# Are the Falcon and the Snowman still inside?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-falcon-and-the-snowman-still-inside/25810>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 17, 2000, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-falcon-and-the-snowman-still-inside/25810 "2000-07-17T07:08:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![G.Nome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c89c15/32.png) [@G.Nome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G.Nome)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2000, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-falcon-and-the-snowman-still-inside/25810/1 "2000-07-17T07:08:31Z")

</div>

The 1985 film The Falcon and the Snowman was based on a true story about two students who had summer jobs working for the CIA. They were given life imprisonment for passing secrets to the Russians. Are these guys still in prison? There is probably no reason (other than the end of the cold war) to believe they got parole. Sean Penn and Timothy Hutton just made me hope so. I risk brain damage when pondering the realities of a real life sentence - especially for people that young.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2000, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-falcon-and-the-snowman-still-inside/25810/2 "2000-07-17T07:55:20Z")

</div>

Their names are Christopher Boyce and Andrew Daulton Lee. Boyce was sentenced to 40 years, but he escaped and robbed some banks before being recaptured. Lee was sentenced to life.

[http://www.msnbc.msn.com/modules/espionage/1979.htm](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/modules/espionage/1979.htm)  
[http://www.fbi.gov/programs/lab/history/hespion.htm](http://www.fbi.gov/programs/lab/history/hespion.htm)

As far as I know, they are both still in prison.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![G.Nome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c89c15/32.png) [@G.Nome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G.Nome)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2000, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-falcon-and-the-snowman-still-inside/25810/3 "2000-07-17T08:59:07Z")

</div>

Thank you very much. My searching resulted in movie reviews which seem to indicate the film’s intention was to portray these people in a sympathetic light. You can’t say that about these links - although you could guess from them that either the Falcon or the Snowman may still get letters from women.