- A Moscow police officer investigates a vicious triple homicide and stumbles upon a high-level international political conspiracy.
- An investigator on the Moscow police force relentlessly pursues the solution to a triple homicide which occurred in Moscow's Gorky Park. He finds that no one really wants him to solve the crime because it is just the tip of a complex conspiracy which involves the highest levels of the Moscow city government.—Mark Logan <marklo@west.sun.com>
- On a cold winter day in Moscow, two dead John Does and one dead Jane Doe are found under the snow and ice in Gorky Park, they virtually unidentifiable because whoever killed them had surgically removed their faces and fingertips. Chief Investigator Arkady Renko of the Soviet militsiya leads the murder investigation, despite he more than willing to forgo it as for various reasons he believes the murders reek of KGB involvement, especially that of a Major Pribluda, with who he has had less than official violent run-ins before. If KGB is involved, Arkady believes his life too could be in danger if he uncovers the specifics. Beyond the extreme measures Arkady goes to identify the three, he gets his first connection to a live person in the form of Irina Asanova, a young woman who works as a seamstress on a movie crew and who seems to abhor the lot in which the Soviet life has left her. Her ice skates, which she reported missing, were found on the Jane Doe. He also finds it more than coincidental when he later encounters Irina at a fancy social gathering at the home of Iamskoy, the lead counsel for the case, he who wants Arkady on the job as the best person to uncover what's going on, especially if the KGB is involved. Iamskoy does not believe the KGB should be above the law. At the party, Irina is on the arms of an older wealthy American businessman named Jack Osborne, a furrier who is often in the Soviet Union as the only place where sable pelts can be obtained globally. Further in the course of his investigation, Arkady continually encounters who he will eventually learn is William Kirwill, a New York City police detective on the search for his missing American brother, James Kirwill, the eventual assumption being that James is one of the John Does. The closer Arkady gets to the truth, the more his life is indeed in danger as he has nowhere to hide within the Soviet system, and no means of escape, which it seems so many people involved are trying to do.—Huggo
- Moscow, USSR. In the opening scene, three young people are seen ice skating on the frozen pond in Gorky Park. Three days later, Soviet militsiya officer Arkady Renko (William Hurt) investigates the discovery of their bodies a short distance from the skating rink. All have been shot in the chest and mouth; their faces and fingerprints have been completely removed with surgical instruments. Renko is left anxious and paranoid when the KGB refuse to take over the investigation. Renko enlists the help of Professor Andreev (Ian McDiarmid) to reconstruct their faces.
During his investigation, Renko crosses paths with William Kirwill (Brian Dennehy), a New York police detective who is in the Soviet Union investigating the disappearance of his brother James. At a weekend getaway at the dacha of Chief Prosecutor Iamskoy (Ian Bannen), Renko also makes the acquaintance of the American sable importer Jack Osborne (Lee Marvin) and his girlfriend Irina Asanova (Joanna Pacua).
Renko is eventually able to piece together the victims' identities: James Kirwill, and two young Russians who were friends of Irina. He discovers that the three were busy constructing a chest for Osborne. Renko's suspicion of Osborne mounts over time, during their polite but tense conversations in social settings. When Irina is attacked by a KGB officer who attempts to inject her with a fatal overdose of drugs, Renko saves her. Nursing her back to health in his apartment, they begin an affair.
Kirwill finally locates the barn where the three victims were building Osborne's chest. It was designed to smuggle six sables out of the country and to break the Soviet monopoly on their fur, potentially earning Osborne millions of dollars. Irina stubbornly continues to believe that her two friends are alive. Osborne had promised to smuggle them out of Soviet Union in return for their work; he tells Irina that they were successfully freed.
Renko confronts her with Prof. Andreev's reconstructed head of one of her friends, forcing her to realize that they have been murdered by Osborne. She confesses the full details of the plot to him and then runs away. Renko and Kirwill go to Andreev's to retrieve the second reconstructed head, but a KGB agent emerges with it in a box. They follow him, and Renko is crushed to find they are back at Iamskoy's dacha. They watch from a distance as Osborne and Iamskoy supervise the destruction of the head by the KGB agent. To Kirwill's horror, it is his brother's head.
Renko confronts Iamskoy in a bath house. Iamskoy cordially admits that he kept Renko on the case because Osborne was unwilling to pay a high enough price to smuggle out the sables. Renko's investigation was intended to frighten Osborne into paying more. He offers to cut Renko in on Osborne's kickback. Renko reveals that he has recorded the conversation, and Iamskoy jumps up and wrestles Renko for the gun. In the ensuing struggle, Renko's gun goes off and kills Iamskoy.
Osborne flees to Stockholm, Sweden. The KGB allows Renko to travel there to supervise an exchange. He is to receive the sables from Osborne, whereupon everyone will be allowed to walk away. Renko is shown into a bedroom where Irina is waiting for him. She confesses that she fled to Osborne, who has worked her freedom into the deal for the sables. She promises Renko that his freedom can also be part of the deal. Disgusted by her treachery, Renko tells Irina she has blood on her hands. He meets with Kirwill and the two assume that as soon as the exchange is complete, the KGB will kill Irina, Renko and Osborne all at once.
The next morning, at a remote farm, Renko and the KGB agents approach Osborne. They come across the corpse of Kirwill; tied to a tree with his intestines hanging out. Renko is devastated; Osborne then loudly announces that he gutted Kirwill after he killed his dogs. Osborne throws six dead sables onto the field and asks the men to lower their weapons. Renko realizes that neither side will let the other live. When Osborne shoots a man, Renko grabs Irina and runs for cover in the woods. Pribluda then kills the other man before Osborne kills Pribluda in a stand off.
Osborne tries to shoot Renko in the woods. Renko finds more live sables in their cages. Irina emerges from the woods and Osborne threatens to kill her if Renko does not surrender. When Renko emerges to give up, Irina shoots Osborne. Renko, too, shoots Osborne before Irina fires multiple rounds, killing him. She asks Renko to go away with her, but Renko reveals he agreed to do the hit on Osborne in return for Irina's safety and freedom from Soviet Union, and that she'd be hunted down and killed if Renko did not return to Moscow.
As Irina runs off to freedom in Sweden, Renko frees all of the sables, which run off into the woods as we hear Irina's voice repeat Renko's promise that they will meet again one day.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content