The Brad Pitt Spy Thriller On Netflix So Suspenseful You Can’t Look Away
Brad Pitt’s Spy Game is currently streaming on Netflix, and if you overlooked this film upon its release, you may want to go back and check it out. 2001 was a big year for Brad Pitt, and alongside The Mexican and Ocean’s Eleven, Spy Game was not only a commercial success, it was also well received by critics and audiences alike.
Though this Tony Scott-directed film borrows a number of tropes from the spy action thriller genre, its twist ending will leave you guessing until the final frame, and leave you wondering what happens next after the credits roll.
Spy Game is set in 1991, and is centered on a major trade deal between China and the US. The CIA learns that one of their major assets, Tom Bishop (Brad Pitt), has been arrested at a People’s Liberation Army Prison, and will be executed in 24 hours.
What makes Spy Game work so well is that it subverts your expectations, and shows you the kind of deception and collusion that can be found at the highest level within a government agency.
Coincidentally, CIA Operative Nathan D. Muir (Robert Redford), who has worked extensively with Bishop in the past, is one day from retirement when he’s briefed about Bishop’s situation. Matters get complicated because Bishop’s actions that led to his imprisonment were not sanctioned by the CIA, and US intervention could very well jeopardize the trade agreement.
Through a series of flashbacks, we learn about Muir’s past with Bishop, and we get a crash course on how they met while Bishop was a United Marine Corps Scout Sniper during the Vietnam War who claims to have learned to shoot while he was a boy scout.
Their working relationship starts out friendly enough, and Brad Pitt’s chemistry with Robert Redford shows us two cool and calculated operatives who always put the mission objective ahead of everything else. But everything changes when Bishop doesn’t approve of Muir’s willingness to trade and sacrifice civilian assets “like baseball cards,” if they happen to compromise a mission.
Things start to go south when Brad Pitt’s Bishop meets a relief worker named Elizabeth Hadley (Catherine McCormack) and forms a romantic relationship with her, much to the disapproval of Muir. At this time, we learn that Bishop severs his relationship with Muir, and Hadley is kidnapped by Chinese agents after Muir traded her to the Chinese in exchange for an arrested US diplomat that they had in their possession to protect an operation from being compromised.
Brad Pitt turned down the role of Jason Bourne in The Bourne Identity to star in Spy Game
Back in the present day, we now know what’s at stake. But without running the risk of spoiling the third act of this Brad Pitt film, we’ll just leave the conclusion to your imagination. What makes Spy Game work so well is that it subverts your expectations and shows you the kind of deception and collusion that can be found at the highest level within a government agency.
Unlike other spy movies at the time, Spy Game boasts a believable amount of comic relief when Brad Pitt’s Bishop is establishing a professional relationship with Robert Redford’s Muir. One notable exchange involves an expertly placed jab toward the James Bond franchise when Bishop asks Muir if secret agents are supposed to drink martinis, to which Bishop replies, “scotch, never less than twelve years old.”
Although Brad Pitt turned down the role of Jason Bourne in The Bourne Identity to star in Spy Game, it’s worth noting that the latter performed well commercially. Upon its release, Spy Game earned 143 million at the global box office against its reported budget of $115 million.
We can’t help but wonder if Brad Pitt regrets turning down what turned out to be such an iconic role that ended up going to Matt Damon, but 2001 was a busy year for the Fight Club star, and it’s not like his career needed a shot in the arm at the time anyway.
Spy Game boasts a believable amount of comic relief when Brad Pitt’s Bishop is establishing a professional relationship with Robert Redford’s Muir.
Critically speaking, Spy Game earned a 64 percent critical score against an audience score of 75 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Though the reviews for this Brad Pitt film are mostly favorable, Roger Ebert praised how clever the writing was but suggested that it was hard to become attached to the film. Other reviews say that the flashback sequences were what really stole the show while criticizing that the present-day narrative came off as implausible and took them out of the film.
Given that even the less favorable reviews still hold some aspects of Spy Game in high regard, it’s worth seeing what the hype is all about and firing up Netflix on a rainy day to witness Brad Pitt and Robert Redford do what they do best in this engaging thriller.
