When intelligence agent Kathryn Woodhouse is suspected of betraying the nation, her husband - also a legendary agent - faces the ultimate test of whether to be loyal to his marriage, or his ... Read allWhen intelligence agent Kathryn Woodhouse is suspected of betraying the nation, her husband - also a legendary agent - faces the ultimate test of whether to be loyal to his marriage, or his country.When intelligence agent Kathryn Woodhouse is suspected of betraying the nation, her husband - also a legendary agent - faces the ultimate test of whether to be loyal to his marriage, or his country.
- Vadim Pavlichuk
- (as Dan Dow)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Featured reviews
All of the assembled cast do a sufficient job in delivering a very talky script. I especially liked Michael Fassbender's concise and measured performance as the spy ordered to get to the bottom of a leaked top secret software program that could jeopardise national security where his wife, Cate Blanchett, is one of the suspects.
For me Soderbergh never quite scratches my itch when he attempts to do 'cool' like he did with the Ocean trilogy. There's a cold aloofness that prevents me as a viewer to get completely wrapped up in the story he is trying to tell. Also with Black Bag I wasn't keen on the cinematography which looked like a creative decision to make most light sources seem diffused, presumably to make this look like an old fashioned espionage thriller from the 1960's. Fassbenders character certainly has shades of Harry Palmer to him, especially wearing those trademark black glasses.
Despite it being talky and smart it's not that taut and I would like to have seen a bit more action and a few surprise twists for there to be a better payoff for all the concentration the viewer has to endure to get to a rather mediocre finale.
There are a few effective action set pieces to keep viewers awake ( not my wife, unfortunately, she slept through most of it ) but not really enough, I'm guessing, to satisfy the action fans.
For film fans who try to see everything that opens in cinemas, only.
I don't know why this movie, with several men and women sitting around a dinner table, kept blabbering to each other, would cost and consume 50 million dollars to make. How much did the producers pay each of these actors to sit down? Maybe they spent a lot of the movie budget just for the black plastic glass frame for the guy, even if it looked so unnecessary and so fake on his face?
I have also found that the dialogue of this movie is just so irrelevant to me. I couldn't even understand what it meant, maybe not just to the participant actors who could ingeniously memorize the wtf? Dialogue, but to a lot of the viewers, including me. I have watched some movies with only two actors sitting facing each other and talking from the very beginning to the end, but I found them so interesting and never lost my focus. But the dialogue of this Black Bag, with more people talking to each other, I didn't even know what they were talking about and couldn't care less.
Black Bag (2025) would be one of the most tedious and meaningless movies that I have watched in the last 50 years.
Cate Blanchett didn't age well and did an abysmal facelift job that almost made her unrecognizable and tough to look at.
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaScriptwriter David Koepp consulted with real-life spies, assets, agents, and operatives in order to write this spy movie.
- GoofsWhen Freddie arrives late in the pub, he pays his companions' bill and tips generously. In a British pub, you pay for each drink as you buy it, rather than running up a bill to be settled later. Also, tipping in British pubs is almost unknown. However, this appears to be a London wine bar, not a pub, where restaurant-style paying is normal.
- Quotes
George Woodhouse: If she's in trouble, even of her own making, I will do everything in my power to extricate her. No matter what that means. You understand?
Clarissa Dubose: My god, that's so hot.
- Crazy creditsActress Alicia Vikander, the wife of the film's leading man, Michael Fassbender, who plays George Woodhouse, made a playlist that was used in the film. She was billed for this in the closing credits as "DJ Vicarious". In 2020, Vikander with her agent founded a production company called "Vikarious".
- ConnectionsFeatured in Designing 'Black Bag' (2025)
- SoundtracksPolyrhythmic
Performed by Phil Kieran & Thomas Annang (as Thomas Tettey Annang)
Written by Phil Kieran
Licensed by Phil Kieran
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official sites
- Languages
- Also known as
- Código Negro
- Filming locations
- Hotel Storchen, Weinplatz, Zürich, Kanton Zürich, Switzerland(exterior: Kathryn has meeting outside hotel)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $50,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $21,474,035
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $7,607,250
- Mar 16, 2025
- Gross worldwide
- $40,083,035
- Runtime1 hour 33 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39 : 1
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