Taglines: “Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his teacher” (Leonardo Da Vinci)
Set in 1991, Spy Game depicts the U.S. and Chinese Governments on the verge of a major trade agreement, with the American President due to pay a visit to China to seal the deal. The Central Intelligence Agency gets word that their Special Activities Division operative Tom Bishop (Brad Pitt) has been captured trying to free an Englishwoman, Elizabeth Hadley (Catherine McCormack), from a Chinese prison near Su Chou (Suzhou).
Bishop is being questioned under torture and will be executed within twenty-four hours unless he is claimed by the U.S. Government, so they scramble to decide what to doif they claim Bishop as an agent, they risk destroying the trade agreement. Exacerbating the situation is the fact that Bishop was operating in a “rogue” capacity without permission from the Agency.
In an attempt to quickly deal with the situation, CIA executives call in Nathan Muir (Robert Redford), an aging mid-level case officer on his last day before retirement, and the man who recruited Bishop. Although they tell Muir that they simply need him to act as a “stop gap” to fill in some holes in their background files, the officials are in reality hoping that what he gives them is the smoking gun they need to justify letting Bishop die.
Realizing as much, Muir attempts to save Bishop by leaking the story to CNN through a contact in Hong Kong, believing that the CIA will rescue Tom once a public outcry puts pressure on them to do so. Unfortunately for Muir, the tactic only stalls them, as a phone call to the FCC from a high ranking executive results in CNN retracting the story.
During the debriefing, referred to above, Muir describes how he recruited Bishop into the MACV-SOG while the latter was an Marine Corps sniper in Vietnam. Muir also discusses their tour of duty in Berlin in 1975. Both sub-plots are given extensive time in the film. Considerable time is also devoted to Muir and Bishop’s spy work in Lebanon that culminated to a plot similar to that of the 1985 Beirut car bombing the aftermath of which led to the last time the two saw each other face to face.
With his plan quashed, Muir resorts to far more dangerous tactics, secretly creating a forged urgent operational directive from the CIA Director to commence Operation Dinner Out: a daring rescue mission spearheaded by U.S. Navy SEALs which Bishop laid the groundwork for as a ‘Plan B’ to his own rescue attempt. Using US$282,000 of his life savings and a misappropriated file on Chinese coastline satellite imagery, Muir bribes a Chinese energy official to cut power to the prison for thirty minutes, during which time the SEAL rescue team retrieves Bishop and Hadley.
Spy Game is a 2001 American spy film directed by Tony Scott and starring Robert Redford, Brad Pitt, Catherine McCormack, Stephen Dillane, Larry Bryggman, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Matthew Marsh, Todd Boyce and Michael Paul Chan. The film grossed $62 million in the United States and $143 million worldwide and received mostly positive reviews from film critics.
Spy Game (2001)
Oirected by: Tony Scott
Starring: Robert Redford, Brad Pitt, Catherine McCormack, Stephen Dillane, Larry Bryggman, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Matthew Marsh, Todd Boyce, Michael Paul Chan
Screenplay by: Michael Frost Beckner, David Arata
Production Design by; Norris Spencer
Cinematography by: Norris Spencer
Costume Design by: Louise Frogley
Set Decoration by: Jille Azis
Art Direction by: Gary Freeman, John Hill
MPAA Rating: R for language, some violence and brief sexuality.
Music by: Harry Gregson-Williams
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
Release Date: November 21, 2001
Views: 280
