The Experts

A town that passes for Indian Springs, Nebraska trains potential Soviet spies to blend into American life. The residents speak perfect English and move about as if they were Americans, all while shaping cadets to fit into Western society. The project is designed to create operatives who can pass undetected in the United States.

KGB agent Cameron Smith recruits Travis and Wendell from New York to upgrade the town’s cultural scene. They are drugged en route and wake up in Russia, unaware they have left the United States. Their mission is framed as modernizing the town, not revealing its true purpose.

The two begin remodeling the club to look contemporary for the 1980s. They start making friends among the trainees and adapt to the town’s rhythms. They also become romantically entangled with Bonnie and Jill, two local trainees.

Smith brings in shipments of high-end accoutrements and entertainment to modernize the town’s culture. This effort draws opposition from Jones and Sparks, who fear losing control over the community. The clash exposes tensions between modernization and preserving the old order.

A Fourth of July party erupts into a lake-side celebration orchestrated by the newcomers. The revelers trespass at a local lake and drift toward a mapped line of danger. They stumble upon a hidden military base and realize they are in the Soviet Union, not America.

Bonnie reveals she loves Travis and agrees to help him, complicating loyalties. Jill, however, betrays them by reporting their intentions to authorities. The personal triangles intensify the political stakes of their situation.

Travis and Wendell are imprisoned and meet Yuri, the pilot who flew the cargo plane, now also incarcerated. They are pressured to renounce democracy and praise the Soviet system. The moment tests their commitment to America and each other.

The pair refuse to renounce their values and extol American life instead. Their defiance resonates with others, inspiring revolt and leading to the overthrow of the town’s leadership, including Smith and Bonnie. A tentative spark of freedom erupts amid the power vacuum.

A violent confrontation culminates in a chase, with Yuri forced to go out on the wing of a plane as it taxis down the runway. The expatriates seize the moment and escape by air, avoiding capture. The dramatic escape marks a definitive break with the town and its Soviet system.

The group lands in the United States and defects, becoming national headlines. Their defection signals the collapse of the clandestine operation that birthed the modernized town. The transition foreshadows a new, uncertain freedom.

Some time later, the town’s residents live it up in New York City, enjoying the fruits of their defection. Yet Travis feels uneasy, suspecting that they may be missing the life they left behind. The tension between assimilation and nostalgia lingers.

Realizing there could be an actual American town like the one in Russia, the group decides to relocate to the real Nebraska. They seek authenticity by moving away from the sanitized remake of American life. The move marks a quest for genuine belonging.

With Bonnie in tow, Travis and Wendell make their way back toward New York, this time embracing life as Americans in earnest. The journey closes a loop, but leaves questions about identity and belonging unresolved. They continue to carve out a new version of the American Dream.