The Experts

Released

Jan 13, 1989

IMDb rating

5.0 / 10 2,986 votes

Recall rating

4.0 / 10 1 rating

Overview

In the Soviet Union, groups of potential Soviet spies are trained in a town made up to pass for "Indian Springs", Nebraska. The denizens of the town speak perfect English and go about their days as Americans to train the cadets to fit in in American society. One of the trainers in this town, KGB agent Cameron Smith (Charles Martin Smith) feels that the training is substandard as the town has failed to develop culturally since its inception and is stuck in the fifties. In order to rectify the situation, Smith hires New York City club-goers (and aspiring club-owners) Travis (John Travolta) and Wendell (Arye Gross) to teach modern ways to the outdated town under the auspices of opening a club. The two are drugged en route and wake up in Soviet Russia unaware they have left the United States. Travis and Wendell are bemused by the quaint ways of the town and dismayed when they see the location Smith has procured for them (a fifties-style tiki lounge), but they set to work remodeling the club, begin to make friends around the town and even start to date a couple of the trainees, Bonnie (Kelly Preston) and Jill (Deborah Foreman). At the urging of Travis and Wendell, Smith brings in a shipment of top of the line accouterments and entertainment to modernize the town. This doesn't sit well with town leaders Jones (Brian Doyle-Murray) and the town's minister Sparks (Rick Ducommun). After a fourth of July party in which the young people of the town (trainees and residents alike) trespass at a local lake to have a party at Travis and Wendell's urging, the two get lost and stumble upon a military base where everyone is speaking Russian and realize they are actually trapped in the Soviet Union. The two decide to go to Bonnie and Jill for help despite knowing that they're spies, each one asserting that their feelings are real. While Bonnie reveals she has fallen in love with Travis and agrees to help him, Jill promptly turns them in. While in prison the pair meet Yuri (James Keach)

Studio

Paramount Pictures

Budget

$3,000,000

Box office

$169,203