The Manchurian Candidate 1962 Watch Full Movie

The Manchurian Candidate: A Thrilling Tale of Brainwashing and Betrayal

Soviet and Chinese soldiers capture a U.S. Army platoon during the Korean War, taking them to communist China. Three days later, Sergeant Raymond Shaw and Captain Bennett “Ben” Marco return to UN lines. Upon Marco’s recommendation, Shaw is awarded the Medal of Honor for saving his soldiers’ lives in combat, though two men were killed. Shaw returns to the U.S., where his mother, Eleanor Iselin, exploits his heroism to further the political career of her husband, Senator John Iselin. When asked to describe Shaw, two soldiers in his unit uniformly respond that he is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being they have ever known. In fact, Shaw is a strict, cold, unsympathetic loner hated by his men.

The Start of a Sinister Plan

After Marco is promoted to major and assigned to Army Intelligence, he has a recurring nightmare: a hypnotized Shaw blithely murders two soldiers from his platoon before an assembly of communist military leaders to demonstrate their revolutionary brainwashing technique. Marco learns that Allen Melvin, a fellow soldier, has the same nightmare. When Melvin and Marco separately identify identical photos of the two male communist leaders from their dreams, Army Intelligence agrees to investigate.

The Unraveling of Secrets

During captivity, Shaw was programmed as a sleeper agent, who obeys orders to kill and immediately forgets having done so. His heroism is a false memory implanted during the brainwashing. Agents trigger Shaw by suggesting he play solitaire; the queen of diamonds activates him. Meanwhile, Eleanor is masterminding John’s political ascent with his baseless claims that communists work at the Defense Department. To spite his mother and stepfather, Shaw takes a job at a newspaper published by Holborn Gaines, Iselin’s harshest critic. Communist agents later have Shaw murder Gaines to confirm that his brainwashing still works.

A Race Against Time

Chunjin, a North Korean agent who posed as a guide for Shaw’s platoon, arrives at Shaw’s apartment asking for work. The unsuspecting Shaw hires him as a valet and cook. Marco recognizes Chunjin when he visits Shaw; he violently attacks him and demands to know what happened during the platoon’s captivity. After Marco is arrested for assault, Eugenie “Rosie” Cheyney, an attractive young woman he met on the train, posts his bail.