Ruthless CIA agent Lee Marvin uses defector Robert Shaw to entrap Soviet scientist Maximilian Schell in this ill-fated Cold War thriller. Set on a cross-border train impeded by blizzards, the film suffered its own tragedies when both Shaw and director Mark Robson died before the film wrapped. The repair job on what was left doesn't hide the joins, though the acting still has an impressive energy.

CIA agent Harry Wargrave is sent to aid Gen. Marenkov, a senior Russian official, who is defecting to the west. Wargrave decides they should travel to safety on a train across Europe, the "Atlantic Express". During the journey, they must survive attacks by terrorists and an avalanche, all planned by Russian spy-catcher Nikolai Bunin.