Backdrop fallback

Defence of the Realm

Defence of the Realm

Share

Defence of the Realm

"Just how far will a government go to hide the truth?"

1986

1h 36m

6.5(41 votes)

Action

Thriller

Overview

A reporter named Mullen 'stumbles' onto a story linking a prominent Member of Parliament to a KGB agent and a near-nuclear disaster involving a teenage runaway and a U.S. Air Force base. Has there been a Government cover-up? Mullen teams up with Vernon Bayliss, an old hack, and Nina Beckam, the MP's assistant, to find out the truth.

Links & Resources

Social & External

Production Companies

The people behind it

Cast & crew

10 featured cast members

Starring

Gabriel Byrne

Gabriel Byrne

Nicholas 'Nick' Mullen

Greta Scacchi

Greta Scacchi

Nina Beckman

Denholm Elliott

Denholm Elliott

Vernon Bayliss

Ian Bannen

Ian Bannen

Dennis Markham

Fulton Mackay

Fulton Mackay

Victor Kingsbrook

Bill Paterson

Bill Paterson

Jack Macleod

David Calder

David Calder

Harry Champion

Frederick Treves

Arnold Reece

Robbie Coltrane

Robbie Coltrane

Leo McAskey

Steven Woodcock

Steven Woodcock

Steven Dyce

Creative team

Directed by: David Drury
Written by: Martin Stellman
Produced by: Robin Douet
Lynda Myles

Similar Movies

Superman: Doomsday

Superman: Doomsday

When LexCorp accidentally unleashes a murderous creature, Superman meets his greatest challenge as a champion. Based on the "The Death of Superman" storyline that appeared in DC Comics' publications in the 1990s.

Fresh

Fresh

Death and violence anger twelve year old drug courier Fresh, who sets his rival employers against each other.

The Lazarus Project

The Lazarus Project

After Ben Garvey foolishly turned back to crime, he thought his life was over when he was sentenced to death by lethal injection. But his death sentence isn't quite what it seems, as Ben regains consciousness near an eerie psychiatric ward, where he's told he's been hired as the groundskeeper. With the state of his soul in question, and the love for his wife and daughter all the more real and powerful, Ben must figure out if he's truly cheated death, or if he's become part of something far more sinister.

Old

Old

A group of families on a tropical holiday discover that the secluded beach where they are staying is somehow causing them to age rapidly – reducing their entire lives into a single day.

Inside

Inside

Alex has a disturbing hobby of following strangers...until one night he gets caught. Instead of calling the police, the couple--fascinated by Alex's resemblance to their dead son--asks him to stay, and Alex finds himself trapped in a horrifying existence of desperation, despair, and insanity.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Swedish thriller based on Stieg Larsson's novel about a male journalist and a young female hacker. In the opening of the movie, Mikael Blomkvist, a middle-aged publisher for the magazine Millennium, loses a libel case brought by corrupt Swedish industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerström. Nevertheless, he is hired by Henrik Vanger in order to solve a cold case, the disappearance of Vanger's niece

Crónica de un crimen

Crónica de un crimen

A news reporter sparks a war between two criminal organizations, and is targeted by both of them.

Incendiary

Incendiary

A woman's life is torn apart when her husband and infant son are killed in a suicide bombing at a soccer match.

Castle Freak

Castle Freak

John Reilly discovers that his family's newly inherited castle in Italy is haunted by a relentless, bloodthirsty creature.

The Assignment

The Assignment

Jack Shaw has experienced the terror first-hand. He's a top CIA agent who's tracked international killer-for-hire Carlos "The Jackal" Sanchez for over twenty years and barely survived Carlos' devastating bombing of a Parisian cafe. Now, he finally gets a break when he discovers Carlos' dead ringer: American naval officer and dedicated family man Annibal Ramirez.

No Man's Land: The Rise of Reeker

No Man's Land: The Rise of Reeker

A sheriff and his son who are tracking down a group of bank robbers on their way to Mexico, only to discover that they are being stalked by a far more deadly enemy — The Reeker.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze

The Turtles and the Shredder battle once again, this time for the last cannister of the ooze that created the Turtles, which Shredder wants to create an army of new mutants. Meanwhile Splinter is coming... to a decision.

Pathfinder

Pathfinder

A Viking boy is left behind after his clan battles a Native American tribe. Raised within the tribe, he ultimately becomes their savior in a fight against the Norsemen.

23

The movie's plot is based on the true story of a group of young computer hackers from Hannover, Germany. In the late 1980s the orphaned Karl Koch invests his heritage in a flat and a home computer. At first he dials up to bulletin boards to discuss conspiracy theories inspired by his favorite novel, R.A. Wilson's "Illuminatus", but soon he and his friend David start breaking into government and military computers. Pepe, one of Karl's rather criminal acquaintances senses that there is money in computer cracking - he travels to east Berlin and tries to contact the KGB.

Sonder

Sonder

"Sonder" follows the journey of a teenager who yearns to be the protagonist of his own dramatic life story. "Sonder" explores the consequences of glorifying and romantizing depression and pressure to live a seemingly cinematic life and the liberating realization that simplicity can be its own profound narrative.

The Crow: Salvation

The Crow: Salvation

Alex Corvis, a man wrongly executed for the murder of his girlfriend, returns from the dead and sets out to find the real killer.

The Dentist

The Dentist

Dr. Alan Feinstone has everything: a beautiful wife and a successful career in dentistry. However, when he discovers his wife's affair, he realizes that behind every clean, white surface lies the stench of decay.

Terminal Velocity

Terminal Velocity

A maverick skydiver and a former KGB agent team up to stop the Russian mafia from stealing gold.

Universal Soldier

Universal Soldier

An American soldier who had been killed during the Vietnam War is revived 25 years later by the military as a semi-android, UniSols, a high-tech soldier of the future. After the failure of the initiative to erase all the soldier's memories, he begins to experience flashbacks that are forcing him to recall his past.

The Veiled

The Veiled

War. Bloodshed. Betrayal. The Father's territory will be claimed at any cost.

Recommended Movies

State of Play

State of Play

When a congressional aide is killed, a Washington, D.C. journalist starts investigating the case involving the Representative, his old college friend.

Nick of Time

Nick of Time

An ordinary man is suddenly forced into a plot to kill a politician in exchange for his kidnapped daughter's freedom.

The House on Carroll Street

The House on Carroll Street

A reporter, fired after refusing to give names to a 1951 House Un-American Activities Committee, takes a part-time job as companion to an old lady. While working she overhears a noisy argument in the neighboring house, being conducted largely in German and involving her HUAC prosecutor. She begins to investigate, enlisting the help of the FBI Agent initially detailed to surveil her.

The Company You Keep

The Company You Keep

A former Weather Underground activist goes on the run from a journalist who discovers his identity.

Murder at the Embassy

Murder at the Embassy

1934. Private detective Miranda Green investigates a murder perpetrated in the British Embassy in Cairo, where a top secret document was stolen, risking to jeopardize both Buckingham Palace and the peace of the world. All those present in this closed place are suspected: the American photographer, the English student, the American actress, the Egyptian security guard, the ambassador interpreter, the Egyptian gardener and - why not? — the Ambassador himself. But who would have expected that a small group of Nazis would be behind a plot, risking to jeopardize both Buckingham Palace and the peace of the world?

The Hunting Party

The Hunting Party

A young journalist, an experienced cameraman and a discredited reporter find their bold plan to capture Bosnia's top war criminal quickly spiraling out of control when a UN representative mistakes them for a CIA hit squad.

Foreign Correspondent

Foreign Correspondent

American crime reporter John Jones is reassigned to Europe as a foreign correspondent to cover the imminent war. When he walks into the middle of an assassination and stumbles on a spy ring, he seeks help from a beautiful politician’s daughter and an urbane English journalist to uncover the truth.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

The surviving Resistance faces the First Order once again as the journey of Rey, Finn and Poe Dameron continues. With the power and knowledge of generations behind them, the final battle begins.

The Unhealer

The Unhealer

A botched faith healing bestows supernatural Shaman powers on a bullied teenager. When his lifelong tormentors pull a prank that kills someone he loves, he uses his powers for revenge and goes on a bloody rampage to settle the score.

Eradication

Eradication

When an unknown disease wipes out most of the world’s population, a man with unique blood is isolated for study. Fearing for his wife’s safety, he breaks his quarantine – into a world overrun by monstrous Infected and a shadowy agency hunting them down.

My Spy

My Spy

A hardened CIA operative finds himself at the mercy of a precocious 9-year-old girl, having been sent undercover to surveil her family.

The Fifth Estate

The Fifth Estate

A look at the relationship between WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his early supporter and eventual colleague Daniel Domscheit-Berg, and how the website's growth and influence led to an irreparable rift between the two friends.

Goldfinger

Goldfinger

Special agent 007 comes face to face with one of the most notorious villains of all time, and now he must outwit and outgun the powerful tycoon to prevent him from cashing in on a devious scheme to raid Fort Knox -- and obliterate the world's economy.

September 5

September 5

During the 1972 Munich Olympics, an American sports broadcasting crew finds itself thrust into covering the hostage crisis involving Israeli athletes.

Dark Waters

Dark Waters

A tenacious attorney uncovers a dark secret that connects a growing number of unexplained deaths to one of the world's largest corporations. In the process, he risks everything — his future, his family, and his own life — to expose the truth.

The Courier

The Courier

Cold War spy Greville Wynne and his Russian source try to put an end to the Cuban Missile Crisis.

You Only Live Twice

You Only Live Twice

A mysterious spacecraft captures Russian and American space capsules and brings the two superpowers to the brink of war. James Bond investigates the case in Japan and comes face to face with his archenemy Blofeld.

Blacklight

Blacklight

Travis Block is a shadowy Government agent who specializes in removing operatives whose covers have been exposed. He then has to uncover a deadly conspiracy within his own ranks that reaches the highest echelons of power.

The Jester

The Jester

A malevolent being known as The Jester terrorizes the inhabitants of a small town on Halloween night, including two estranged sisters who must come together to find a way to defeat this evil entity.

Keeping Up with the Joneses

Keeping Up with the Joneses

An ordinary suburban couple finds it’s not easy keeping up with the Joneses – their impossibly gorgeous and ultra-sophisticated new neighbors – especially when they discover that Mr. and Mrs. “Jones” are covert operatives.