ST. PETERSBURG -- Just when you thought it was safe to come out of the Cold War, a new breed of spy thriller has arrived to drive you back into your bomb shelter.


"Bullet to Beijing," which brings back Michael Caine's ordinary-guy spy Harry Palmer, plays on the trendy threats of the 1990s: a Soviet super-weapon in the hands of fanatical North Koreans, next to whom yesterday's Politburo hardliners seem as frightening as a birdwatchers' society.


The first Western-style action flick to be shot in St. Petersburg, "Bullet to Beijing" -- heralded as a light action job that relies as much on wit as hit -- will premiere in cinemas in the United States and Europe in mid-1995 after a showing on March 17 at the Cannes Film Festival.


Filming ended in November, complete with a high-speed chase in Ladas down Nevsky Prospect.


Harry Palmer -- the bumbling, cockney antithesis of Ian Fleming's suave 007 -- catapulted Caine into stardom in the 1965 "Ipcress File," which was followed by "Funeral in Berlin" (1966) and "Billion Dollar Brain" (1967).


Based, like the other three Harry Palmer films, on a story by Len Deighton, "Bullet to Beijing" builds on another unforeseen consequence of the New World Disorder: the unemployed spy who turns free-lancer to survive.


"The whole assumption is that the Cold War is over and all the spies are out of work. But their skills can be used to combat crime. That's the message, if there is one," said the film's producer, Harry Alan Towers.


While bringing a character back from the past for a plot about today, "Bullet to Beijing" also passes the spy torch along to a new generation.


Jason Connery, the son of Caine's good friend Sean -- as in Bond, James Bond -- stars as a Russian mafia soldier with an English prep school education who becomes Harry's partner.


"It's a very different concept than the Bond film, as it was before," said the soft-spoken Connery, 31, who has experience in film, television and theater, "I think that there's the inevitable contrast between Dad and me all the time.


"All the way down the line, the persona of James Bond is very large. My father finished playing him in the series 23 years ago. Obviously it's still very large in people's minds."


The irony of Sean Connery's son playing Harry's partner is just one of the twists producers hope will make the film a success at the box office.


In fact, the producers were confident enough in their creation to simultaneously shoot "Midnight in St. Petersburg," a pay-TV sequel to be aired next year on Showtime. The double-whammy approach shaves around 10 percent off production costs, Towers said.


The two films are among the first post-Soviet projects involving Russian as well as Western financing. And in contrast to major films like "The Russia House," they feature Russian actors in major roles. Film buffs will also note that they are the first joint movie project among British, Canadian and Russian companies. In "Bullet to Beijing," the collapse of the East Bloc means budget cuts for Britain's MI5 and early retirement for Harry Palmer, despite nearly 30 years of distinguished spying.


But, even if Parliament hadn't noticed, the world still needs good spies, and Harry quickly gets hired for a private job in -- where else? -- St. Petersburg. Harry's new boss, Alex Alexovich (played by Michael Gambon) is a former communist official, now Russian nationalist cum mafioso. Among other things, Alex is the chairman of a privatized genetic weapons research facility, which is missing one of its doomsday devices.


Alex needs Harry to recover the stolen genetic weapon, the Alorax -- aka "The Red Death" -- which is on its way by train to the North Korean Embassy in Beijing.


Followed by Alex's henchman Nick (Jason Connery), Nick's girlfriend Natasha (Mia Sara) and a slew of Chechens and other mobsters who have been taking potshots at him since he landed in Russia, Harry hops on the "Bullet to Beijing," as the train is known, for a cross-continental chase.


Old CIA contacts and other Cold War castaways offer tips along the twisting way as Harry tries to find the Alorax and figure out who his real friends are.


"It has been a journey down memory lane in some respects ... there are certain elements in the script that we've put back in that will jog memories," said Connery.


One of those flashes from the past is an appearance by Sue Lloyd, Harry's leading lady from "Ipcress File."


In the pay-TV sequel, "Midnight in St. Petersburg," Harry and Nick -- who have set up shop in Moscow as private investigators -- continue their spies-versus-criminal-underworld gig, chasing down a kilogram of stolen weapons-grade plutonium and a cache of priceless art filched from the Hermitage.


To complete the Wild East concept, the bad guys have also kidnapped Nick's girlfriend, who is played by St. Petersburg native Tatiana Jackson, an emigr? ballet dancer who lives in Montreal.


Connery -- who has played in films such as "Lords of Discipline" and appeared on stage as Petruchio in "The Taming of the Shrew" -- said that Harry Palmer fans will not be disappointed with their old hero.


"Michael said that when he put the glasses on, suddenly he felt so many things happen to him, and he felt the voice come back and the walk and he remembered many things about Henry," Connery said, sitting backstage at Lenfilm on a pile of scrap lumber under the watchful gaze of a ferocious-looking, stuffed bear.


"This film is much in the Harry Palmer style, whereby it's not full of stunts and special effects. It's about a man who reacts very much the way a member of the public would react to the situations which he finds himself in," said Connery. "It's very human."


The film is a debut of sorts for St. Petersburg, which like most of Russia -- except maybe the Kremlin -- is still unfamiliar territory to most Western moviegoers.


"It's a wonderful city for shooting films, and most people haven't seen it," said Matthew Duda, a senior vice president with Showtime Networks, which underwrote much of the project.


"There are whole stretches along the Neva which are unchanged," said Towers, noting St. Petersburg's potential for period pieces, "You can throw in a troop of cavalry and you don't have to pull down the Coca-Cola signs, yet."