The criminal international organization T.H.R.U.S.H. steals the bomb H957 and demands $350 million, to be delivered within 72 hours by their former adversary, Napoleon Solo. This forces U.N.C.L.E., the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement, to reactivate the two top agents of its Section II, Solo and Illya Kuryakin, both of whom had left its ranks 15 years before and are now pursuing other lines of civilian work—Kuryakin as a fashion designer whose resignation was acrimonious and precipitated by a professional disaster, Solo as a marketer of computers and independent businessman.

Equipped in their original fashion, Solo and Kuryakin search for the bomb and attempt to close down permanently what proves to be a splinter T.H.R.U.S.H. group; the original organization had fragmented in 1968 after its failure in "The Seven Wonders of the World Affair" and has yet to regain the power to threaten worldwide law and order that it had possessed up to that time.

George Lazenby's cameo appearance as 'J.B.' – driving an Aston Martin and complete with an On Her Majesty's Secret Service name check – made 1983 the year of three Bonds, with the 'battle' at the box office between Roger Moore's sixth outing (Octopussy) and Sean Connery's return to the role after 12 years (in Never Say Never Again).

• Robert Vaughn as Napoleon Solo
• David McCallum as Illya Kuryakin
• Patrick Macnee as Sir John Raleigh
• Gayle Hunnicutt as Andrea Markovich
• Geoffrey Lewis as Janus
• Anthony Zerbe as Justin Sepheran
• Tom Mason as Benjamin Kowalski
• Keenan Wynn as Piers Castillian
• Simon Williams as Nigel Pennington-Smythe
• George Lazenby as J.B.

Producer and writer Michael Sloan, a longtime fan of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., based his script on a treatment he had written at age 19 during the series' original run.^[2] MGM who owns the rights had been interested in a theatrical version of the series until Sloan introduced the idea of a television film which resulted in MGM passing the project to their television division.^[2] MGM eventually lost interest in the project after a year of negotiations with CBS, but Sloan took the project to Viacom who purchased temporary rights to the series and made the deal with CBS wherein all rights would revert to MGM following telecast and theatrical engagements in Europe.^[2] Robert Short served as technical advisor on the film and like Sloan was also a fan of the original series and even provided a reel of footage from the original series for director Ray Austin to showcase the tone, balance, and structure of the series.^[2] Short had also acquired many props from the original series at an MGM auction 10 years prior and incorporated many of them in the movie.^[2]

Writing in The New York Times, critic John J. O'Connor reported that the protagonists "manage to get through the familiar array of car chases and other assorted thrills with their old deadpan sophistication intact," and "considering the passage of time, the two men are in remarkably good shape, although it's a touch difficult to believe grown, beautiful women cooing constantly about Illya's blue eyes," concluding that "it's all cleverly concocted fantasy, as taxing as your average comic strip."^[4] Critic Paul Mavis wrote in DVD Talk that the "iconic stars returned for this limp, unfocused comeback, but neither should have bothered, considering the end results," and "I was unfortunately reminded of the original series' wit and charm (as well as its wealth of serious/spoofy action) - elements all sadly lacking in this later lackluster affair," but noted that "when [Vaughn and McCallum] are on the screen together (and there are surprisingly few times that actually happens here - a big problem right there), it's obvious they're enjoying themselves, bouncing lines and knowing expressions off each other in a manner that approximates their previous duet act 15 years prior."^[5]

• Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E. at IMDb