After three years, here’s Steven Spielberg’s follow-up to Lincoln: Another historical drama about freedom, law, and essential American values. SMELL THE BOX OFFICE.

In Bridge of Spies, frequent Spielberg collaborator and star Tom Hanks plays James B. Donovan, an American lawyer recruited to negotiate with the Soviet Union for the release of Francis Gary Powers, the pilot of America’s U-2 spy plane, which was shot down over Russia in 1960. Call it “Saving Pilot Powers” (if you must). Here’s the full plot synopsis:

A dramatic thriller set against the backdrop of a series of historic events, DreamWorks Pictures/Fox 2000 Pictures’ Bridge of Spies tells the story of James Donovan, a Brooklyn lawyer who finds himself thrust into the center of the Cold War when the CIA sends him on the near-impossible task to negotiate the release of a captured American U-2 pilot.

In addition to Lincoln, there are also obvious similarities to Spielberg’s Amistad, another legal drama about an important court case from history that served as an avenue to explore American ideals. That film wound up being one of Spielberg’s lowest-grossing movies ever (it’s got the smallest domestic box-office gross of anything he’s made in the last 20 years). Bridge of Spies, though, has Hanks and Amy Ryan, which could help it come closer to Lincoln, which made $182 million in the U.S., pretty impressive numbers for a movie about a bunch of old politicians arguing.

Bridge of Spies opens in theaters in exactly one month, on October 16.

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