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Revision as of 06:24, 18 November 2010

This article is about the film. For the TV series of the same title, see Spy Game (TV series). 2001 American film
Spy Game
Theatrical release poster
Directed byTony Scott
Written byMichael Frost Beckner
David Arata
Produced byMarc Abraham
Douglas Wick
Thomas Bliss
StarringRobert Redford
Brad Pitt
Catherine McCormack
CinematographyDaniel Mindel
Edited byChristian Wagner
Music byHarry Gregson-Williams
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release dateNovember 19, 2001
Running time126 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
BudgetUS$92,000,000
Box office$143,049,560

Spy Game is a 2001 American spy film directed by Tony Scott and starring Robert Redford and Brad Pitt. The film grossed $62,362,785 in the United States and $143,049,560 worldwide.

Plot

Set in 1991, the film 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 do—if 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 a 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.

Hadley, who fled the UK after carrying out a bombing of the Chinese Embassy, met Bishop in Lebanon. She was in the Chinese prison after being kidnapped and exchanged for an arrested US diplomat. It was in fact Muir himself who had arranged the kidnapping, believing she could possibly expose Bishop's true identity as a CIA paramilitary operative. After realizing that Hadley was the target of Bishop's daring rescue attempt, Muir finally learns that he greatly underestimated Bishop's feelings for her. It is this guilt which prompts him to part with his life savings in order to save her and Bishop, going against his warning to Bishop years previously in Berlin that he would not go after him if he went "off the reservation."

Bishop, who is rescued at the end of the film nearly 15 minutes prior to his scheduled execution, realizes Muir was behind his rescue since the name of the plan to rescue him, "Operation Dinner Out," was a reference to a birthday gift that Bishop gave Muir while they were in Lebanon.

Cast

Production

Filming locations included:

  • HSBC Hong Kong headquarters building, presented as the American embassy. (Note that there is actually a U.S. consulate general, but no embassy in Hong Kong.) The interior of the embassy was filmed at the Lloyd's building in London.
  • Budapest, Hungary served as Cold War Berlin in the film. The film was shot there to save money, and also because Berlin has changed a lot since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The helicopter landing in the film's climax was filmed at an airfield near Budapest.
  • Casablanca, Morocco became 1980s Beirut in the film. The crew started off in Haifa, Israel, but had to shift to Morocco because of the Al-Aqsa Intifada which broke out in late 2000. The Vietnam War segment was also filmed in Morocco.
  • Oxford, England: the former Oxford Prison, which closed in 1996, was used as the Chinese prison set in Su Chou (Suzhou). (It has since been converted into a luxury hotel.) Shots of the ambulance approaching the prison were also filmed in Queen's Lane in Oxford.
  • The GlaxoSmithKline research centre in Stevenage, England was used for exterior and some interior scenes at the CIA headquarters. (Aerial shots of the real headquarters were also included.)
  • The CIA lobby location was in the Senate House of the University of London. Close-ups of Robert Redford as Muir driving from his home to the CIA headquarters were filmed in Regent's Park, standing in for Washington, D.C..
  • A second unit filmed footage in Washington, D.C. and Virginia for the scenes of Muir driving to and from the CIA headquarters.
  • The boat used in the filming was an original Russian made hydrofoil and was provided by Stephen Canning of Iron Wolf Imports at the direction of Jonathan Frost. The boat was purchased in Lithuania and shipped to Morroco by truck, and then was unfortunately destroyed along with other props in Morocco.

Box office

The film opened at #3 in its opening weekend at the U.S. Box office.

References

  1. "Spy Game (2001)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved December 20, 2009.
  2. review transport documents from fantail productions

External links

Films directed by Tony Scott
Feature films
Short films
Related
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