Description
UCLA college student Jonathan Moore (Anthony Edwards) is playing a game called "Gotcha" (popular on mid-1980s college campuses as "Assassin" or "Tag"), wherein the players are all assigned a mock "hit" on another player by use of a harmless paintball, dart, or water gun. Moore and his apartment roommate Manolo (Nick Corri) go on a vacation to Paris, France. After touring some of Paris, Moore meets Sasha Banicek (Linda Fiorentino), a Czechoslovakian girl, in a cafe. It is implied that Jonathan has sex with Sasha, losing his virginity.
Jonathan decides to leave Manolo (who is heading to Spain) and go with Sasha to West Berlin to spend more time with her. Jonathan believes that he is in love with Sasha. There, Jonathan and Sasha continue to have sex and even go to an Oktoberfest beer gathering. One night, Sasha tells Jonathan that she has to go to East Berlin to pick up a package, as she works as a courier. One night after arriving in East Berlin, Sasha leaves their hotel room and walks to dark street corner. There, Sasha meets a German man who tells her the location of the pickup of her package. Meanwhile, Sasha was being monitored by a Soviet agent, who was sitting in a car at a distance. During the day, Sasha tells Jonathan that if she gives him a certain message, it means that he must immediately leave East Berlin. At a cafe, Sasha gives Jonathan a package and says that a strudel is inside. A little later, Sasha tells Jonathan to meet her at the butcher shop near their hotel. All of a sudden, a Soviet agent begins to chase after her. She is ordered by the German man to use Jonathan to unknowingly get the package over to West Berlin, so the next time they are together she slips an object into his backpack. Later, Sasha is taken by the Soviet agent and East German secret police.
Jonathan goes to Checkpoint Charlie to cross the heavily fortified border into West Berlin. At the East German customs search, Jonathan is stripped of his clothes and his backpack is searched (but the unknown object is not found). Meanwhile, Sasha is stripped and given a cavity search for possible espionage evidence. The Soviet agent arrives at the border crossing to search for Jonathan, who has crossed the border safely before he could be captured. Once in West Berlin, Jonathan feels liberated by the Westernized society. In the hotel, Jonathan receives a message from Sasha to meet him at a specified location. Jonathan finds out that his hotel room was broken into and robbed of his traveler's checks. Soviet agents eventually find Jonathan in West Berlin at the location Sasha gave him, where he meets a woman who asks for the object Sasha gave him, so he gives her the strudel. She tells him that is not the object, but is shot by the Soviets, who chase him throughout a public park. Jumping into a water canal, Jonathan manages to escape from the Soviets and stumbles upon a German punk rock group headed for Hamburg, who offer him a ride to the airport.
The punk rock group successfully get Jonathan to the airport (using full-face makeup to sneak him past a checkpoint) and Jonathan finally arrives in Los Angeles Tom Bradley International Airport and to his apartment. Soon, a band of Soviet agents also arrive in Los Angeles. Once home, Jonathan stumbles upon a film canister in his backpack - the object planted by Sasha. Jonathan visits his parents and tells them what happened in Germany, but they do not believe any of it and think Jonathan is on drugs. Jonathan decides to call the FBI, who refuse to help him and tell him to call the Central Intelligence Agency for help. He does this, telling them about Sasha and the film. Jonathan returns to find his apartment broken into and looted.
The CIA officer tells Jonathan to give them the photo film canister. At the Los Angeles headquarters of the CIA, Jonathan spots Sasha, who looks like she is working there. Jonathan is able to arrange a meeting with Sasha, and uses Manolo's help to separate her from the CIA agents. Sasha admits that she is Cheryl Brewster, a CIA agent originally from Pittsburgh. Out of nowhere, the Soviet agents begin to chase Jonathan and Sasha on the UCLA campus. Jonathan eliminates all the Soviets with a tranquilizer gun which he gets from the campus veterinary sciences building. The Soviets are arrested, the CIA agents thank Jonathan for his (indirect) help in obtaining the film, and Cheryl/Sasha tells him she wants to continue their relationship.
After they part, Jonathan talks to a pretty student who rebuffed him at the start of the movie, and she rebuffs him coldly. As she walks away, he aims the tranquilizer pistol and shoots her in the rear.
