REAGAN

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Harry K.

This is a biopic based on Paul Kengor’s book The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism.

In 1981, U.S. President Ronald Reagan (Dennis Quaid) delivers a speech before the AFL-CIO’s Building and Construction Trades at the Washington Hilton and is shot and wounded as he departs, even as initial T.V. reports state he escaped unscathed. 

In present-day Moscow, Russian agent Andrei Novikov (Alex Sparrow) arrives at the home of former KGB agent Viktor Petrovich (Jon Voight) and questions why the Soviet Union fell. Petrovich, who was assigned to surveil Reagan, discusses the Soviet Union’s past ambitions to infiltrate Washington, D.C., and Hollywood. 

Petrovich details Reagan’s childhood in northern Illinois. Reagan’s father Jack (Justin Chatwin) was an alcoholic, but his mother Nelle (Amanda Righetti) instills Reagan with Christian values. Reagan becomes a born again Christian baptized by Rev. Cleaver (Kevin Sorbo) and works as a lifeguard and radio announcer. 

He moved to Hollywood, where he became an actor for Warner Bros. After World War II, Reagan’s status as a leading man was in decline, and he was elected president of the Screen Actors Guild in 1947. During the Hollywood blacklist era, Reagan becomes an FBI informant and feuded with Herbert Sorrell (Mark Kubr), a union organizer. Reagan’s marriage to actress Jane Wyman (Meena Suvari) ends in divorce due to his political involvement and the premature death of their daughter Christine. 

In 1949, Reagan met actress Nancy Davis (Penelope Ann Miller) and had her name removed from the blacklist after she was mistaken with another Nancy Davis. They are married in 1952. Reagan turns to television, appearing in commercials and hosting the General Electric Theater program. 

In 1964, Reagan campaigns for Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater, and delivers his “A Time for Choosing” speech. Reagan discusses his political future, and decides to run for governor of California in 1966. 

In 1969, Governor Reagan clashes with student radicals at the University of California, Berkeley, and has the state National Guard sent in to quell the protests.

In 1970, the Reagans hold prayers with Pat Boone (Chris Massoglia) and pastor George K. Otis (Pat Boone!), who prophesies Reagan will become president if he “walks uprightly” before God. 

Six years later, Reagan challenges incumbent President Gerald Ford (who appears on file footage) for the Republican nomination at the Republican National Convention but loses in the delegate count. Ford loses to Democrat Jimmy Carter (also appearing on file footage), and Reagan runs again for president in 1980. He beats Carter and forms a friendship with Tip O’Neill (Dan Lauria), the Democratic Speaker of the House. 

The movie returns to 1981. As President Reagan recovers from his attempted assassination, he is visited by O’Neill in his hospital bed. 

Back in the White House, Reagan clashes with David Stockman, the White House budget director, over his tax cut proposal. When Reagan learns that air traffic controllers are on strike, he fires the air traffic controllers who do not return to work within 48 hours. 

Reagan selects George Shultz (Xander Berkeley) as his Secretary of State to handle diplomacy with the Soviet Union. Back in the present day, Petrovich explains how Reagan became obsessed with Communism, going all the way back to a talk by a Russian refugee at his home church. This undercurrent continued through the Hollywood union disputes and the many, many books he reads about the party. This is why Petrovich had nicknamed him “The Crusader,” a term he uses throughout when mentioning Reagan to Novikov.

Despite Shultz’s involvement, in 1983, Reagan labels the Soviet Union as an evil empire. Tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union escalate when Soviet interceptor planes shoot down a Korean Air passenger plane with a U.S. congressman onboard. Meanwhile, there are nationwide protests against Reagan’s handling of the AIDS crisis. 

Reagan wins reelection in 1984, defeating Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale (John Gibson Miller).

By the time of Reagan’s second term, Leonid Brezhnev’s successors had died in office, frustrating Reagan (“How can I negotiate with them if they keep dying on me?!”), making diplomacy difficult. 

Reagan meets with U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (Lesley-Ann Down), who persuades him to meet with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev (Olek Krupa). It will take place in Geneva, Switzerland and in the house where the Reagans are staying there are goldfish that Reagan promises to personally feed. Despite his best efforts, one of the fish dies and Reagan leaves a handwritten note apologizing to the boy they belonged to, promising to send him new ones.

At the Geneva Summit in 1985, the two leaders negotiate nuclear disarmament, but Reagan is reluctant to sign an agreement due to his support for the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), which had been dubbed “Star Wars”. 

A year later, the Iran-Contra scandal breaks, and Reagan is threatened with impeachment. Reagan denies there were arms traded for hostages but backtracks in an Oval Office speech. 

Despite Shultz’s opposition, Reagan delivers a speech near the Brandenburg Gate, and demands for Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall. In 1989, Reagan leaves office and the Berlin Wall falls shortly thereafter; the Soviet Union would be dissolved two years later. 

In retirement, Reagan experiences memory lapses and finds out he has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Reagan takes one last horse ride with his Secret Service agent, John Barletta (Trevor Donovan), the only member of the Secret Service who could ride horses. Reagan dies in 2004, and international leaders attend his funeral to pay their respects.

Archival pictures and additional details are shown during closing credits, including, for instance, that Nelle and Jack moved to Hollywood with Reagan, and she answered his fan mail and volunteered at prisons and hospitals or that Nancy survived him by a decade and supervised the construction of the Reagan museum and library in Simi Valley, CA.

A post-credits scene features a photo of the letter sent to President Reagan by the boy regarding the fish that died and the replacements Reagan had sent.

 

A biographical movie about President Ronald Reagan, starting with his assassination attempt in 1981 and ending in his death in 2004, is told from the point of view of the Soviet agent in charge of monitoring him, who named him "The Crusader." He details his early life, Hollywood years, his obsession with Communism, his political career, and efforts to end the nuclear arms race via diplomacy and summits with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.