The Secret Agent

More. More. Another? Another? More!

Woo hoo hoo!

Get back!

Circles!

Ooh, do you want to burn yourself, Stevie?

No. - Stand back, Stevie.

Stand back.

Circles, Stevie. Circles.

Circles. Yeah.

Oh. That was wonderful.

Well, it's time I got off.

If you want any more, Stevie, just look up at the sky.

FIREWORKS EXPLODE

He's really grateful, Anton. We all are.

Wasn't it a lot of fun tonight, Stevie?

There was a lot of fireworks! Whoosh.

You have to calm down now, it's time to go to sleep.

Calm me down, Winnie.

Night night.

Night night.

Michaelis.

Work to do, comrades.

I need to go out. Can you look after the shop?

Of course. Stevie, go and get Mr Verloc's hat.

Mr Verloc's hat!

Up early today, Mr Verloc. What brings this about?

Mr Verloc's hat.

Goodbye, Mr Verloc. Goodbye, Mr Verloc.

Please, sir. A farthing.

Oi, mind yourself.

Appointment with Mr Vladimir.

ATTENDANT SPEAKS RUSSIAN

TELEPHONE RINGS

Very well.

This way.

They all know about you.

KNOCKS ON DOOR

Doesn't look the part. Starving Proletariat?

Desperate Anarchist? Really?

I inherited you from my predecessor and I'm not sure I really know why.

What use are you to Russia?

Beg your pardon, your excellency?

As a secret agent. There doesn't seem to be any point to you.

About three months ago I gave notice of an attack

during Duke Romauld's visit to Paris which was telegraphed to the French police...

You passed a message on which didn't need heeding anyway.

But that's what I do. I inform.

I'm an informer and I've insinuated myself with the Anarchists...

You are lazy! We don't just want warnings

we don't just want things stopped, we want things started!

Started?

You think this is enough?!

You think it's enough just to produce this?!

I have managed to become Vice President of the Revolutionary Red...

The game's about to change, Mr Verloc. You will start to earn your money here.

You will have to do so much more than sit on a committee and pass on tittle tattle.

So much more.

I'm thinking of cutting you off.

No work. No pay.

BELL RINGS

We're going for a ride.

Where?

Now Stevie, get the coal in for your sister.

Yes, Mummy. Coal for my sister. Coal for Winnie.

Can I help any of you gentlemen?

Any questions? Anything you don't see, just ask.

This country is absurd with its sentimental regard for individual liberty.

Harbouring convicted terrorists! It's intolerable!

First Secretary, I am ideally positioned to prevent...

You must provoke now not prevent! You must set them to work.

England is in need of a jolly good scare.

An outrage that will summon this country from its slumber.

Unleash a law that will clamp down on the anarchist threat.

How?

Now an attempt upon a Crowned Head or a President is sensational enough

in a way, though not as much as it used to be. It's almost conventional.

The sacrosanct fetish of the day is science.

It's become the new measure of progress, of how the world is ordered.

Of a civilization moving forward.

And here we have the Prime Meridian, zero longitude.

The centre point of the Earth that divides the world in two.

That orders the world Eastern and Western.

One line. Emanating from this building in Greenwich.

Blow up the observatory?

Well, it's a building so it needn't be particularly... sanguinary.

And you'll have enlisted your friends in the plot so it shouldn't be too difficult.

Of course it would be symbolism but at the same time it would be sheer...

. incomprehensible, random madness.

Without regards for limits or sense. Pure destruction.

An intention to make a clean sweep of the whole social creation.

And in that madness is true terrorism.

True terrorism!

Forgive me, Mr Vladimir.

It's contemplation of the actual deed I'm having difficulty with.

How on earth am I meant to persuade them?

Isn't that the business they're in?

Isn't that the business you're supposed to be in? Provoking them.

Well then, go it alone.

Let everyone think it was your friends' handiwork.

I can't... I can't plant a bomb!

Some encouragement then, to get you out of your bed.

I want my plan followed through.

And if you fail, however you fail

I will ensure that every radical in Europe knows that you are on our payroll.

They'll kill me! - Exactly.

There is a conference in Milan on the suppression of political crime.

The British think they're immune.

Their complacency needs to blow up in their face. Literally.

It takes place in a month. And that's how long you've got.

I give you a month. Dynamite, chemicals - you have carte blanche!

Oi, Verloc. Got any new ones for me, eh?

Gentlemen.

Everything all right?

You leave the door on the latch?

I know the drill.

Fingers and thumbs! Why is he so clumsy?

Not yourself tonight, Mr Verloc. Is he, Winnie?

Tired, I expect.

BELL RINGS

Your friends are here, Anton.

Come on, mischief, better make ourselves scarce.

Bring your plate. There's a good lad.

Good evening. - Hello.

Verloc.

Chief Inspector Heat.

May I, Home Secretary...?

Be my guest.

This is the particular cell we've been following.

Michaelis always protested he was no more than...

just a lookout for the gang that killed a policeman.

Now released, he may be looking for revenge.

Struggle and warfare is the condition of private ownership.

It is fatal to itself.

Oh I see, capitalism sows the seeds of its own destruction?

80 therefore we just sit back and do nothing?

Yundt, an unapologetic revolutionary.

He's older and weaker now but he was violent, sir.

We have to attack some banks.

It isn't enough to just leave a few bank tellers quivering.

Ossipon. He's wanted all over Europe, sir.

Fled his own country. Here he writes radical pamphlets.

We cannot wait for a crisis, we have to bloody create one!

Come up with a target we can hit then!

Verloc runs a seedy shop in Soho. To be honest, sir

I don't think he's capable of seeing anything through.

Come on! One that will cause not only

destruction but will actually shock everyone.

We need to show that our intention is to sweep away the whole social creation.

That is true terrorism.

If they are ever taken up by their working class counterparts...

BELL RINGS

Well, you left the door on the latch didn't you?

You're late. - Apologies.

Should Anarchists apologize for interrupting a meeting?

That's very good, Ossipon.

What's your opinion?

I beg your pardon?

Verloc is suddenly restless. Thinks we should refashion our tactics.

Attack the rich. That is the only way.

They nourish their greed on the quivering flesh of our people.

Their jaws drip with our blood so we should spill theirs!

A capitalist is a cannibal!

OSSIPON CLAPS

Is that the sort of thing you had in mind?

Hurt a few wealthy individuals? It's meaningless.

Yes. Yes, it is. Quite meaningless. Not nearly enough violence.

Refers to himself as The Professor.

Ironic really, as he couldn't even remain as a lab technician.

Only a detonator means anything.

You all tolerate my company because I know how chemicals combine.

But I've never heard a peep from any of you about getting your actual hands on 'em.

What might temper your scorn?

If the conversation were to turn to... bombs?

Will that ever happen? Look, let us reconvene...

I've spent fifteen years in prison, Verloc. I'll bide my time.

If I weren't too old to escape the blast...

Who cares about the blast?

Just as I thought.

Revolution is not a dynamite campaign.

It's impressive intelligence, Chief Inspector, so what conclusion am I to draw?

Well, you can go to the conference in Milan, sir.

And you can announce that we can put our finger on every single Anarchist in London.

And I give you have my word that as long as we keep our eye on this cell

they're capable of nothing.

Nothing whatsoever.

It appears you have no takers.

Will you help me?

I'll listen to what you have to say.

Was it Yundt? - Mr Yundt!

I don't know why you put up with it. You know what it does to Stevie.

Anton needs an outlet.

If they're in there trying to put the world to rights, I can't begrudge him that.

It's just a bunch of men letting off steam.

Mr Verloc wasn't just letting off steam. You didn't hear him.

He was talking about violence, Winnie.

Talking about it? I remember daddy doing more than talk about it.

He didn't understand him, that's all!

And you don't understand Anton.

Come on, Stevie. Bedtime.

Kitchen not big enough for two women?