It is directed by Łukasz Kośmicki and stars Bill Pullman as Joshua Mansky, an American alcoholic former chess champion who becomes involved in a Cold War confrontation between nuclear superpowers.

This spy thriller is the last film produced by Piotr Woźniak-Starak, who died in an apparent boating accident shortly before the premiere.

The head of the operation, Agent Novak, debriefs the genius but volatile Mansky, who defeated Konigsberg twenty years ago, in a safe room.

To help win the Cold War, Mansky is to compete in a tournament against Alexander Gavrylov in Warsaw, Poland, as American contender Konigsberg has died from a Soviet poisoning.

In the chess match's venue Palace of Culture and Science Mansky meets hotel director and fellow drinker Alfred Slega.

Four days before the opening scene, Mansky recalls getting drunk with Slega in the morning and nothing else, including the first chess game, which he won in only 32 moves.

He says Gift will approach him, a trustworthy man in a Soviet uniform with a scar on the back of his right hand, he then dies in Mansky’s arms, poisoned.

General Krutov tells a staff member that American democracy discriminates against women and Blacks, and perpetuates social economic inequality, forcing poorer nations to give the USA their riches, waging war against those who don't.

Mansky tells Agent Stone about his regrettable aid in helping Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project to create nuclear weapons.

In a break he goes to the lobby toilets to have a drink from a bottle hidden in a stall, whereupon Krutov's staff member enters his cubicle and hands him a cork.

Agent Stone then enters the same stall, telling Mansky to keep the cork despite his offering it to her, as the bell rings indicating the break in chess play is over.

Novak tells Mansky that the cork soaked in Stone’s blood says the nuclear weapons are ready; the second one Gift suggests the Soviets are bluffing.

Explaining his reasoning by using a riddle, Mansky passes a message to the President, and Kennedy announces a blockade of ships to Cuba containing offensive material.

However, in the epilogue, in 2019 Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin announce the suspension of the INF treaty and will develop new intermediate-range ballistic missiles.

William Hurt, originally cast as Joshua Mansky, suffered an accident while returning from the film set to his apartment, just a few days into shooting, and was replaced by Bill Pullman.

[12] Writing for the Chicago Reader, Jamie Ludwig said: "You'd expect a film that involves espionage and a high-stakes chess tournament during the height of the Cold War to leave you on the edge of your seat.

Bill Pullman (who stepped into the lead role after the original actor William Hurt was injured just before production began) gives a fantastic performance as Professor Joshua Mansky... kidnapped by government agents and brought to Warsaw to compete against the Russians at chess after their first pick was murdered.

However, Pullman alone can't make up for a premise that never completely gels, immemorable characters (Robert Więckiewicz as the Palace of Culture and Science director is a welcome exception), and loads of cliches.

Demetrios Matheou from the Screen Daily wrote: "This Cold War thriller [...] features a fruity premise and respectable talent on either side of the camera [...] And yet the end result of what is a clearly enthusiastic enterprise is remarkably average."

He noted that the potential of a movie combining "spy intrigue, the historical crisis and the renowned temperament of the chess elite", obviously evoking the Fischer-Spassky match, was wasted.

He had some praise for Pullman and Więckiewicz's performances and found the scenes depicting the pair's drunk escapade "effective", but also stated the chess matches were "a botched business, presented with no logic or tension".

John Serba, writing for the Decider, gave the movie a negative review, centering his criticism on Pullman's character, which he considered cartoonish and hammy.

But the movie hinges on Pullman", whose "characterization of a hopeless boozer is so far over the top, it makes Charles Bukowski look like Ned Flanders.

Furthermore, on October 26, 1962, the warheads were moved from their storage sites to positions closer to their delivery vehicles (missiles), to be launched in case of American invasion.

The method of killing shown in the movie, dubbed "the last vodka" in the movie - injecting alcohol directly into the victim's bloodstream to fake accidental death from overdrinking - has long been alleged to be used by former communist secret service operatives in Poland to eliminate opponents and witnesses (or to perform example killings to scare others into silence).