The Girl in the Kremlin

Stalin undergoes plastic surgery to fake his death and escape accountability for his crimes. After Dr. Petrov transforms his appearance beyond recognition, Stalin's handlers publicly announce his death while secretly relocating him to a hidden hideout. This allows the dictator to disappear while maintaining control through his remaining loyalists.

Earlier, the film shows Stalin selecting Dasha and humiliating her, establishing his paranoid and cruel nature that would drive him to extreme measures for survival.

Stalin orders Greta's head shaved as punishment for her perceived disloyalty or failure to prevent Steve and Lili's escape. When Greta attacks Lili in the monastery, her wig comes off revealing her shaved head, confirming Stalin's cruel control over those in his captivity.

The film earlier shows Stalin ordering Dasha's hair shaved, establishing a pattern of this humiliation as a tool of power.

Lili and Steve deliberately broadcast that Stalin is alive to force him out of hiding. The broadcast also names Steve as the one who discovered the scheme, which they hope will provoke Stalin into making a mistake. The plan works, Stalin hears the broadcast and orders Steve killed in retaliation.

This plan connects to earlier scenes where Steve learns about Stalin's concealed location through Dasha's claims.

The nun on the train is Tata Brun, an assassin disguised in religious attire. She was ordered to kill Steve in exchange for permission to see her exiled family. After Steve subdue her and removes her disguise, they agree to part without violence, though she later assists Steve in locating Stalin.

The nun is first noticed wearing combat boots, which contradicts the expected appearance of a nun and signals danger.

Jacob, Stalin's son who has been living in secret since WWII and who despises his father's regime, forces Stalin into his car at gunpoint. During the chase, Stalin attempts to reason with Jacob and even shoots at him to make him stop. Jacob deliberately steers the car over a cliff, killing himself and his father rather than let Stalin escape or be captured.

Earlier, Jacob explicitly tells Steve and Lili that he hates Stalin and his regime, establishing his intense animosity toward his father.

Mischa and Steve are captured at the monastery and placed in a cell. Later, while escaping, Mischa uses his prosthetic arm to bludgeon a guard and helps Steve subdue Greta and free Lili. However, Greta then bursts in and kills Mischa before Steve ultimately kills Greta in self-defense.

Mischa's one-armed status is established early in the film, making his unique fighting method with the prosthetic arm a logical payoff.

Stalin orders Steve Anderson killed after hearing the radio broadcast announcing that Stalin is still alive and naming Steve as the person who discovered the scheme. Furious that his concealment has been exposed, Stalin dispatches his henchman Igor Smetka to eliminate Steve.

This follows directly from Lili and Steve's plan to force Stalin into action through the broadcast.

Dasha, a former prisoner whom Stalin tortured and who is now confined to a mental hospital, claims that Stalin has been surgically altered and is living clandestinely with Greta as his nurse. This revelation provides the crucial clue that Stalin is not dead but hidden in disguise.

The film opens with Stalin selecting Dasha from other prisoners and humiliating her, establishing her connection to him.

Steve, Mischa, and Lili study old films of Stalin to learn his mannerisms, likely as preparation for either impersonating him, confronting him, or gathering intelligence. Before the screening, Steve spots Igor outside, signaling that Stalin's agents are aware of their location and movements.

This preparation underscores the danger of their mission and foreshadows the imminent attack.

After capturing a Communist agent who previously tortured Tata, they torture him into confessing that Stalin is hiding in the Greek mountains. They then travel there and learn from Count Molda that a mysterious group took over a nearby monastery years earlier, which leads them to discover Stalin's hideout.

Tata's connection to the agent provides leverage for obtaining this critical information about Stalin's location.

Count Molda appears as a bistro owner who tells Steve and Mischa about the monastery. Later, it is revealed that Molda is actually Stalin in disguise. He is the one who orders the capture and torture of Steve, Mischa, and Tata at the monastery.

Molda's mysterious information about the monastery and his presence in the mountains raise suspicion about his true identity.