The Amateur
Came out; 2025
Time; 2 hours 2 Minutes
Watched: Amazon Prime
Rated: PG-13 for some strong violence and language
IMDB Rating; 6.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes:
Tomato Meter 61%
Popcorn Meter 88%
Caution; Spoiler Alert
Staring.
Rami Malek as Heller
Rachel Brosnahan as Sarah
Jon Bernthal as The Bear
Evan Milton as Slater
Nick Mills Finn
Tiffany Gray as Esther
Adrian Martinez as Carlos
Holt McCallany as Director Moore
Julianne Nicholson as Director O'Brien
Story Line.
When his supervisors at the CIA refuse to take action after his wife is killed in a London terrorist attack, a decoder takes matters into his own hands
Thoughts:
This reminded me of Jason Borne with Rami Malek. I like Rami as an actor, I think he can do almost anything, from a vampire to Queen to this.
Although this had a slightly different plot, with him being an analyst vs field agent, it had the same feel as most spy movies.
This was decent and went on a different direction that I Thought it would.
CAUTION; Spoiler Alert
CIA cryptographer Charlie Heller is restoring an old Cessna as a present from his wife, Sarah, who leaves for a business trip in London. At the CIA's Decryption and Analysis division, Charlie has befriended a field agent, Jackson O'Brien, code name "The Bear", and an anonymous source, code name "Inquiline". Classified files from Inquiline reveal Special Activities Center Director and Charlie's boss, Alex Moore, disguised politically-motivated drone strikes as suicide bombings. Charlie is subsequently brought to CIA Director Samantha O'Brien, who informs him that Sarah has been killed in a terrorist attack.
A grieving Charlie soon presents his own findings. After an arms deal gone wrong, the four assailants took Sarah and others hostage, killing her before escaping. Charlie identifies the suspects – Belarusian criminal Mishka Blazhic, South African ex-special forces operative Ellish, former Armenian intelligence officer Gretchen Frank, and elusive mastermind Horst Schiller, Sarah's killer – but Moore and his deputy, Caleb Horowitz, insist they are working to take down Schiller's entire network. Determined to avenge Sarah, Charlie confronts Moore with his incriminating orders that caused hundreds of civilian and allied casualties. Threatening to leak the information, Charlie demands the resources and mission specific training at "The Farm" to personally hunt down the four assailants.
Sent to train with Col. Robert Henderson at Camp Peary, the gun-shy Charlie excels at bomb-making, but Henderson declares he is simply not capable of killing. Searching Charlie's home and office, Moore and Caleb discover a CD he hid in a bar's jukebox, but realize he was bluffing. Henderson is ordered to eliminate Charlie, who bugged the files he left in Moore's office and has already left the country.
Charlie tracks down Gretchen in Paris and follows a lock-picking tutorial to break into her apartment. He discovers Gretchen's appointment at an allergy clinic and takes a gun, but cannot bring himself to shoot her. Haunted by memories of Sarah, he traps Gretchen at the allergy clinic in a hypobaric chamber that he fills with pollen. Charlie demands to know Schiller's location, but is unwilling to let Gretchen die and releases her. Gretchen escapes to the street and is fatally struck by a van.
Taking Gretchen's phone, Charlie flees to Marseille where Henderson corners him in a bar, but he sets off an explosion in the bathroom and escapes. He requests Inquiline's help and is smuggled to Istanbul, where Inquiline reveals herself as the Russian widow of a murdered ex-KGB officer, having taken his place as Charlie's source. They trace Blazhic to a luxury hotel in Madrid. Meanwhile, Samantha learns Moore has sent Henderson after Charlie, and distrusting her subordinate, deploys her own operative to protect Charlie.
In Madrid, Charlie confronts Blazhic as he swims in the hotel's rooftop pool, having rigged scuba equipment to decompress the air between the pool's sheets of glass. When Blazhic refuses to cooperate, Charlie shatters the glass and sends him plummeting to his death. He is nearly apprehended by Henderson, who is attacked by Samantha's operative; in the struggle, Henderson is shot but kills the operative, and Charlie escapes. Caleb realizes that Charlie is communicating with someone and tracks down Inquiline. He contacts the Russian KGB station chief and a Russian FSB strike team is sent to Istanbul, and Inquiline is killed as she flees with Charlie.
Charlie tracks down Ellish in Romania under the guise of selling him missiles and traps him with an improvised explosive, forcing him to reveal that Schiller operates from a ship on the Baltic Sea. He takes Ellish's phone and leaves him to die in the explosion. Charlie arrives in Primorsk to spy on Schiller's operation. The Bear confronts him, but Charlie refuses to end his vendetta.
Charlie is captured and brought aboard Schiller's ship, coming face-to-face with Sarah's killer. Schiller offers him a loaded gun and the chance to take his revenge. Instead, Charlie reveals he has hacked the ship, steering it to the Gulf of Finland where Schiller is taken into custody by Finnish police and Interpol. Moore and Caleb are arrested for their unsanctioned operations, and Samantha announces that the agency has purged its bad apples. After being visited by a recovered Henderson, Charlie finishes his plane's restoration and takes it for a flight.
