Redford, Pitt Make ‘Spy Game’ Masterful

By Becca Parson (Dec. 4, 2001)

"Spy Game," a thriller partly set in the Langley CIA headquarters, is a masterful spy movie that relies on an exciting plot, great performances from the actors, and for once in an action movie, good dialogue instead of overdone special effects. 

Robert Redford plays experienced CIA operative Nathan Muir who is about to retire when he is told that his protegé, Tom Bishop (Brad Pitt), has been arrested by the Chinese for espionage and is set to be executed in 24 hours. The problem is that Bishop is now a rogue agent, and was not working with the CIA when he broke into a Chinese prison. Muir is called to a meeting of his superiors to provide background information for them on Bishop. Here he discovers that they are grilling him not to save Bishop, but to find an excuse to let him be executed because the U.S. government does not want to disrupt trade negotiations with the Chinese government.

During it all, Muir is making phone calls attempting to rescue his friend, even making some of the calls in the presence of his superiors. This, flashbacks to Muir and Bishop’s previous missions, and jumps around to locations around the globe make this a complicated movie. It manages to stay together, though, through on-screen titles stating the current location, and well-written dialogue. Exciting action sequences don’t hurt, either. A smart movie, it brings up the ethical questions of people lost in missions as expendable "assets" and betrayal as a measure necessary to succeed, leaving you wondering what it is Muir and Bishop really believe under all their cool bravado and professed indifference toward those "assets."