The True Story Behind The Brink of War

Jeff Daniels as President Ronald Reagan —Courtesy of Angel Studios The Reykjavik Summit —when U.S.

President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev talked in person in 1986—is not known as an iconic bit of American history.

But the face-to-face conversation between the leaders, held over Oct.

11 and 12 in the Icelandic capital, proved to be an important step toward the end of the Cold War .

The summit (or meeting, depending on who you ask) came after “an unexpected invitation from Gorbachev,” says Pete Souza , the former Presidential photographer for Reagan.

At the time the Reagan administration refused to call it a summit.

“Before two leaders like that have a summit meeting, there's lots of prep work that goes into it,” recalls Souza.

“But this was very last minute.

The Reagan administration went to great effort leading up to Reykjavik, to not call it a summit.

They’d say, ‘It’s just a meeting, and we’re not characterizing it as a summit.’” The summit’s purpose was to discuss the arms controls between the two nations, in hopes of bringing an end to the long-lasting threat of nuclear war hanging over both countries, and the world as a whole.

Over 30 hours, Reagan and Gorbachev fiercely debated in an effort to bring peace and the end of the Cold War.

Now, a new film from writer-director Michael Russell Gunn, The Brink of War , gives this historical moment a worthy spotlight.

The film stars Jeff Daniels as Reagan, Jared Harris as Gorbachev, and J.K.

Simmons as Secretary of State George Shultz.