Spy Game (2001)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Tony Scott

Writers (WGA):

Michael Frost Beckner (story)
Michael Frost Beckner (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

21 November 2001 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Thriller

Tagline:

It's not how you play the game. It's how the game plays you.

Plot:

Retiring CIA agent Nathan Muir recalls his training of Tom Bishop while working against agency politics to free him from his Chinese captors.

Plot Keywords:

CIA | Retirement | China | Vietnam | Espionage

Awards:

3 nominations

Cast

Robert Redford	...	Nathan D. Muir
Brad Pitt	...	Tom Bishop
Catherine McCormack	...	Elizabeth Hadley
Stephen Dillane	...	Charles Harker
Larry Bryggman	...	Troy Folger
Marianne Jean-Baptiste	...	Gladys Jennip
Matthew Marsh	...	Dr. William Byars
Todd Boyce	...	Robert Aiken
Michael Paul Chan	...	Vincent Vy Ngo
Garrick Hagon	...	CIA Director Cy Wilson
Andrew Grainger	...	Andrew Unger
Bill Buell	...	Fred Kappler
Colin Stinton	...	Henry Pollard
Ted Maynard	...	CIA Administrator
Tom Hodgkins	...	CIA Lobby Guard

MPAA:

Rated R for language, some violence and brief sexuality.

Runtime:

126 min | Turkey:114 min (TV version)

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English | Mandarin | German | Arabic | French | Cantonese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:14A (Alberta/British Columbia) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Iceland:12 | South Korea:12 | Brazil:12 | USA:R (certificate #38577) | New Zealand:M | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Finland:K-15 | France:U | Germany:12 | Hong Kong:IIB | Netherlands:16 | Norway:15 | Peru:14 | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:PG | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Beirut, Lebanon

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

Kimberly Tufo, playing the part of Sandy at the embassy in Berlin, is wife of the former US ambassador to Hungary, the location where the Berlin scenes were filmed.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The opening to "Baywatch" (1989) being watched by the businessmen shows a credit for Pamela Anderson. This scene takes place in 1991, and Anderson did not join the show's cast until 1992.

Quotes:

Nathan Muir: [talking on the phone to the marines about his plan to get Bishop out of China. The marine commander says he is ready] That’s good. Operation Dinner Out is a go. Repeat, Operation Dinner out is a go.
CIA Administrator: [to the rest of the room] After all this time, he treats his retirement dinner as an CIA operation!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Bounty Hunting on Acid: Tony Scott's Visual Style (2006) (V)

Soundtrack:

Siseler

High quality Hollywood thriller

Spy Game is everything we're not supposed to expect from a major Hollywood movie: engrossing, intelligent, well written, acted and directed. But that's just what it is and more, this is definitely the best thing I've seen since Memento. Although Pitt is really good and Redford plays himself as well as he has in years, I think the most credit should go to Tony Scott. In the hands of a lesser director this could have been something more like Mission Impossible. But Scott stays right on target, keeping us interested, developing the characters, and keeping the pacing nearly perfect. 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 dialogue feels natural, all the actors do good work, no one tries to steal the show or be the star. The story is interesting and almost never lapses into the kind of hyper violence or sappy sentimentality one has come to associate with modern studio pictures. You get a feeling this is pretty close to how the CIA really operates, a place with fantastic technology at its disposal but who's ultimate effectiveness is determined by the fallible people who run the missions and take the chances. I really enjoyed this film, I hope it's a sign of things to come and not a rarity.