Spy Game

Plot synopsis:
In 1991, the governments of the U.S. and China are on the verge of a major trade agreement, with the President due to visit China to seal the deal. The CIA learns that its asset Tom Bishop has been captured trying to free a Briton, Elizabeth Hadley, from a People's Liberation Army prison in Suzhou near Shanghai. Bishop is being questioned under torture and will be executed in 24 hours unless the U.S. government claims him. If the CIA claims Bishop as an agent, they risk jeopardizing the trade agreement. Exacerbating Bishop's situation is the fact that he was operating without permission from the Agency.
Attempting to deal quickly with the situation, CIA executives call in Nathan Muir, an aging mid-level case officer on his last day before retirement and the man who recruited Bishop. Although they tell Muir they simply need him to act as a "stop gap" to fill in some holes in their background files, the officials are hoping he will give them the pretext they need to justify letting Bishop die. The CIA executives are unaware that Muir had been tipped off about Bishop's capture prior to arriving at CIA headquarters by fellow CIA veteran Harry Duncan, for whom Bishop had been working an operation in Hong Kong. Muir first attempts to save Bishop by leaking the story to CNN through a contact in Hong Kong, believing that public pressure would force the CIA to rescue Bishop. The tactic only stalls them, however, and is stymied when a phone call to the FCC from CIA Deputy Director Charles Harker results in CNN retracting the story.
During the debriefing, Muir describes how he recruited Bishop for an operation when Bishop was a Scout Sniper during the Vietnam War. Muir also discusses their 1976 tour of duty in Berlin, where Bishop was tasked with procuring East German assets, as well as Bishop's spy work in Beirut in 1985 during the War of the Camps, the latter being the last time the two saw each other. During the mission in Lebanon, Bishop met Hadley, and the two began developing romantic feelings. However, it is revealed that Hadley was involved in a bombing of the Chinese embassy in Britain, causing her to flee the country. Fearing that Bishop's feelings for Hadley might compromise his cover and the mission, Muir tips off the Chinese to Hadley's location in return for freeing an arrested U.S. diplomat. Chinese agents kidnap Hadley, and Bishop cuts all ties to Muir when he discovers his involvement. After learning Hadley was the target of Bishop's rescue attempt, Muir finally realizes that he has greatly underestimated Bishop's feelings for her.
Running out of time, Muir secretly creates a forged urgent operational directive from the CIA director to commence Operation Dinner Out, a rescue mission to be spearheaded by Commander Wiley's SEAL team, for which Bishop had laid the groundwork as a "Plan B" for his own rescue attempt. Using $282,000 of his life savings and a misappropriated file on Chinese coastline satellite imagery, Muir enlists Duncan's help in bribing a Chinese energy official to cut power to the prison for 30 minutes, during which time the SEAL rescue team retrieves Bishop and Hadley.
Bishop, who is rescued 15 minutes before his scheduled execution, realizes Muir was behind his rescue when he recognizes the name of the plan to rescue him, Operation Dinner Out: a reference to a birthday gift that Bishop gave Muir while they were in Lebanon. When the CIA officials are belatedly informed of the rescue, Muir has already left the building and is seen driving off into the countryside.

Tags: suspenseful, intrigue, murder, violence, flashback

Review:
While Spy Game is so fast-paced that it's difficult to keep up the first time around, I think that's what makes it such a great DVD.There are performances in this movie that defy description.
Brad Pitt also does an amazing job, but Redford steals the whole movie.I had to re-watch Spy Game three times before I felt I got a complete understanding of everything going on.
Scott also shows us that he's stayed with the times: he employs the full array of modern camera tricks like fast motion, reverse zooms and funky lenses but in a way that actually makes the film better instead of being an annoying distraction.
The distinction is important because if you think of this as a traditional spy movie (maybe like the Bourne Identity or Supremacy) it has two obvious flaws for the genre: the plot is very simple (maybe predictable) and there's no bad guy, no one to kill or to revenge; there's also almost no genuine action, and, as far as I can remember, Bishop (Brad Pitt) only fires one weapon in the whole movie.
Nathan Muir (Redford) is a retiring CIA officer who learns that his former protégé Tom Bishop (Pitt) has been captured while attempting a prison rescue in China and will be executed shortly.
Spy Game is funny,interesting and action of first category.The story is about the rescue of Tom Bishop(played by Brad Pitt)a spy who is in jail in a prison in China.Everything happens in a terrible time when the US is in negotiations of peace with China.So the CIA doesn't mean to save the body of the agent, who is ward, of Nathan Muir(Redford,the best in the picture).So Muir has to rescue Bishop in 24 hours so he's going to be executed by the chineses.The story is all told in flashbacks.But Tony Scott was very competent telling the story in a very modern way,as usual!He is used to do a very interesting game with the cameras.Showing quick scenes and a fast rythman.The story is incredible and you won't be disapointed!If you liked Enemy of the State which was made by the same director you'll like a lot this motion picture.Two thumbs up!!!.
Spy Game is what happens when professionals in the business come together to make an intelligent, masterfully crafted thinking man's actioner that as a viewer you can have complete confidence in while viewing -- that's a rare thing these days in Hollywood.
Tony delivers something I would have expected from brother Ridley -- a set of images about images:--the photographic and editing style is one of successive photographs often shifted/zoomed with the shutter click; some black and whites, many color deprived.--the hero's cover story is as a photo journalist and his photos are shown the same as the CIA's, Redford's recollections, and the 'narrator's.'--The agency is primarily about images in real life, images and action and that's self-referentially played up here.
Pitt has been working hard in relatively minor but challenging roles and the results show.The only real complaints are the clumsy plot mechanics: the last day before retirement -- a clear 24 hour to doom clock -- a wily and complete outwitting of the pencilnecks -- all the CIA analysts and technicians as outwittable dimmies -- a senior character says 'get everything we have on so and so' and 10 seconds later a secretary appears with the files in multiple copies -- a helicopter is shot down: it disappears behind the trees and then we see a fireball.
Spy Game: Robert Redford, Brad Pitt, Catherine McCormack, Stephen Dillane.
You can rely on Robert Redford and Brad Pitt for polished performances and action director Tony Scott (Crimson Tide, Enemy Of The State, True Romance, Top Gun) will always keep the pace of a movie galloping along, but will the mix necessary produce a quality movie?Spy Game is essentially about the foibles of humanity.
Nathan Muir (Redford) is on his last day as a spy with the CIA when his protégéé Tom Bishop (Pitt) gets nabbed on an unauthorised mission trying to break someone out of a Chinese Prison.
We are treated to a series of extended flashbacks to Vietnam, Berlin and Beirut which chronicle Muir and Bishop's relationship.Spy Game is mostly a boys own story with lots of explosions showing smart men outwitting the opposition.
Spy Game certainly surfs sweetly on American patriotism.Spy Game is predictably interesting though mainly because of Robert Redford who still has that million dollar smile and Brad Pitt who mixes boyish charm with a slight degree of angst.Tony Scott's film making style however really needs to slow down.
It is refreshing to watch an older Robert Redford pitting his acting skills against a younger Brad Pitt in this spy thriller movie.
Both of them acted very well despite the sketchy plot.To me, the storyline is pretty straight-forward: A retiring CIA operative, Nathan Muir (Robert Redford) learned that his protégé, Tom Bishop (Brad Pitt), had been arrested in China as a result of a botched rescue attempt of his girl-friend.
That relationship spanned across a time line of about twenty years, from the Vietnam War in the 70's, to the end of the cold war in Berlin during the 80's & then to the mean streets of Beirut in the 90's.The movie moves on to show how Muir had taught Bishop all the skills (or dirty tricks?) of spycraft...how to case a restaurant, fix a radio,...to be callous, look at the big picture...to stay remote...to sell out people if that's of use...to kill.There is no typical high-octane action sequences in this spy thriller movie, except for a heart-pounding escape scene in a China prison.Throughout the movie, one can see how Muir had to use his wits & all the skills (or dirty tricks?) he had learned while working for the CIA to out-smart the CIA's top echelon as well as his fellow CIA operatives to mount a personally-financed rescue mission.I really enjoyed watching his brilliant machinations as he moved from scene to scene in the movie.
you can find a lot of pairs of contradictions.to me, the most touching battle is the one between the soft part of their (Brad Pitt & Robert Redford) heart and the iron rules of the spy game.glad their heart won out.was also relieved to see in the movie how we earthlings might be, after all, more than machines, although I still like the poignant remark by Kurt Vonnegut, "Tralfamadorians, of course, say that every creature and plant in the Universe is a machine.
Redford is too slick for words, and only he could deliver the lines as believably.Spy movies tend to be flashy and sexy--either James Bond or Jason Bourne--and for good reason: they put butts in seats.
The most interesting and remarkable part of "Spy Game" is the opportunity to observe how much Brad Pitt resembles Robert Redford in his (much) younger days.
The rest is a fatuous and banal waste of time (I saw it on a transcontinental flight and had no choice but to suffer through it).The movie seems to have been thrown together simply as a vanity piece for Mr. Redford, who walks through the very familiar role of the "renegade" CIA man, reluctantly forced into doing good and outsmarting the bad guys (at the CIA of course).
Mr. Redford's character looks remarkably the same in scenes supposed to be thirty years apart (Vietnam in the late '60s and ultimately during his final days before retirement from the CIA in the '90s).
Brad Pitt's character does not appear to age at all from a young sergeant in Vietnam (about 20 years old) to a CIA "contact employee" who would thus be at least in his mid-forties during the film's setting in the 1990's.
The film's producers and directors seem to be of the opinion that movie fans there to see poster-boys Redford and Pitt will overlook the preposterously flimsy storyline, and lack of any coherent plot.
He tells the story in a fast manner but with more incidences which sometimes bores us.I always felt more scenes like training Brad Pitt and recruiting him in Vietnam and Germany are just added to fill the frames of Tonys fast moving rolls:-) But the fantasy in getting ON last minute by Redford to save his ex-recruit is quite interesting.
The subsequent actions add pace to the film and finally when Redford uses his life savings for everything, its too touching.This story paints the inner conscience, the completeness of ones life and feelings of a man for another.
A finely carved out plot coupled with solid direction , the movie stands out in all the known departments of film making.An unconventional spy thriller in that almost all the espionage activities are shown in an offhand way having no direct bearing on the main progression of the movie.With a neat little collection of actors and a rather handsome assortment of supporting cast the movie surely captivates one till the last moment..
The scenes of Redford talking with the officials is very smart and captivating as you try and figure out what is going on in the heads of all involved.Over all this movie has good light action, good plot, smart and entertaining actors, smart dialog and good cinematography.
If you like spy, government conspiracy, light action, action-drama movies, Brad Pitt and Robert Redford, than check out this great film..
SPY GAME - 2001Directed by Tony SCOTTStarring Robert REDFORD and Brad PITT.Plot Overview: Redford stars as CIA operative Nathan Muir, who is on the brink of retirement from the field, when he learns his protégé Tom Bishop has been arrested in China on a charge of espionage.
Their performances were easily the highlight of the movie, as was seeing two powerhouse actors working of off each other.On the subject of positives, the cinematography and editing were both decent and I do appreciate Scott's visual style.Despite these positives, Spy Game was just boring for me.
From Tony Scott, the director of Crimson Tide, True Romance and Top Gun, comes Spy Game, a character driven thriller which is more of a friendship story than anything else.Robert Redford stars as Nathan Muir, a mid-level CIA operative, who on the day of his retirement, discovers that his old protegè Tom Bishop (Brad Pitt) has been captured and imprisoned in China on the charge of espionage.
Redford and Pitt both excel in their roles, and are well supported by Stephen Dillane and Catherine McCormack.Probably the best aspect of this film is way it bounces back and forth in time to showing Muir and Bishop's up and down relationship.
Robert Redford does an excellent job of portraying an experienced (read cynical) CIA operative who doesn't hesitate to use people and play with their lives whenever necessary (again, as is the case in real life, because spying is a brutal and unforgiving trade where only the strongest survive, it's not a charity where manuals need to be followed to the letter like most seem to think nowadays - no wonder the results of the western intelligence agencies are so pitiful recently).Judging from the reviews and user ratings though, for most of the movie-going public this realism was a big drawback, because people do not want to accept cruel truths nowadays, they do not want to accept the fact that in order to be free someone has to do the dirty work for them, they just want everything in life to be neat and spotless, in other words, politically correct.
It is perhaps the fact that this is not an action movie as many were led to believe as the word "spy" in this movie is much different than say "James Bond." The approach here seems like a story out of Robert Ludlum's books with movie based more on the characters and plotting rather than all out spectacle.
But the thing this movie does that makes it so effective is keep a basic central story line - a CIA home office inquiry into a rogue operation - going, while around it, in flashbacks, we see the development of the two central characters in several sub-stories leading up to the present day situation.
Scott shies away from full-blown action here, instead building tension through longtime CIA operative Nathan Muir's (aptly played by Robert Redford) assessment of an old pupil, Tom Bishop (Brad Pitt).Bishop, recently (the film, however, is set in 1991) imprisoned after a failed mission, is due to be executed at 8 a.m. EST.
It is in Beirut, therefore, that makes Muir change his mind about saving Bishop.The flashbacks, especially Vietnam and Beirut, are wonderfully captured on film by cinematographer Daniel Mindel (who also did Scott's ENEMY OF THE STATE).
Excellent thriller with new millennium A-list star Brad Pitt teaming with 70's A-lister Robert Redford (smartly casted in a 'Buddy picture' after Pitt took direction from Redford in his memorable yet under-appreciated "A River Runs Through it" from 1994) in an entertaining spy film directed by action-obsessed Tony Scott which will have you at times on the edge of your seat.
Told in flashback, Spy Game centres on the relationship between cynical senior CIA operative Nathan Muir (Robert Redford) and his protegé Tom Bishop (Brad Pitt).
The story is told in real time, with flashbacks to fill in the details of Robert Redford's and Brad Pitt's connection in the game of espionage.
Spy Game is an entertaining enough espionage thriller helmed by action film director Tony Scott who has made some very polished films in the past.
But with Robert Redford as Nathan Muir, a C.I.A. agent on his last day, and Brad Pitt as Tom Bishop, one of the very best the C.I.A. has, it isn't that hard to pay attention to the 2 hour movie.
Brad Pitt is also good as the cocky young Bishop who like Muir, has his own way of doing things.
"Spy Game" reminds one a little od "Three Days of the Condor" (1975) another CIA themed Redford film but this time with Redford "on the inside"..
That's only sixteen years.Seems to me way too many people are freaking out because the characters look the same throughout the film.I personally think Bishop looks much younger in the scenes in Vietnam, as opposed to the "present" time of 1991.
In this film, as in Ocean's Eleven, Brad Pitt is so natural and so unaffected, he makes you wonder what he couldn't do before the camera.As for the story, it's exciting, standard spy story fare, satisfying for sure and Tony Scott's got the goods as far as directing goes.
It's a lucky thing, this being a spy thriller about a guy (Brad Pitt) who's utterly wrong for the job he's doing: the movie forms a perfectly inverted analogy for the miscastness of its director, Tony Scott.Maybe, somewhere, the script for this convolute-a-thon about the relationship between an older, amoral CIA hand (Robert Redford) and his young, still ethically stinging protege (Pitt) could have worked.
They weren't Really in '75 filming Pitt and Redford in Da Nang either, guys.*Flashbacks-I thought they were nicely handled though it did get a little longish at times, especially the one in Beirut.
A great story about love, honor, principles and sacrifice compiled into a contemporary espionage thriller, a brilliant plot and battle of minds that continues up to the last minute of the film.It is about how people who work in the intelligence community think and operate and about the dilemmas they are faced with, when carrying out their job.
A CIA operative(Robert Redford)who's about to retire is forced into one more semi-covert mission...to rescue his protege (Brad Pitt)who has been captured and placed in a Chinese prison.
Spy Brad Pitt gets captured by the Chinese, and handler Robert Redford has to fight internal CIA politics to get him free before he retires - in 24 hours.
Now, the clock is ticking and the race is on as the deadliest game of all explodes into the spectacular, adrenaline-fueled pulse-pounding action thrill ride," according to the film's official synopsis.Tony Scott's "Spy Game" is a good-looking , mostly enjoyable espionage thriller; but, it fails to take full advantage of the inspired casting of Mr. Redford with Mr. Pitt.
And, it's nice to see Larry Bryggman in feature film.***** Spy Game (11/19/01) Tony Scott ~ Robert Redford, Brad Pitt, Catherine McCormack, Marianne Jean-Baptiste.
This is a nice little thriller film starring Robert Redford and Brad Pitt.
Directed by Tony Scott who loves to use technology all out, Spy Game, however, fails to be a great film.
Nathan Muir (Robert Redford) is about to retire from the CIA when he is given a tip-off that an old colleague Tom Bishop (Brad Pitt) has been captured and is being held in a Chinese prison.
It's also fair to say that clocking in at just over 2 hours it is a little on the long side.Redford and Pitt are both solid here and they are both developed quite well as characters, but the downside of this is that they aren't given a great deal of screen time together meaning that they are never really given much of an opportunity to build up any kind of rapport together.Still when the focus is on Tony Scott doing his 'thing' and Redford running his own operation the film rarely disappoints.
The best part of this movie involves Muir's maneuvers against both time and the agency itself to save Bishop from harm.If I had an objection to anything about this film I would have to admit that the flashbacks do not show either Pitt or Redford looking a day younger even though one such recollection spans sixteen years.
I'd love to see Redford and Pitt in a father-son movie, their resemblance is so striking.Back to Spy Games.
Robert Redford stars as a CIA operative Nathan Muir who in his earlier years recruited, trained and created his protégé, Tom Bishop, played by Brad Pitt.
If you like Robert Redford, Brad Pitt, or the spy thriller genre in general, you won't be disappointed by this movie.