Bullet to Beijing

Harry Palmer, a British agent whose career has run its course now that the Cold War is over, is pushed toward retirement and left without a role. A Russian businessman named Alexei approaches him with an offer: travel to St. Petersburg and recover a stolen biochemical weapon known as the Red Death, a substance developed during the Soviet era. Palmer accepts, and his search puts him on the trail of a consignment bound for Beijing by train, where the loyalties of those around him become difficult to read.

George Mihalka directed the film, which followed his earlier features My Bloody Valentine and Straight Line. Michael Caine leads the cast as Palmer, a part he had played in earlier decades, with Mia Sara, Jason Connery, Michael Gambon, Michael Sarrazin and Lev Prygunov among the supporting roles. The production was a British, Russian, Canadian and American co-production involving Showtime Networks, Lenfilm and Harry Palmer Productions, and it runs 101 minutes.

The film was released in December 1995. Audience responses have been modest: on IMDb it holds 5.4/10 from around 2,100 votes, and on TMDB 5.2/10 from a much smaller sample of 44 votes. The two scores sit close together, suggesting a similar reception from viewers on both platforms.