The Night Manager
Based on: The Night Manager by John le Carré
Season 2 – Episode 4
Cast: Tom Hiddleston (Jonathan Pine), Hugh Laurie (Richard “Dickie” Onslow Roper), Olivia Colman (Angela Burr), Alistair Petrie (Alexander “Sandy” Langbourne), Douglas Hodge (Rex Mayhew), Michael Nardone (Frisky), Noah Jupe (Danny Roper), Diego Calva (Teddy Dos Santos), Camila Morrone (Roxana Bolaños), Paul Chahidi (Basil Karapetian), Hayley Squires (Sally Price-Jones), Indira Varma (Mayra Cavendish), Kirby Howell-Baptiste (Dr. Kim Saunders), Slavko Sobin (Viktor), Unax Ugalde (Juan Carrascal), Alberto Ammann (Alejandro Gualteros), Diego Santos (Martín Álvarez)
Original release date: January 18, 2026 (BBC One)
Episode plot: Roper has been living covertly in Colombia for six years, plotting to repay his debts by enacting regime change with aid from exiled leader José Cabrera, Teddy, Mayra and Lord Sandy Langbourne. Martin spies on Roper, learning that he is planning more British-backed coups under amnesty in the future. Basil observes Holywell meeting Mayra and Langbourne, tricking Holywell into revealing that Teddy possesses an electromagnetic pulse bomb, with MI6 enabling the coup. Sally creates a diversion to allow Gualteros to escape from Teddy’s surveillance unharmed. Pine separates from Teddy at the airport and meets Burr, who discloses that Roper coerced her into staging his death, otherwise his Syrian captors would have killed her and Pine. Teddy suspects Roxana after learning that Gualteros intends to share the shipping documents with the Head of the Supreme Court. However, Gualteros is intercepted by Teddy’s military contacts and, despite being warned by Roxana, Pine fails to stop Teddy from killing Gualteros. Pine rescues Roxana and a young driver, although Teddy recognises Pine in the shootout and informs a vengeful Roper.
* * *
The Dragon’s Breath
by Chris Montanelli
The Night Manager has always flattered the intelligence of its audience while simultaneously insulting it—a trick the British have perfected in their prestige television, and which Americans have eagerly imported along with their taste for fancy accents and moral ambiguity dressed up in Savile Row suits. This fourth episode of the second season performs the same sleight of hand, and performs it beautifully, even as it exposes the essential hollowness at the genre’s heart.
The resurrection of Richard Onslow Roper (Hugh Laurie, still relishing every syllable) from his supposed Syrian grave might have felt like a cheat in lesser hands. Instead, it becomes the season’s central joke: that men like Roper don’t die, they merely rebrand. The explanation we receive through Olivia Colman’s Angela Burr—that Roper coerced her into staging his death by threatening her family and Jonathan Pine—carries the depressing plausibility of real politik. Of course he did. Of course she complied. The show understands that people with Roper’s resources don’t play by the same rules as the rest of us, and that the institutions meant to contain them are riddled with careerists and cowards who will always find reasons to look the other way. Angela didn’t betray Jonathan out of malice but out of the simple, crushing mathematics of survival. When Roper visited her hotel room the night before his supposed body identification, offering his ultimatum, she made the only calculation a mother could make.
Tom Hiddleston’s Jonathan Pine remains the show’s most problematic element, and I mean that as something between a compliment and a diagnosis. Pine is meant to be our moral center, our man of principle operating in a world without them, yet Hiddleston plays him with such physical elegance and emotional restraint that he sometimes threatens to become merely decorative. He’s gorgeous to watch—the motorcycle chase through Medellín is staged with real kinetic excitement—but his fury at Angela for keeping him in the dark rings slightly false. Pine’s righteousness has always been the show’s weakest suit, a necessary but unconvincing motor for a plot that works better when it focuses on the villains.
And what villains. Diego Calva’s Teddy Dos Santos has emerged as the season’s most compelling figure, a young man caught between his hunger for recognition and his desperate need for his father’s approval. Calva brings a palpable loneliness to his performance that the script barely acknowledges but that the actor communicates in every scene—the way Teddy watches Roper for signs of affection, the eagerness with which he presents breakfast like an offering to a god who may or may not deign to notice. The scene where Teddy and Roper ride horses through the Colombian hills, discussing their future as “the new conquistadors, kings of America,” accomplishes more character work in three minutes than most shows manage in a season. Roper gazing at the landscape, waxing nostalgic about the first Spaniards to see these mountains and their sense of “terra nullius, the endlessly possible”—it’s a perfect crystallization of the colonialist mindset that the show is ostensibly critiquing. That Roper can describe his current exile as a “prison” while literally surveying land he intends to help plunder reveals everything about the moral blindness of the ruling class. Laurie delivers these lines with such evident pleasure, such casual entitlement, that you almost want to applaud his shamelessness even as you’re appalled by it.
The mechanics of the plot—the electromagnetic pulse bomb that will disable Medellín and trigger a civil war, the mining rights that Mayra Cavendish’s investors expect in return for funding the coup, the shipment of weapons frozen at Cartagena Port—are handled with the genre’s customary efficiency. The show doesn’t pretend these machinations are anything but what they are: the usual business of empire dressed up in the language of investment opportunity. When Basil Karapetian (Paul Chahidi, doing terrific work as the intelligence operative nobody takes seriously until it’s too late) tricks Adam Holywell into revealing the full scope of the Colombian operation, the real obscenity isn’t the coup itself but its banality. This is just business. Copper, oil, lithium. The future is being stolen, and somewhere a spreadsheet justifies every death.
The episode’s moral weight falls heaviest on the execution of Alejandro Gualteros (Alberto Ammann), the prosecutor who represents everything Teddy isn’t: a man who has come to understand, with age, that his country’s stability matters more than his own advancement. The warehouse confrontation strips away whatever romanticism the show might have been tempted to drape over Teddy. Alejandro, facing his executioner, speaks with the weary clarity of a man who has made peace with his choices: he believes in justice, he believes in his country’s future, and he believes that Teddy is still a child playing at being a monster. The insult lands because it’s true. Teddy hasn’t earned his cruelty—he’s inherited it, borrowed it, performed it for an audience of one who isn’t even watching. When the gun goes off, Teddy doesn’t look triumphant. He looks like someone who has just closed a door he’ll never be able to reopen.
This is where the show transcends its genre trappings and achieves genuine emotional depth. Teddy doesn’t want to be a criminal; he wants to be acknowledged as Roper’s son, to have “the world know who I really am.” But Roper, in his conversations with Sandy Langbourne (Alistair Petrie, oozing upper-class treachery), has already written off his Colombian protégé as unfit for “civilised company.” The suggestion that they might need to “get rid of him” when the operation concludes hangs over their genteel exchange of pleasantries like poison gas. Teddy believes he’s building an empire; his father sees him as a tool to be discarded. The tragedy is that Teddy can’t see it, and the further tragedy is that Roper probably doesn’t see the cruelty in it either. He’s simply being practical.
The final act delivers the action goods with workmanlike competence: Pine on a stolen motorcycle, the desperate chase, the warehouse shootout, the rescue of Roxana and the unnamed child whom Teddy would have murdered without hesitation. The show knows how to stage these sequences, knows how to use Hiddleston’s physicality, knows how to build tension through crosscutting. What it can’t quite do is make Pine’s heroism feel as interesting as Roper’s villainy. When Roper receives the photograph confirming that his nemesis has returned—that Jonathan Pine is once again the thorn in his side—Hugh Laurie allows a flicker of something almost like pleasure to cross his face. The dragon has checked its breath, as he advised earlier, and found it still warm.
The episode ends with all the pieces in place for a final confrontation, and with the show’s political implications hovering uneasily in the air. The British government, we’re meant to understand, is enabling this coup through MI6 back channels and plausible deniability. The investors will get their minerals, the Colombians will get their civil war, and men like Roper will get to retire to their Oxfordshire estates with their consciences intact and their bank accounts swollen. The show wants us to be outraged, and we are—but it also wants us to be entertained, and therein lies the problem with all political thrillers that traffic in this territory. The outrage and the entertainment keep canceling each other out, leaving us with a beautifully crafted experience that feels, in the end, as morally weightless as the men it depicts. Perhaps that’s the point. Perhaps the real night manager is capitalism itself, tidying up the messes of empire while everyone else sleeps.
* * *
Transcript
Note for Students & Writers: This transcript is archived here for educational purposes, critical analysis, and screenwriting study. All rights belong to the original creators.
Mummy, can I play?
[Angela] Yeah. Not for long, though. Don’t go far. When Dad gets back, we’re gonna eat.
[dog barking]
[child laughing]
[barking continues]
[water running]
[phone chimes]
[Angela reads a message from unknown number: “This is Cairo Asset Management. You have a secure message waiting. Do not ignore.”
[tense music]
[Angela] Fuck.
[tense music]
GIRARDOT, COLOMBIA
[birds chirping]
[Roper] What are you looking at?
[Teddy] Sorry, didn’t want to disturb you.
[Roper] Turn the lights back on, please.
[birds chirping]
[sighs]
[intriguing music]
[tense music]
[music ends]
THE RIVER HOUSE, LONDON. ENGLAND
[phone ringing]
[man] Mayra. Just checking there are no wrinkles in the Colombian adventure.
[Mayra] No wrinkles at all.
[man] Good. Let’s keep it that way.
[computer beeping]
[intriguing music]
[knock on the door]
[door opens]
[Basil] Good morning.
[Mayra] Anything interesting?
[Basil] Mm. Cat videos. You look tired.
[Mayra] I didn’t sleep very well. My adorable child.
[Basil] Mm. A problem I will never have to deal with.
[Mayra] You know that name you mentioned relating to the Luxembourg account? Andrew Birch? Yes?
[Basil] Yeah. Um, well, I didn’t mention it. You did.
[Mayra] Oh, yes, so I did.
[intriguing music]
[Basil] [whispering] Shit.
MEDELLÍN. COLOMBIA
[Beni, in Spanish] I checked with his office. He’s working from home all day.
[Teddy] We’ve had the go ahead from our friends and a replacement has been lined up. I’ll be there this afternoon, so don’t let him out of your sight.
[Beni] I’ve got all exits covered.
[Teddy] No fucking around, okay?
[Beni] Of course, Chief.
[Teddy] Great.
[Spanish music playing on radio]
[dogs barking]
[in English] You hooligans!
[Roper] Fátima can do that.
[Teddy] I sent her away. You want some coffee?
[Roper] Yes. That would be very nice.
[music continues on radio]
[Teddy] Roper.
[Roper] Thank you.
[Teddy] One moment.
[Roper] This is very impressive. Where’d you learn this?
[Teddy] I used to make this in Oaxaca for the boys.
[Roper] Lucky boys. These are good.
[Teddy] Right. I want to talk about what happens after all this.
[Roper] Not here.
[Teddy] Okay.
[Roper] Why don’t we go for a ride?
[Teddy] You sure?
[Roper] You remember how?
[Teddy] I think I remember.
[birds chirping]
[calm music]
[Roper] Race you!
[calm music continues]
[Roper] God, I wish you wouldn’t do that. Filthy habit. Can you imagine? Being the first Spaniard to set eyes on these hills. The sense of freedom he must have felt. Terra nullius. The endlessly possible. And now they’re my prison. I’m lucky to get out once a day, meet in the same bloody steakhouse, an hour’s chat, some overcooked meat, and then back like a thief in the night. [sighs]
[Teddy] That’s going to change.
[Roper] Well, let’s not take anything for granted, shall we?
[Teddy] We don’t have our cash flow problem anymore. Hong Kong investor needed to clean his money quickly. The job’s done. I’m putting him on a plane to Paris this morning.
[Roper] What did you tell him?
[Teddy] Nada. Nothing. The prosecutor will die today. The new one will unfreeze our accounts and release the cargo. We will deliver it to José Cabrera. You’ll get the money for your Syrian creditors. And in three days, you will be free. But… what happens then?
[Roper] What do you mean what happens?
[Teddy] You can’t be Gilberto Hanson all your life.
[Roper] No, indeed.
[Teddy] So?
[Roper] So what do you want to happen?
[Teddy] You remember six years ago when you returned to Colombia?
[Roper] Of course, I had nothing then. A shirt on my back.
[Teddy] And I came just as you came every single year to the monastery. In that beautiful black car. When everyone had abandoned me.
[Roper] You’re my boy.
[Teddy] Am I? Mm? When all this is done, I want the world to know who I really am.
[Roper] All right, we’ll get this done. And then you and I will make a plan.
[Teddy] Together, we can run this continent.
[Roper] The new conquistadors. Kings of America. But in the meantime, Teddy, you get the cargo safely to José Cabrera. No delays, no mistakes.
[calm music]
[helicopter whirring]
[Roper] Mr. Whistler, how was your flight? There’s a car waiting outside the airport to bring you here. We have much to discuss.
[Pine] Martín, I have to go. You stay here. Keep watching. I need to know what the man in that house is up to.
[Martín] Okay.
[Pine] Thank you.
THE MAYFAIR CLUB. LONDON
[Adam Holywell] All right, thanks. Just here is perfect.
[woman] Good evening, Mr Hollywell. Your guest is waiting for you in the saloon.
[Adam] What guest?
[Basil] Adam, how are you? Basil Karapetian, head of technical. We met at Mayra’s once… cocktail party.
[Adam] Yeah, I remember.
[Basil] It’s to do with last night. The meeting in Holland Park.
[Adam] What meeting?
[Basil] With Sandy Langbourne. It seems you had your phone on in the house, which means you can be traced to the area. Exactly what we try to avoid.
[Adam] But I… No, no. I swore I switched off.
[Basil] Mayra’s extremely sensitive around this kind of thing. The Colombian chief does not approve of laxness, as Jacob Brower discovered.
[Adam] Does Mayra know?
[Basil] I haven’t said anything yet.
[Adam] Should we have a drink?
[Basil] Why not?
MEDELLÍN
[Sally] All right. Alejandro. Time to shine.
[intriguing music]
[Sally] [in Spanish] Hello. Good morning. [in English] Do you…? I think I’m bit lost. Do you know where the, uh, the cable car is? Do you know a cable car? Uh, it’s, um… Como the train, but, uh, a bit in the air.
[Beni] Sorry, lady, I don’t know.
[Sally] Oh.
[Beni] Now go.
[Sally] Could you maybe…? I mean…
[Beni] Go.
[Sally] You know, my-my guidebook says Colombians are supposed to be friendly people. After this, I think I’m going to be asking for a bloody rewrite. [in Spanish] Thank you very much.
[intriguing music]
[phone buzzing]
[Pine] [in English] Yes.
[Teddy] [in Spanish] Hello, Mr Ellis. [in English] This is your airport transfer. Where are you?
[Pine] Just at the hotel. Packed and ready.
[Teddy] Stay there. I’m coming now.
[Pine] [in Spanish] Sir, could we please go faster?
[tense music]
[tense music continues]
[knocking on door]
[Pine] [in English] One second. Hey.
[Teddy] You said you were ready.
[Pine] I am. I just had a shower. It’s so hot here, you know.
[Teddy] All good, my friend?
[Pine] All good.
[Teddy] You stayed here all night?
[Pine] Of course. Had a room service cheeseburger. It’s a bit lukewarm, but I survived. Teddy, what is this?
[Teddy] Finish packing. We’re leaving.
[Pine] Okay.
[Roper] Lord Langbourne. As I live and breathe.
[Sandy] Hello, Dickie.
[Roper] Quite a trip.
[Sandy] When duty calls.
[Roper] I hope they provided business class.
[Sandy] Special rates for ex-cons.
[Roper] The staff here think I’m buying wine off you. Chilean Cabernet. Old vines. So no hugs for now. Come in.
[Sandy] Who knows I’m here?
[Roper] Just the chosen few. So let’s keep it that way, shall we?
[Adam] Tell me, how did you get involved in this sort of thing?
[Basil] Oh. Right. University.
[Adam] Yeah?
[Basil] Recruited by a handsome tutor. Oh, God.
[Adam] Did you not think twice?
[Basil] Not for a second. My therapist would say if I hadn’t told her I was a dentist, that I am the product of an immigrant family, cursed with a compulsion to impress the natives.
[Adam] [laughs] Cheers to that.
[Basil] You?
[Adam] I was approached by Mayra, we’re old pals from Singapore.
[Basil] Mm.
[Adam] She said she needed my address book. Cooking something in Colombia.
[Basil] Expensive recipe.
[Adam] Are you kidding? My investors chuck in, what, a few hundred million? And in return, they get a whole country. Copper, oil, lithium. I mean, that’s the golden fucking goose, right? [sighs] I’ve not done this before. I’ve paid off officials. I’ve poisoned a couple of necessary wells, but, um… Funding a regime change?
[Basil] Welcome to the twilight world.
[both laugh]
[glass clicking]
[Basil] Uh.
[Adam] One more?
[Basil] No. Sadly, Adam, I must go. Really. Thank you for the drink, though. That’s great. Oh, I’ll need to make sure your phone is clean. It’ll be left at reception, and we won’t say a word to Mayra.
[Adam] Come on.
[Basil] Good to see you.
[Adam] See you soon. Stop! Stop!
[Pine] Thanks, Teddy. I’ll find my own way.
[doors lock]
[Pine] What are you doing? Teddy.
[Teddy] Yesterday in Cartagena I told you too much.
[Pine] That’s your problem, not mine. I’m not a threat, Teddy. I’m your friend.
[Teddy] I’ll walk you to the gates.
[in Spanish] Gate 4. Have a nice flight.
[Pine] [in English] Thank you.
[Teddy] Go to France, Matthew, get to your daughter and forget you ever met me.
[Pine] I’m not going to find that easy. [whispering] I’ll pray for your soul, Eduardo.
[emotional music]
[Teddy] [in Spanish] Beni? Move in on the prosecutor, I’m on my way. Bye.
[Pine] I have an emergency.
[intriguing music]
[Sandy] God! Bloody hell. I fancy a dip.
[Roper] The crocodiles would fancy that too.
[Sandy] I’m sorry. What?
[Roper] Well, a babiche is about that size. It’d shave a couple of seconds off your 50-metre time, that. You want something to drink? Brandy here is pretty serviceable. Locals enjoy some sort of aniseed mouthwash or there’s rum.
[Sandy] Uh, no. Brandy’s fine.
[Roper] Fats, darling. Could you bring a brandy and soda for Señor Whistler? I’ll have some tea. Gracias. So… They sprung you, did they?
[Sandy] I believe parole on licence is the accepted term.
[Roper] No nighttime escape with a toothbrush and knotted sheets. You disappoint me. How’s Caro?
[Sandy] I have absolutely no idea. She didn’t visit me as a loyal wife might. And she’s taken the Eaton Square house.
[Roper] Good for her. She always had spunk.
[Sandy] Well, that’s one word for it. I’ve had to rent a flat in Battersea.
[Roper] If I had a heart, it would surely bleed.
[Sandy] How did you pull it off, Dickie? I have to say, I really thought…
[Roper] What did you think?
[Sandy] You know what I mean.
[Roper] Did you grieve?
[Sandy] Yes, I did.
[Roper] Why don’t you show me the brochure?
[Pine] You identified his body. You looked me in the eye.
[Angela] I know what I did.
[Pine] Why? Why did you lie to me?
[Angela] It was the night before the identification. That shitty desert motel. You and I were on the terrace.
[in Arabic] Thank you.
[Angela] It was getting late and I was going to bed. And he walked into my room.
[Roper] Hello, Angela. Got time for a chat?
[Angela] He’d done a deal with his Syrian captors. How to get out of it and to pay them back all the money he owed them.
[Pine] The 300 million dollars.
[Angela] I had to declare him dead. Retire from the River. And he said if I refused him, he would kill us both there and then. And he’d send people to London to murder my child. So I did what he asked. I acted in his little desert pantomime.
[Angela] Fuck you.
[Angela] Then I went straight back to London and told Rex Mayhew everything.
[Pine] Rex. He knew.
[Angela] This was our chance to nail Roper and all his bastard pals. The London investors, the dirty River, the politicians, the whole fucking rotten bunch. But then Roper disappeared off the face of the earth. We had no idea where he was until Mayra Cavendish took over River House, parachuted in by Whitehall, like the evil fucking witch. And then the Colombian link. The girl from Miami. And I could smell Roper coming back to the surface.
[Pine] Why didn’t you tell me? I could have helped.
[Angela] You were the one he was obsessed with. You had to believe he was dead.
[Pine] You should have trusted me.
[Angela] If I’d told you the truth, you wouldn’t have survived it. You’d have gone in there all guns fucking blazing like you are now. You’d have compromised the whole thing.
[Pine] I killed two men for you. I put a woman I loved…
[Angela] I did not ask you to do any of that.
[Pine] Did you see Roper torture Jed in a hotel?
[Angela] I have a child. A little girl. Do you understand that?
[Pine] You found me in that Swiss hotel. You made me who I am. And you lied to me.
[Angela] I had no choice. We’d have both died.
[Pine] Do you have any idea how hard this has been without you? Roper is planning a coup in Colombia. If he succeeds, he’ll pay back his Syrian captors. And he’ll be free. Then everything you and I did in Egypt will be meaningless. I have to go.
[Angela] No. This is about more than just Roper. This is civil war in our intelligence establishment. I need you to give me more time.
[Pine] I can’t do that.
[crickets chirping]
[man, indistinct in Spanish]
[birds twittering]
[indistinct chatter in Spanish]
[dogs barking]
[Martín] Hush. Hush.
[intriguing music]
[man, indistinct in Spanish]
[Sandy] It’s 25 miles outside of Oxford. 16 bedrooms, 200 acres. Tennis court, pools, indoor and outdoor. And, oh yes, it has planning permission for a padel court. Whatever the fuck that is.
[Roper] And Mayra will pay for this?
[Sandy] She called it “her little thank you gift.” It was signed off last night by Whitehall. Contract is held in a holding company. Bahamas via Zurich. Impossible to follow the chain of title.
[Roper] I like Mayra. You remember that embassy bash in Burma?
[Sandy] She drank us under the table.
[Roper] Fuck off! She drank you under the table. She’s a tough cookie. No cloudy idealism. Knows a good offer when she sees one. She asked you to check up on me, see if the old man’s still fit for service.
[Sandy] Mayra didn’t asked me to do anything. I’m here because you wanted me to be.
[Roper] Sure about that? Not reporting back to mother?
[Sandy] Balls to you, Dickie. I’m not a snitch.
[Roper] Better give me my bonus gift, then.
[birds chirping]
[Sandy] Et voilà.
[Roper] “Earth has not anything to show more fair.”
♪ For he himself has said it ♪
♪ And it’s greatly to his credit ♪
♪ That he is an Englishman! ♪
♪ He is ♪
♪ An Englishman! ♪
[both laugh]
[Beni] [in Spanish] He’s not there. I searched the whole fucking building. I’ve no idea where he went.
[Teddy] How the fuck could you let this happen? Are you stupid or what? I want him found right now! Shit!
[tense music]
[Jonathan, in Spanish] Wait here.
[knocking on door]
[in English] It’s Max.
[Sally] Are you okay?
[Pine] I’m fine. You?
[Sally] Yeah, just about.
[Pine] Alejandro. You know José Cabrera?
[Alejandro] Yes, of course I know him. That bastard wants to destroy everything we’ve created in this country.
[Pine] Well, the British are supporting him. Our government is funding regime change here, and we have to stop it.
[Sally] The list is what you needed, right?
[Alejandro] Yes. I’m calling the head of Supreme Court. She has the authority to open the shipment.
[Pine] Do you trust her?
[Alejandro] More than anyone.
[Arturo, in Spanish] Consuelo Arbenz’s office. Arturo speaking.
[Alejandro] Arturo, this is Alejandro Gualteros. I need to speak to Consuelo.
[Arturo] She can’t talk right now.
[Alejandro] Tell her it’s urgent.
[Arturo] I’m sorry Alejo, it’s impossible.
[Alejandro] Listen to me. A secret shipment of British arms is sitting in Cartagena Port right now. It is about to be delivered to the Cabrera family.
[Arturo] Oh, my God.
[Alejandro] I have evidence that proves it. But I need to meet with Consuelo in person today.
[Arturo] I’ll call you back.
[Alejandro] Okay. Thank you.
[Pine] [in English] And?
[Alejandro] He said he’s gonna call me back.
[Jonathan] When?
[Alejandro] I don’t know, soon, I hope.
[Roper] Come here, you beauties. Come on. Come here. Yes. Yes. This is Chloe. Those two are Ronnie and Reggie.
[Sandy] What happened to the old dogs in Majorca?
[Roper] Spanish police gassed them as if to prove a point. These ones are coming home with me, aren’t you? Yes. Yeah. You can trust a hound.
[Sandy] When did you have the idea to rebuild the empire?
[Roper] Back in Syria. In my desert hole. My billet was six feet underground. Just a pit dug in the sand. Some steps down, door about half your height and hotter than hell. To begin with, I just dreamt of revenge against Burr, against Pine, the lot of them. And then I realised it was just a waste of energy. So I got to know my captors, charmed them with my stoicism and good humour.
[Sandy] And that was your way out?
[Roper] A spot of bribery, or the promise of it. Sent the offer up the chain to return to Mr Barghati and his friends everything they’d lost. 300 million. Every penny that blue-eyed boy took from them. And that’s when I had the idea. You see, once upon a time when Britannia ruled the waves, some fellow would fetch up on a distant shore. He’d locate the wealth, the gold, the silver, the diamonds, emeralds at a pinch… And he’d bring in the military and shoot a few natives. Secure the trade routes out. Easy as shepherd’s pie. But now it’s all self-determination and panpipes. The servant is slipping from the master’s grasp. But what if you could own a country in a different way? You buy up a local militia, you arm them to the teeth and kickstart a revolution. Get the whole thing paid for by whoever stands to gain. Minerals, metals, oil. You get kickbacks from the arms boys. You cream it off at both ends and reap the harvest.
[Sandy] The commercialisation of chaos.
[Roper] Colombia was the obvious place to start. I’ve got old friends here. Landowner, stock. This new political movement is threatening Cabrera’s long established way of life. There’s a risk they’re going to end up in some courtroom facing the justice of their victims. And no one wants that. So here we are, aren’t we? I’m bringing in arms for José Cabrera’s revolution. Mayra Cavendish and her investors are footing the bill. And if I can do it here, I can do it anywhere. Just one shipment away, Sandy. Just one. And then… I get to go home with this. And you and I can really start to do business.
[man, in Spanish] What happened?
[Teddy] The prosecutor got away. That’s what fucking happened.
[man, in English] What?
[Teddy, in Spanish] I can’t trust anyone round here to do their job.
[in English] Teddy, Carrascal is waiting upstairs.
[Teddy, in Spanish] Shit.
[Roxana] Hi, Mom.
[Roxana’s mother] You haven’t left yet?
[Roxana] No, I leave this afternoon and arrive in Miami tonight.
[Roxana’s mother] You’ve been gone so long.
[Roxana] I know. It turned out to be longer than I expected.
[Sally] Max, I need to show you something from London. Basil has Adam Hollywell’s emails from the last six months. It’s about the last shipment.
[intriguing music]
[Sally] That thing will take out a whole city. Start a bloody war.
[Roxana’s mother] Okay, but don’t leave me waiting, please.
[Roxana] Alright, Mom… Okay. I have to go. Kisses.
[Beni] Boss wants to see you. Give me your phone.
[Roxana] Why?
[Beni] Give me the phone.
[Roxana] What the hell is this?
[Beni] Move. Quickly! Keep walking. Go.
[Roxana] What the hell?
[tense music]
[Juan, in the distance] Gualteros is still alive. It’s important for Gilberto to have this information.
[Teddy] Listen to me, Juan. I’ll decide what Gilberto needs to know. Clear?
[Roxana] What’s going on?
[Teddy] What’s going on?
[Roxana] What’s going on?
[Teddy] That’s what I want to know. What the fuck is happening?
[Roxana] I have no idea what you’re talking about.
[Teddy] No? You sure?
[Roxana] I’m sure.
[Teddy] The prosecutor has the shipment list.
[Roxana] What? How? That’s impossible.
[Teddy] Impossible?
[Roxana] That’s impossible!
[Teddy] So, why is he asking for a meeting with the Head of the Supreme Court of Justice? Does that sound impossible to you?
[Roxana] How do you know all this?
[Juan] [in English] Roxana, I have friends everywhere.
[Roxana] [in Spanish] So what are we going to do?
[Teddy] You? Nothing. Juan says… that he left you alone in the Cartagena offices. Right, Juan?
[Juan] Uh-huh.
[Roxana] Okay. So what?
[Teddy] Don’t lie to me. Please. Did you steal the shipment list?
[Roxana] Are you crazy? I gave you Rex Mayhew. I handed you the people who were about to bust your operation in London. And now you’re questioning me?
[Teddy] Answer the fucking question! Sit down and don’t move!
[Roxana] You dare to question me?
[Teddy] Shut up!
[phone ringing]
[Teddy] Don’t move from there.
[phone continues ringing]
[Teddy] Hey.
[Roper] Has the animal been destroyed as you promised?
[Teddy] He’s dead. We’re on schedule.
[Roper] Good. I shall be incommunicado this afternoon. State business.
[Teddy] No problem. I have it all covered.
[Roper] You sure?
[Teddy] Sure. You caught me in the middle of something. Can I call you later?
[Roper] Okay.
[Teddy] Thank you.
[Teddy] [in Spanish] Call Chico. I know what to do.
[tense music]
[phone ringing]
[Alejandro] [in Spanish] Yes, Arturo? Perfect, I’ll be there.
[Alejandro] [in English] Consuelo will meet me at 3 p.m. Parliament buildings.
[Pine] Alejandro. Okay. Listen to me. Listen. There is a British arms dealer. His name is Richard Onslow Roper. When you meet Consuelo, you tell her he is the man behind this. Get him and the rest will follow.
[Alejandro] Okay.
[chattering in Spanish]
[car honking]
[whistles]
[Chico, in Spanish] Hey, brother!
What’s up?
[Chico] You can drive, can’t you?
Yes.
[Chico] Mr Dos Santos has a special job for you. Get in.
[speaking Spanish]
[Chico] I’ve got two million pesos here… Get in. You drive.
[tense music]
[door unlocking]
[door locking]
[Roxana] What’s going on, Beni? What’s he planning?
[Beni] Don’t talk to me. Shut the fuck up.
[tense music]
[phone ringing]
[Juan] Gilberto.
[Roper] Something’s wrong. Teddy was lying to me just now. I want to know why.
[Juan] Okay. [sighs] The prosecutor is still alive, and he has the shipment list. But it’s okay.
[Roper] In what sense is it fucking okay? How did this happen?
[Juan] Maybe the Bolaños girl. Maybe someone got to her.
[Roper] Who? Who knew?
[Juan] It’s okay. Eduardo has a plan. We are going to close this down, okay?
[Roper] Juan, don’t tell me things are okay before they are okay. Because if you do, I am going to feed you to my dogs piece by screaming piece.
[Pine] Let’s go.
[Sally] For emergencies only.
[Sandy] Something wrong?
[Roper] Just… teething issues with my operation. It seems you can’t get the staff.
[Sandy] That’s the problem with local contractors. Who are you using?
[Roper] Fellow called Eduardo Dos Santos.
[Sandy] Where’d you find him?
[Roper] Just picked him up along the way. Wild past. But loyal. Like one of these.
[Sandy] Does he know the game?
[Roper] He knows as much as he needs to.
[Sandy] And when all this is over, what do we do? You’re gonna bring him back with you?
[Roper] Teddy in the Athenaeum. I dread to think. No, Teddy’s a cowboy. You should see him on a horse. A thing of beauty. But he’s not fit for civilised company.
[Sandy] Well, then we can get rid of him. It’s easily done, I imagine.
[Roper] Well, let’s jump that fence when we come to it. Shall we?
[Sandy] All right.
[tense music]
[door unlocking]
[Pine] Good luck.
[tense music]
[Roxana] [in Spanish] Where’s my phone? I need to call my mom in Miami, and tell her I’m going to miss my flight. Beni, you know my mom… If I don’t tell her what’s going on, she’ll call the police, the Florida State Governor and possibly the White House. Isn’t that right? What’s Eduardo going to think of that?
[Beni] Be quick. And I’m watching. Okay?
[Roxana] Thank you.
[phone buzzing]
[Pine] Yes.
[Roxana, in English] Hi, Mum. It’s me. I’m leaving you a message. I’m gonna miss my flight today, so I thought that you should know, um, everything is really screwed up here, more so than I think you realise. So you should probably cancel your plans.
[tense music]
[phone ringing]
[woman, in Spanish] Mr. Alejandro Gualteros?
[Alejandro] Yes. I have a meeting with Consuelo Arbenz.
[woman] You’re in meeting room 7. Please, follow me. She’s waiting for you.
[Alejandro hangs up]
Señor. I need to speak to a prosecutor in the building. His name is Alejandro Gualteros.
You have a pass?
[Pine] No, but I need to get him a message. It’s urgent.
Impossible. You cannot enter.
[Pine] He needs to leave the building now. Can you tell him?
Do you know which office he’s in?
[Pine] I don’t know. Listen…
Stop wasting our time. Get away from the door.
[Pine] Please…
Move!
[woman] They’re expecting you.
[intriguing music]
[Alejandro] What the hell is this? Where is Consuelo?
Calm yourself, Mr Gualteros. Please, sit down.
[Alejandro] This is the Supreme Court of Justice. What decade do you think we’re in?
Please, sit down. And show me what you have in that briefcase.
[phone buzzing]
[Pine] Sally. Something’s not right. He’s inside. I’ve got eyes on me. I got to get to him.
[Sally] No, Jonathan…
[Pine] Put a track on Roxana’s phone. I gotta go.
[Sally] No, wait! Fuck!
[in Spanish] I need to know who your source is.
[Alejandro] Uh… I don’t recall the name.
Where is the original document?
[Alejandro] Up your ass.
Take him.
[tense music]
[Chico] Get in the fucking car now!
What the hell is going on?
[Chico] Get in the fucking car! Do it!
[Pine] Hey!
[man] My motorbike, my motorbike!
[tense music]
[dogs barking]
[Roper] Next time we meet, we will be on English soil, Inshallah. Logs on the fire. Not a mosquito or Colombian in sight.
I’ll have the single malt waiting.
[Roper] Speyside, if you please.
Oh, naturally.
[Roper] Sandy, there’s something I want you to do when you get back.
Sure. Anything in my power.
[Roper] It’s Danny. I want him back with me at the Oxfordshire house.
What about his mother?
[Roper] Make her an offer. I don’t care how you do it. Just make sure she understands the situation. I’ve lost ten years of my boy’s life.
He’s away at boarding school.
[Roper] Then take him out!
[dogs crying]
[Roper] Danny is my family. He’s my only son and heir. He’s mine.
[dogs barking]
Of course. You tricked them all, Dickie. Every single one.
[Roper] Jonathan Pine was a… He was a noble adversary. But he made one mistake. When you’ve slain the dragon, always check its breath.
[dogs barking]
[Roper] Come on, you two. Come on.
[Chico, in Spanish] Take a right.
Where are we going?
[Chico] Take a right! Do what I fucking say!
[intriguing music]
[Chico] Out. Now! Boss, I’ve brought what you asked for.
What the hell are we doing here?
[indistinct chatter]
[Teddy] Why didn’t you take my offer? It would have made things so much easier.
[Alejandro] What do you believe in? I believe in justice. You’re just a kid. And you have a long way to reach manhood. You know what? You will burn in hell, asshole.
[speaking Spanish]
[Chico] Kill this bastard, too. He’s served his purpose but he’s seen too much.
Son of a bitch, you brought me here just to kill me.
[Chico] Do it! Kill him, boss!
[gunshots]
[Pine, in Spanish] Take cover!
[emotional music]
[Pine] Let’s go! Let’s go! Quick! Quick! Come!
[music ends]
[Viktor] [in English] Take her to the chief. Yeah?
[Beni] Okay.
[woman] Are you hungry, Dickie?
[Roper] No. Thank you, Fats.
[phone ringing]
[Roper] Yes.
[Teddy] It’s me. Everything’s gone wrong. The Hong Kong investor. It was him. He killed Chico. He got away.
[Roper] I want his picture now.
[gunshot]
[Pine] Okay?
[Pine] Come on!
[dramatic music]
[music ends]
[ending theme]
