Spy Game

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

Plot details

Tom Bishop (Brad Pitt), who says he is a native of Hemet, California, is a field-op with the CIA. He has been captured in China and is being tortured, after failing in his mission to rescue his British-born girlfriend from inside a Chinese prison, disguised as a doctor who has come to innoculate the prisoners against cholera. She is a social worker in Beirut and is also an ex-terrorist who blew up a Chinese owned building in London which killed several people, including the Chinese Premier's nephew. Tom Bishop has been scheduled for execution by the Chinese within 24 hours, unless the CIA admits that Tom is their operative and was sent by them to China on a mission. The CIA is unwilling to take responsibility for Tom because they did not send him on any mission - Tom Bishop was acting alone in his attempt to free his girfriend from the Chinese.

Related Topics:
Brad Pitt - Hemet, California - CIA - China - Cholera - Beirut - London

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Even though Tom has been trained extensively in trade craft by his CIA recruiter, Nathan Muir (Robert Redford), he is not a full-fledged member of the CIA but instead is an operative who is used by Nathan from time to time for individual missions. The CIA is looking for a reason to let Tom die at the hands of the Chinese, since it would be very embarassing for the U.S. Government to admit that they had sent a spy to China, a mere week before the American President is scheduled to visit China on a trip focusing on U.S.-China trade relations. However, they realize that almost no one in the CIA seems to know much about who Tom or his background are. They then decide to contact his recruiter, Nathan Muir, to see if he can provide them with any explanation of why Tom was doing what he was doing in China but more importantly if Nathan can provide them with the smoking gun to burn Tom with.

Related Topics:
Trade craft - Robert Redford - Spy - U.S.-China trade relations - Smoking gun

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Nathan likes Tom a lot and tries his best to save his life. He covertly calls a journalist in Hong Kong and asks him to leak the story that a CIA operative has been captured in China. He does this, so that the CIA cannot tell the Chinese that Tom is not linked to them. The story airs on CNN shortly, however, the CIA team taking care of the Tom problem, calls the FCC which (presumably) threatens CNN which causes a retraction to occur in which the reporter calls the earlier report of an American spy being captured on Chinese soil a hoax. He also says that Tom Bishop has been dead for over a year, which is untrue as well.

Related Topics:
Hong Kong - CNN - FCC

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At this point, Nathan secretly creates an urgent operational directive from the CIA Chief, forging the Chief's signature on an order to commence Operation Dinner Out. Nathan copies the CIA Chief's signature from a certificate of merit that Nathan had received from him that very day because it is Nathan's last day on the job because he is retiring. Operation dinner out is an operation to cut the power of the prison and its surrounding areas for thirty minutes, during which time an American rescue team on helicopters is sent in to break out Tom Bishop and his girlfriend from the Chinese prison. Nathan funds part of the operation using his life's savings of $282,000 which he had been saving to retire on an island in the Bahamas.

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The operation is a success and Nathan has succeeded in pulling this off right under the noses of the CIA. Tom Bishop and his girlfriend are airlifted to safety. While on their way inside the helicopter, Tom hears the Pilot radio in the success of the mission calling it Operation Dinner Out. When Tom hears the words Operation Dinner Out, he knows that it was Nathan who was responsible for this unbelievable rescue. He knows this because when in Beirut on a mission, where Tom had met his girlfriend, he had told Nathan that he is quitting the CIA because he has found a new mission which he calls Operation Dinner Out. Tom never explains what that means and Nathan does not ask him. In the last scene, Nathan is shown leaving the CIA headquarters building for the last time on his classic Porsche 911 smiling to himself.

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