Spy Game (2001)

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 | China | Retirement | Prison | Rescue

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

Also Known As:

Spy Game - Der finale Countdown (Germany)
Spy game - Jeu d'espions (France)

MPAA:

Rated R for language, some violence and brief sexuality.

Runtime:

126 min | Turkey:114 min (TV version)

Country:

Germany | USA | Japan | France

Language:

English | 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:

Dutch Oscar-winning director Mike van Diem was once attached to the project.

Goofs:

Factual errors: When Nathan Muir is approaching the exit of the CIA building, close to give his badge on his final day, he has already tipped off the press and he thinks Bishop is fine. But he sees on the TV screen a new "live report from Hong Kong" where the reporter says that Bishop was already dead. It is about 3pm in Langley when Muir is leaving, which makes it impossible to be daylight in Hong Kong... yet the live report from Hong Kong is clearly in daylight.

Quotes:

Nathan Muir: Troy, do you remember when we could tell the good guys from the bad guys?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Lizzie McGuire: And the Winner Is (#2.6)" (2002)

Soundtrack:

Four Seasons Concerto No. 1 in E Spring

this is a whole different game...

There are many reasons why we like a movie or not. For me, this is the case in witch small things were enough to like it: the two main actors, the places in which the action occurs, and the fact that it has more to do with a love affair, in a tragic atmosphere than about spies. Well, of course this is about spies - two of them - and mostly about the relation between them; if they are similar enough to understand each other, they are also different enough to generate some tension in the relation.

Maybe this is more about how the characters move around each others than about action or intrigue. In fact this is so obvious that the way in which the story is told is mostly in flashback, with Muir (Robert Redford) introducing all of them and narrating part. So, the story is the story and the spy game is what Muir does within the CIA, in 24 hours or so. 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. Maybe what mislead most of the people was the title of the movie, and maybe that's why most of them didn't like it. However, in my opinion, this is a very good movie, with strong leading roles and a compelling story.

No gadgets, no arms, no villains, no action...oh, no,this is a whole different game, and it's a serious and a dangerous game: the game of people and their relations.