During the Cold War, the Soviet Union captures U.S. pilot Francis Gary Powers after shooting down his U-2 spy plane. Sentenced to 10 years in prison, Powers' only hope is New York lawyer James Donovan (Tom Hanks), recruited by a CIA operative to negotiate his release. Donovan boards a plane to Berlin, hoping to win the young man's freedom through a prisoner exchange. If all goes well, the Russians would get Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance), the convicted spy who Donovan defended in court.Bridge of Spies / Film synopsis

The famous “streak” was created using a Japanese calligraphy brush, painted across an oval, which represents the physical “touchstone,” a tool traditionally used to test the quality of precious metals. For a list of films made by Touchstone Pictures, see Features.

With Touchstone Pictures (Sorted by Popularity Ascending)

• The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) PG | 76 min | Animation, Family, Fantasy.
• The Prestige (2006)
• 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
• Starship Troopers (1997)
• Dead Poets Society (1989)
• Pretty Woman (1990)
• Apocalypto (2006)
• Spy (2015)

Bridge of Spies is the true story of three extraordinary characters – William Fisher, alias Rudolf Abel, a British born KGB agent arrested by the FBI in New York City and jailed as a Soviet superspy for trying to steal America's most precious nuclear secrets; Gary Powers, the American U-2 pilot who was captured when ...

In 1962, at the behest of the CIA, Donovan handed his imprisoned client over to the Russians in exchange for the captured pilot of a U–2 spy plane shot down over Sverdlovsk. The swap took place at the Berlin bridge connecting communist East Berlin to the West - thus the title. The movie tries to be true to life.

Glienicker Brücke Glienicker Brücke is a bridge over the river Havel connecting the district of Wannsee in western Berlin with the Potsdam, the capital of the state of Brandenburg. It has its place in the history books because it served several times as the site where captured Warsaw Pact agents would be exchanged for Western spies.

The only difference between the touchstone and the other pebbles was that it was warm to the touch, and all the others felt cold. A young man who had heard many stories about the touchstone decided to sell everything he had and to travel to the shores of the Black Sea in search of the valuable stone.

touchstone, black siliceous stone used to ascertain the purity of gold and silver. Assaying by “touch” was one of the earliest methods employed to assess the quality of precious metals. The metal to be assayed is rubbed on the touchstone, adjacent to the rubbing on the touchstone of a sample of a metal of known purity.

THE TOUCHSTONE is a teen comedy about a student on a high school field trip who uncovers a relic that makes whoever has it irresistible to virgins, and the disastrous consequences that occur when he and his friends try to use it to get the girls of their dreams.

The touchstone was used during the Harappa period of the Indus Valley civilization ca. 2600–1900 BC for testing the purity of soft metals. It was also used in Ancient Greece. The touchstone allowed anyone to easily and quickly determine the purity of a metal sample.

The name of the film refers to the Glienicke Bridge, which connects Potsdam with Berlin, where the prisoner exchange took place. The film was an international co-production of the United States and Germany. Bridge of Spies was shot under the working title of St. James Place.

What is an Agent? An agent is another word for a spy: someone who volunteers or is recruited to pass secrets to an intelligence agency, sometimes taking risks to spy on their own country. They may be recruited through money, ideology, coercion, greed, or for another reason, such as love (human beings are complicated).