Spy Game

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Spy Game
Image:Spy Game poster.jpg
Directed by	Tony Scott
Produced by	Marc Abraham, Douglas Wick
Written by	Michael Frost Beckner, David Arata
Starring	Robert Redford, Brad Pitt, Catherine McCormack
Music by	Harry Gregson-Williams
Cinematography	Daniel Mindel
Editing by	Christian Wagner
Distributed by	Universal Studios Inc.
Release date(s)	19 November 2001 (USA)
Running time	126 min
Language	English
Budget	US$ 92,000,000
IMDb profile

This article is about the movie. For the TV series of the same title, see Spy Game (TV series).

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

1 Plot details
2 Main cast
3 Filming locations include
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Plot details

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Set in 1991, the film depicts the U.S. and Chinese Governments on the verge of a major trade agreement and the American President due to pay a visit to China to seal the deal. When the Central Intelligence Agency gets word that operative Tom Bishop has been captured trying to free a terrorist from a Chinese prison, is being questioned under torture and will be executed within twenty-four hours unless he is claimed by the U.S. Government, they scramble to decide whether to allow Bishop to die or to claim him and potentially destroy the trade agreement, a decision made more difficult by the fact that Bishop was working as a rogue agent, outside control of the agency.

In an attempt to quickly deal with the situation, CIA executives call in Nathan Muir, an aging mid-level agent 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 will provide 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.

With his plan squashed, Nathan 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 the U.S. Navy Seals. Using US$282,000, equal to his life savings as a cover, Nathan bribes a Chinese official to cut power to the prison for thirty minutes, during which time the rescue team retrieves Bishop along with the woman he'd gone in to get.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Main 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
Ken Leung - Li
David Hemmings - Harry Duncan
Michael Paul Chan - Vincent Vy Ngo
Garrick Hagon - CIA Director Cy Wilson
Shane Rimmer - Estate Agent
Benedict Wong - Tran
Adrian Pang - Jiang
Omid Djalili - Beirut: Doumet
Dale Dye - Rescue Sequence: Cmdr. Wiley
Charlotte Rampling - Ann Cathcart

[edit] Filming locations include

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). See Hong Kong in films. 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 movie was shot here 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. (It has since been converted into a luxury hotel.) Shots of the ambulance approaching the prison were also filmed in Oxford.
The GlaxoSmithKline research centre in Stevenage 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 DC.
A second unit filmed footage in Washington DC and Virginia for the scenes of Muir driving to and from the CIA headquarters.