----
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The ending of the film makes triumphant use of Julio Iglesias' cover of "La mer."
* BigLippedAlligatorMoment:
** Prideaux snapping a bird's neck after it flies through his classroom fireplace and frightens his students. Justified in the original novel, as it foreshadows how [[spoiler:Prideaux would kill Haydon]], but it ends up being rather baffling in the movie, where [[spoiler:Prideaux [[BoomHeadshot nails Haydon with a rifle]] instead]].
** Lacon buttering a toast really, really loudly during his meeting with Bland and Alleline.
* CantUnHearIt: Creator/AlecGuinness as George Smiley. In the audiobook voiced by Creator/MichaelJayston, he appears to be doing an Alec Guinness impression for Smiley's voice.
* FanNickname: Due to being directed by [[Film/LetTheRightOneIn Tomas Alfredson]], this film gained the nickname of "Get the Wrong One Out"
* HilariousInHindsight: [[Creator/ColinFirth Bill Haydon's]] given role in the movie is the "tailor". It wouldn’t be the [[Film/KingsmanTheSecretService last time]] he would play a spy associated with tailors.
** When George Smiley first gets the call from Peter Guillam that will bring him out of retirement, he's watching a program on UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill. Six years later, Creator/GaryOldman would play [[Film/DarkestHour2017 Churchill]].
* NarrowedItDownToTheGuyIRecognize: A lot of viewers guessed that the traitor is [[spoiler:Creator/ColinFirth's]] character purely on the strength of him being [[spoiler:Colin Firth]]. The fact that the actor [[spoiler:received second billing]] on the movie poster may have also been something of a giveaway.
* NightmareFuel:
** A quick shot of Irina's husband sitting in a bath full of blood with his guts ripped out.
** The ColdBloodedTorture that [[spoiler:Prideaux]] is put through is pretty brutal, including being forced to listen to a tape that is nothing but intermittent white noise and screaming. Even worse is the fact that his torturers seem utterly bored by the whole thing, [[PunchClockVillain like they just want to get it over with]]. Of course there's also the fact that [[spoiler:Prideaux]] is ForcedToWatch as [[spoiler:Irina is shot in the head in front of him, and PrettyLittleHeadshots does '''NOT''' apply here]]. No wonder he was so fucked up by the experience.
* OneSceneWonder:
** Joss Ackland as affable Jerry Westerby and Creator/NigelStock as passive aggressive gossip Roddy Martindale each have a single extended scene where they do get plenty of dialogue in opposite Smiley. Martindale, in particular, acts as a bit of exposition for the viewer. Creator/PatrickStewart however doesn't even have a single line of dialogue.
** Ian Bannen is prominent for the first half of episode one and then he disappears entirely until his pivotal return at the very end.
** Creator/PatrickStewart as Karla in this miniseries and later in ''Smiley's People''. He doesn't even speak a single word during his one scene in each series, but is still captivating. It doesn't hurt that for Sci-Fi fans, the scene is basically [[Franchise/StarWars Obi-Wan Kenobi]] and [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Captain Picard]] sharing the screen.
* RetroactiveRecognition:
** Smiley goes on and on about Karla being an unremarkable, unmemorable man and then we meet him and it's ''Jean Luc Picard''. At the time Creator/PatrickStewart was a well-respected character actor, but one who was by no means a household name. He was best known for stage work and for a supporting role in ''Series/IClaudius''.
** Creator/AlanRickman played a hotel concierge in ''Literature/SmileysPeople'', appearing for barely thirty seconds. [[HilariousInHindsight His character jokes]] if the bag Smiley drops off [[Film/DieHard is going to blow up]].
* {{Squick}}: In the film adaptation.
** The baby continuing to suckle on the woman's breast after she's been shot dead.
** After [[spoiler:Irina is shot in the head, there's a lingering shot of Prideaux doing a ThousandYardStare at the wall, which is covered in Irina's brain matter and blood. The shot ends with a piece of her brain peeling off the wall with a squishy ''plop'' sound.]]
* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Peter Hitchens' [[http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2011/09/tinker-tailor-soldier-travesty.html review of the film]] was essentially a point-by-point list of every alteration from the novel, and why each was a change for the worse.
----