signals, world crises, and dangerous White House rhetoric, the Soviets prepared for the worst, while their own spies, men normally dispatched to start or foment wars, found themselves in the awkward position of trying to keep the peace. During the film, we meet the two famous spies, Oleg Gordievsky and Rainer Rupp, who can't agree on much, except that a war must indeed not start. Included are appearances by Ronald Reagan, Andropov, Andrei Gromyko, Dmitriy Ustinov, and Stanislav Petrov, an obscure Soviet Major who may have single handedly prevented a nuclear holocaust. The film is in many ways a thriller, but also a horror film, as the events depicted are actually true, showing a sobering commentary on both the nature and danger of suspicion.