The Movie Beat

Secret (2009) – Korean Movie Review

Best Korean Thrillers

Monster (2014) – Korean Movie Review

Seo In Guk Movies

Pipeline (2021) – Korean Movie Review

secret assignment movie

Duelist (2005) – Korean Movie Review

Seo Yea-ji Movies

Recalled (2021) – Korean Movie Review

Confidential assignment (2017) – korean movie review.

secret assignment movie

Confidential Assignment  (2017) – 공조 

  • Directed by:  Kim Sung-hoon (김성훈)
  • Starring:  Hyun Bin (현빈), Yoo Hae-jin (유해진), Kim Joo-hyuck (김주혁), Jang Young-nam (장영남), Lee Dong-hwi (이동휘)
  • Synopsis: South Korean detective Jin-tae (Yoo Hae-jin) is assigned to assist the undercover North Korean agent, Lim (Hyun Bin), in a secret manhunt for a North Korean fugitive in Seoul over the course of a high-level three day state meeting between the two countries. However, South Korean intelligence believes there is a hidden motive behind the manhunt, and Jin-tae must prevent Lim from completing his mission before they find out the truth.

Buddy cop movies are typically known for their duos being paired from differing racial or ethnic backgrounds ( 48 Hours (1982), Lethal Weapon (1987), Bulletproof (1996), Rush Hour (1998), Showtime (2002), Cop Out (2010)) making them part of a genre that has been almost uniquely American. So with Korea being a predominantly heterogeneous society, the ability to play on the racial tropes don’t really work here. However, the unique situation of a divided Korea (North/South) has Confidential Assignment paring its duo based along this division. Turning out to be more than just an interesting idea, Confidential Assignment is able to deliver a fresh new take on this classic buddy cop formula.

secret assignment movie

— MINOR PLOT/SUMMARY SPOILERS — (Scroll Down for Spoiler Free Zone)

THE BUDDIES

Jin-tae (Yoo Hae-jin) is a goofy South Korean detective and family man at heart working to support his wife (Jang Young-nam) and nine year old daughter who desperately wants an iPhone. He also has a pretty freeloader sister-in-law with maxed out credit cards who lives at home with them. Jin-tae is a good detective but his low wages and family-first attitude leave him more focused on paying the bills than doing his job by the book. This leads to one oversight too many and a three month suspension from work.

But when North Korea suddenly sets up a highly suspicious meeting with the South, Jin-tae’s chance for redemption comes from a friend and connection within the intelligence agency who sets him up on a secret assignment. He is to work with a known North Korean agent, Lim (Hyun Bin), on a joint investigation in Seoul to apprehend a dangerous North Korean fugitive, Cha (Kim Joo-hyuck), who has crossed into to the South.

secret assignment movie

Lim, a handsome yet battle hardened badass army detective from North Korea, gets double crossed by his superior, Cha, and is nearly killed along with his entire team in a heist. Cha and his rogue group of mercenaries steal special gold plates capable of perfectly counterfeiting American dollars from their own government and then flee to South Korea where they plan to sell them to the Triad. So, in order to not only save face with with the world, but to prevent what might even be considering a possible “act of war” if the plates were to be discovered by the international community, North Korean military officials entrust Lim to their joint investigation in Seoul. Hellbent on revenge, he is assigned to work with Jin-tae on the manhunt for Cha, and to secretly recover the stolen plates.

secret assignment movie

Since Southern intelligence officials suspect Lim may be up to more than just tracking down Cha, Jin-tae’s job is to covertly obstruct agent Lim from doing whatever he was assigned to do long enough for the South’s intelligence to figure out what the operation is truly about. This is the bulk of the film and where the fun begins.

— SPOILER FREE ZONE BELOW —

If you are familiar with Korean cinema you probably know Yoo Hae-jin ( Veteran , 2015; The Classified File , 2015; Tazza, 2006) by now, he plays the loudmouth Jin-tae with his signature acting style that I might describe as “serious hilarity.” Known for his unique face and the ability to go from the deepest ends of the dramatic spectrum to suddenly making you laugh within just one sentence of dialogue, Yoo Hae-jin is seemingly capable of playing just about any character. He is contrasted by the dashingly handsome Hyun Bin (The Fatal Encounter, 2014), whose character, Lim, remains serious and deadpan most of the movie.

secret assignment movie

Jin-tae and Lim continually cat and mouse each other trying to get the upper hand in the investigation for their respective governments. This results in a lot of back and forth banter that plays not only to their hilarious physical differences, but to the ideological differences of their governments as well. Jin-tae often talks about what little money he earns and how this joint investigation will restore his reputation and fast track him to earning “the big bucks” with dreams of sending his daughter through school, getting his sister-in-law married, and buying a nice big house for his wife. He is always in a state of unrest and saying things like, “It’s not worth it considering what they’re paying us!” At home he can’t sleep without being bothered to buy the new iPhone for his daughter, and several scenes have him unhappily taking out the garbage to highlight the needs and desires for consumption in a capitalistic economy.

While Lim on the other hand, even with his prime motivation being revenge rather than money, tends to talk more about the pride and comradery of his countrymen. He takes offense to any hostile words directed towards the regime and would readily die for his country. He brings up the wealth disparity in the South and responds to Jin-tae’s, “At least we’re not all poor and hungry!” with , “At least we’re poor and hungry together!” This banter helps to establish the dichotomy of their characters and adds an interesting layer to the conflict they must work through in order to see eye to eye in the end, a paramount feature of the buddy cop movie.

secret assignment movie

There are some exciting action sequences in Confidential Assignment  set to a very cool action anthem. It is pretty awesome when Lim goes tearing through Korean Triad members 아저씨 (The Man from Nowhere, 2010) style while Jin-tae does a clumsy Jacky Chan in a few entertaining brawls, shootouts, and car chases that do more than enough to get your blood pumping. But some of the best scenes come when Jin-tae brings Lim home with him and gets to meet his family. The interactions among his family members as they have breakfast together and get to know this mysterious new partner of Jin-tae’s are a real treat to watch. These family-time moments give the film a great balance between its action side and widen its overall appeal, making it easy to see why the film has done so well at the box office this year (currently the #1 film of the year).

confidential-assignment-9

Confidential Assignment is a strong and somewhat unique addition to the buddy cop universe . The final act becomes quite cliched  and gets caught up in that Korean movie tradition of dragging on a bit longer than necessary. It is a bit frustrating when the first 90 minutes are outstanding but the last 30 sort of disappoint. Fortunately the performances and action sequences are strong enough to get you to the finish in this one. If you get a chance,  definitely check out Confidential Assignment because there is a lot of fun to be had here .

NADIA: The Secret of Blue Water (Novamedia) – Blu-ray Unboxing

On the beach at night alone (2017) – korean movie review.

' src=

Tyler Colosimo

' src=

Sounds like a good movie to watch how cultures borrow from one another, yet each has distinctive and unique characteristics. Makes it interesting for the country of origin and all other audiences. Thanks!

Latest Reviews

Best Korean Crime Noirs

Support & Community

Stay updated with the latest news and reviews.

PARASITE Unboxing Korean Limited Edition

PARASITE (2019) – 4K Steelbook Blu-ray ...

secret assignment movie

PARASITE (2020) Dolby Vision vs HDR coloring

secret assignment movie

Voice of Silence (Blu-ray) Korean Normal Vers ...

secret assignment movie

Keys to the Heart (2018) – Korean Movie ...

Scary Little Girl Dolls The Closet Korean Movie Review

The Closet (2020) – Korean Movie Review

Beasts Clawing at Straws Korean Movie Review

Beasts Clawing at Straws (2020) – Korea ...

' src=

Angel Donations

If you enjoy this content and would like to support our ability to continue to update and increase the quality of our content.

secret assignment movie

Left Menu

  • LIVE DISCOURSE
  • BLOG / OPINION
  • SUBMIT PRESS RELEASE
  • Advertisement
  • Knowledge Partnership
  • Media Partnership
  • Art & Culture

Confidential Assignment 2 is gearing for September release! Everything you need to know before watching!

Confidential Assignment 2 is gearing for September release! Everything you need to know before watching!

The sequel to the 2017 film, Confidential Assignment 2: International (Korean: 공조2; Hanja: 共助2; RR: Gongjo 2; lit. Cooperation 2) is an upcoming South Korean action movie under the direction of Lee Suk-hoon. The film is gearing up for its premiere in September 2022.

One of the recently released posters of the Confidential Assignment 2 shows the three officers in pursuit of a criminal. The poster comes with the caption that reads, ‘Will blow up massively’. The poster introduces new characters for this film. The movie welcomes two new stars, Daniel Henney and Jin Sun Kyu. Daniel will be seen to play the role of Jack, an FBI detective from the United States while Jin Sun Kyu plays the role of Jang MyungJoon, the leader of a criminal organization.

Girls’ Generation’s YoonA will also reprise her role as Park Min Young, the sister-in-law of Kang Jin Tae.

secret assignment movie

 In the second poster, the three officials are seen with handcuffs binding them to each other where Jang MyungJoon and Park Min Young stand at the side, smiling.  It seems they want to mean their plans are also in chains with each other. The poster announces the release, ‘This Chuseok, ‘Confidential Assignment’ is back.”

secret assignment movie

Confidential Assignment 2 is all about a secret cooperative investigation between North and South Korea. Im Cheol-ryung is heading back to South Korea to team up again with Kang Jin-tae (played by YooHae-jin) to chase the criminal. Hyun Bin will reprise his role Im Cheol-ryung, an officer of a special investigation team in North Korea. He teamed up with a South Korean detective named Kang Jin-tae (YooHae-jin) to catch the notorious criminals. Read the synopsis below.

"North Korean detective ImChul-Ryung is sent to South Korea on a new mission. His target is North Korean crime organization leader Jang Myung-Joon (Jin Sun-kyu). In South Korea, ImChul-ryung teams up again with Detective Kang Jin-Tae Because of a mistake he made, Detective Kang Jin-Tae now works in a cybercrime investigation team rather than the regional investigation unit. He wants to rejoin the regional investigation unit. Meanwhile, F.B.I. Agent Jack joins ImChul-ryung and Kang Jin-tae in their pursuit of Jang Myung-Joon."

Confidential Assignment 2 will release in September 2022. Stay tuned to get more updates on South Korean movies and K-dramas. Watch the teaser below!

Also Read: Happiness Season 2: Everything we know so far

Olympics-Paris 2024 venues get seats made from recycled plastic

Olympics-Paris 2024 venues get seats made from recycled plastic

Singtel implements world’s first app-based network slicing technology

Singtel implements world’s first app-based network slicing technology

UNIQLO, UNHCR launch “Hope Away from Home” created to support refugees

UNIQLO, UNHCR launch “Hope Away from Home” created to support refugees

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf announces intra-party elections on march 3

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf announces intra-party elections on march 3

Latest news, soccer-olympic berth in balance as north korea hold japan to draw, people will show exit door to congress in himachal pradesh: union minister anurag thakur, richa, meghana fifties carry rcb to 157 for 6 against warriorz, indraprastha university launches ph.d in sports injury.

secret assignment movie

OPINION / BLOG / INTERVIEW

Screenplay of tomorrow: navigating the digital renaissance in entertainment and media, empowering wellness: navigating the future with health tech's wearables and telemedicine, the green grid: powering up a sustainable world with renewable energy, soaring into the future: the drone revolution transforming india's agriculture, connect us on.

  • ADVERTISEMENT
  • KNOWLEDGE PARTNERSHIP
  • MEDIA PARTNERSHIP
  • Agro-Forestry
  • Economy & Business
  • Energy & Extractives
  • Law & Governance
  • Science & Environment
  • Social & Gender
  • Urban Development
  • East and South East Asia
  • Europe and Central Asia
  • Central Africa
  • East Africa
  • Southern Africa
  • West Africa
  • Middle East and North Africa
  • North America
  • Latin America and Caribbean

OTHER LINKS

  • Write for us
  • Submit Press Release
  • Opinion / Blog / Analysis
  • Business News
  • Entertainment News
  • Technology News
  • Law-order News
  • Lifestyle News
  • National News
  • International News

OTHER PRODUCTS

Email: [email protected] Phone: +91-720-6444012, +91-7027739813, 14, 15

© Copyright 2024

Web Analytics Made Easy - Statcounter

Moviefone logo

Secret Assignment

Secret Assignment

Cast & Crew

Movie details, nakano school collection.

Assignment Cloud poster

Popular Mystery Movies

Thanksgiving poster

Movie Reviews

Dune: Part Two poster

Follow Moviefone

Movie trailers.

'Peter Rabid' Trailer

Join or Sign In

Sign in to customize your TV listings

By joining TV Guide, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy .

  • TV Listings
  • Cast & Crew

Secret Assignment - Full Cast & Crew

  • 2 hr 1 mins
  • Watchlist Where to Watch

During World War I, four Italian agents seek German saboteurs. Massimo Serato, Umberto Spadaro, Carlo Ninchi, Vivi Gioi.

  • Coming Soon Theaters • Online
  • Advanced Search
  • Collections Top 500
  • Recommendations Movies • TV Shows
  • Search by Name
  • Popular Top 500
  • My TV Shows
  • My Calendar
  • Coming Soon Premieres

Watching

Movie's ratings

  • Cast & Crew
  • Technical Data

Secret Assignment

Senza bandiera.

  • Black and White

Sign up and you will see here friends impressions of the movie.

Friends comments and ratings, trending movies.

Priscilla

The best website for movie search and thoughts sharing with friends

  • Browser extension

Find anything you save across the site in your account

50 Best Spy Movies That’ll Keep You on the Edge of Your Seat

secret assignment movie

By Paulina Jayne Isaac

50 Best Spy Movies Thatll Keep You on the Edge of Your Seat

The best spy movies make you feel like you’re a real-deal secret agent, even if it is just for a couple hours. Most of us will never jet around the world for a secret mission, jump out of a plane to evade an enemy, have top-notch gadgets or be involved in a high-speed car chase. But we can escape into a thrilling adventure via a streaming service without ever having to leave the couch. 

Another thing the best spy movies have in common: unpredictability. The stakes are high, the agents are well trained, and you have no idea what they’ll do next. Whether you’re watching Jason Bourne being pursued by assassins, James Bond (Sean Connery or Daniel Craig) tackling his latest assignment, or the Spy Kids embarking on an adventure, the only thing you can trust is that you’ll be entertained until the final credits roll. 

Our list of best spy film is so good, it should be classified information—but for you we’ll make an exception. Once you’re done, we suggest checking out our guide to the best mystery movies or the best action movies to keep the thrills going.

All products featured on Glamour are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

The Courier

The Courier (2020)

Not all British spy movies are about James Bond. Benedict Cumberbatch, Rachel Brosnahan, and more favorites star in this historical drama about a British businessman who’s recruited by both MI6 and the CIA to deliver secret messages to an agent in Russia during the Cold War. The tense espionage story, based on true events, will have you hooked until the end. 

  Available to stream on Amazon Prime Video

THE BOURNE IDENTITY MATT DAMON 2002

The Bourne Identity (2002)

Matt Damon is the title character, Jason Bourne, in this first installment of the popular Bourne franchise. Based on Robert Ludlum’s novel of the same name, the movie is about a man (Bourne) who has experienced extreme memory loss and slowly begins to realize that he is a highly trained operative. As expected, a lot of action ensues.

Available to rent on Amazon Prime Video

THE BOURNE SUPREMACY Julia Stiles Matt Damon 2004

The Bourne Supremacy (2004)

Two years later, we meet Jason Bourne again in his journey as a former CIA assassin suffering from amnesia. Except in this sequel, he is framed for a mission that went sideways. Because of this, he’s forced to return to his specialty of being an incredibly skilled assassin.

ENEMY OF THE STATE Will Smith 1998

Enemy of the State (1998)

Will Smith brings the action with this political thriller. Picture this: You’re a lawyer who accidentally obtains a tape of a murder and ends up being chased by secret agents. Yeah, that’s exactly what Smith’s character, Robert Clayton Dean, has to deal with this film. Not exactly the best situation to find yourself in….

By Kathleen Walsh

By Emily Tannenbaum

By Stephanie McNeal

BRIDGE OF SPIES from left Billy Magnussen Mark Rylance Tom Hanks 2015

Bridge of Spies (2015)

Any movie that combines Tom Hanks’s star power with Steven Spielberg’s directing is destined to be a success. This Cold War–era movie tells the true story of American lawyer James B. Donovan (Hanks), who defended Soviet KGB spy Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance) in court. Because of this, he ends up working with the CIA to exchange the spy for a captured American pilot. 

The Best Laptop Bags for Every Kind of Commuter

Skyfall (2012)

Bond, James Bond. The famous British spy comes back in Skyfall , the 23rd movie (yes, you read that correctly) in the long-running franchise, and Daniel Craig’s take on the character is one of the best. Bond’s allegiance is tested after the head of MI6 (a.k.a. his boss) has to deal with the consequences of her past actions coming to light.

DUPLICITY Julia Roberts 2009

Duplicity (2009)

With Duplicity , you get one of the best espionage movies and a romance. The movie shows what happens when two agents and rival spies find themselves attracted to each other. Julia Roberts and Clive Owen’s chemistry boils over in the story of an MI6 agent (Owen) and a CIA officer (Roberts) who try to do their jobs despite their complicated romantic history.

ARGO Ben Affleck on set

Argo (2012)

There’s a reason this drama won best picture at the 85th Academy Awards. Ben Affleck starred in and directed this true story of a CIA agent who goes undercover as a Hollywood producer in order to rescue six American diplomats in Tehran during the 1979 Itanian hostage crisis.

SNEAKERS Sidney Poitier 1992

Sneakers (1992)

Good spy movies are often associated with tense drama, but they can be funny too. Case in point: Sneakers , the 1992 comedy with an all-star cast of Sidney Poitier, Robert Redford, Ben Kingsley, River Phoenix, and Dan Aykroyd. The film, about a group of hackers who become involved in a government scheme, weaves intrigue in with its easy-breezy tone.

ZERO DARK THIRTY Jessica Chastain 2012

Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

The nearly decade-long hunt for al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was widely reported at the time. But it’s an entirely different experience to watch the events that led up to his 2011 capture and death displayed onscreen. Jessica Chastain stars as the fictional CIA intelligence operative behind the operation. 

Available to stream on Prime Video

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE Tom Cruise 1996

Mission: Impossible (1996)

Movies like Mission: Impossible are why this genre is so popular. The first of seven movies—and there’s an eighth on the way!—introduces us to Tom Cruise’s famous character Ethan Hunt, an American agent suspected of being disloyal. Ethan sets out to clear his name by finding the spy who is responsible for his tainted reputation…without the help of his organization. 

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE  FALLOUT from left Henry Cavill Angela Bassett 2018

Mission: Impossible — Fallout (2018)

As we mentioned, there are several Mission: Impossible films you can check out. But arguably the best sequel is 2018’s Fallout , which adds Henry Cavill, Angela Bassett, and Vanessa Kirby to the cast. The action scenes are bigger, the stakes are higher, and Henry Cavill and Tom Cruise have surprising chemistry as opposing agents.

NORTH BY NORTHWEST from left Cary Grant Eva Marie Saint 1959

North by Northwest (1959)

This Alfred Hitchcock–directed romantic thriller follows a New York advertising exec (Cary Grant) who goes on the run after being mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies. Fun fact: The movie was the inspiration behind the name of the popular Texas festival South by Southwest .

SPIES IN DISGUISE from left Walter Beckett  Lance Sterling  2019.

Spies in Disguise (2019)

While most of the movies on this list are not kid-friendly fare , Spies in Disguise is something that all ages can enjoy. Lance Sterling (Will Smith) is a secret agent who, oops, gets turned into a pigeon by a young scientist (Tom Holland). Naturally, they must work together to save the day.

THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR from left Robert Redford Faye Dunaway 1975

Three Days of the Condor (1975)

Imagine walking into your office only to find that all of your coworkers have been killed. Robert Redford (Turner) has to face exactly that in this 1970s film. After he realizes CIA higher-ups are behind the murders, he has no one left to trust and is forced to figure out how to survive even though there’s a hit man trying to kill him.

SPY GAME from left Brad Pitt Robert Redford 2001

Spy Game (2001)

As you’ll see on this list, Robert Redford and Brad Pitt are both in a lot of spy movies. It works for them! In Spy Game , they portray retiring CIA agent Nathan Muir (Redford) and his protégé, Tom Bishop (Pitt). Nathan must get back in the game in order to save Tom, who gets captured in China and charged with espionage. 

A MOST WANTED MAN from left Robin Wright Philip Seymour Hoffman 2014

A Most Wanted Man (2014)

During the war on terror, a young man (Grigoriy Dobrygin) arrives in Hamburg, Germany, claiming an inheritance. He’s suspected of ties to Chechen terrorists, but agent Günther Bachmann (Phillip Seymour Hoffman, in one of his last roles before his death) believes the man is innocent.

LUST CAUTION  Wei Tang Tony Leung Chiu Wai 2007.

Lust, Caution (2007)

Director Ang Lee helmed this film from the 1979 novella by Eileen Chang, which is loosely based on real events during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai in the late 1930s and early ’40s. It’s a beautifully shot film but definitely not safe for work: The movie’s sex scenes earned it an NC-17 rating in the United States when it was released.

ALLIED Marion Cotillard 2016.

Allied (2016)

Remember when we said you’d see a lot of Brad Pitt on this list? In this spy drama, Pitt and Marion Cotillard play an intelligence officer and a French resistance fighter who fall in love and attempt to live a more domestic life. Just one problem: Cotillard’s character may or may not be a secret German spy. 

CASINO ROYALE Caterina Murino  Daniel Craig as James Bond 2006

Casino Royale (2006)

This is the first movie in which Daniel Craig played the famed James Bond. In it he receives his first mission as 007: defeat a banker funding terrorists. He’s just received his license to kill and is ready to take on the enemy by beating him in a high-stakes poker game at Casino Royale in Montenegro.

BURN AFTER READING from left Brad Pitt Frances McDormand 2008

Burn After Reading (2008)

One thing that no spy wants is for their sensitive information to wind up in the wrong hands. Especially when the person who finds the information wants to sell it. That’s the premise of this dark comedy starring Brad Pitt (yes, him again!), Frances McDormand, and George Clooney. Hilarity ensues as the situation continues to escalate.

Available to stream on IMDB TV

DEBS Devon Aoki Meagan Good Sara Foster 2004

D.E.B.S. (2004)

D.E.B.S. was not a hit at the box office or with critics when it came out in 2004, but it has since gained a cult following for its fun and unique story about a group of young female spies in training called—you guessed it—D.E.B.S. (the acronym stands for discipline, energy, beauty, and strength). 

ATOMIC BLONDE from left Charlize Theron Sofia Boutella 2017

Atomic Blonde (2017)

Leave it to Charlize Theron to get the job done. There aren’t enough female spy movies out there, but if anyone ever tries to tell you that’s not concerning, just point them to the incredible Atomic Blonde . Theron’s character, Lorraine Broughton, is an undercover elite MI6 agent who is sent to Germany during the Cold War to find a missing list of double agents. During her journey, she has to use her lethal skills to complete the mission.

CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR Tom Hanks Amy Adams Julia Roberts 2007.

Charlie Wilson’s War (2007)

Why is it that some of the most unbelievable movies about the CIA are based on real life? In this unlikely tale based on a true story, Philip Seymour Hoffman appears alongside Tom Hanks, Amy Adams, and Julia Roberts. Hanks leads as Texas congressman Charlie Wilson, who formed an allegiance with Texas socialite Joanne Herring (Roberts) and CIA agent Gust Avrakotos (Hoffman) to raise funds for Afghan freedom fighters in their war against the Soviet Union. 

SAFE HOUSE Denzel Washington 2012

Safe House (2012)

Ryan Reynolds plays a CIA agent with his first mission: overseeing a safe house in Cape Town. Denzel Washington is a veteran operative who is accused of going rogue and taken to the safe house for questioning. As you can imagine, a lot of drama, thrills, and chaos follows. 

HANNA Saoirse Ronan  2011

Hanna (2011)

Saoirse Ronan stars in the title role about a teenager who was raised by her dad, an ex-CIA agent, to be a soldier. With her strength and lowered sense of fear, she becomes the perfect assassin. But then a murderous intelligence agent arrives looking to hunt her down.

THE GOOD SHEPHERD Robert DeNiro Matt Damon 2006

The Good Shepherd (2006)

Matt Damon again tests his talents at playing a spy in this Robert De Niro flick. In this one, Damon stars as Edward Wilson, one of the founding members of the CIA. Throughout the semibiographical film, we get to see the birth of the agency through Edward’s eyes.

DIE ANOTHER DAY Halle Berry Pierce Brosnan 2002

Die Another Day (2002)

This is the fourth and final film in which Pierce Brosnan starred as MI6 agent James Bond, but what we really need to talk about is Halle Berry’s famous appearance in that orange bikini. As NSA agent Jinx Johnson, she was a revelation and held her own against 007.

KINGSMAN THE SECRET SERVICE Colin Firth 2014.

Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014)

Colin Firth and Taron Egerton star in Kingsman: The Secret Service , the first in the franchise about a top-secret spy organization that recruits a promising kid (Egerton) into its training program while battling an emerging threat. The action-comedy sets up its sequels that follow the organization’s global missions.

KINGSMAN THE GOLDEN CIRCLE lr Channing Tatum Halle Berry 2017. ph Giles KeyteTM and copyright ©20th Century Fox Film...

Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)

We told you there were Kingsman sequels. The Golden Circle finds Eggsy (Taron Egerton) enlisting the help of the Statesman, his American spy counterparts, after a drug cartel holds the world hostage. Look out for a very entertaining cameo from Elton John. 

JUMPIN' JACK FLASH Whoopi Goldberg 1986

Jumpin’ Jack Flash (1986)

Did you know that Jumpin’ Jack Flash was the late great Penny Marshall’s directorial debut? Whoopi Goldberg stars as Terry Doolittle, a well-liked computer operator at a New York City bank. Everything is normal until one night she receives a mysterious message from a man claiming to be a British intelligence officer being chased by the KGB and gets embroiled in the case. 

THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. lr Henry Cavill Armie Hammer 2015.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (2015)

Another spy movie set during the Cold War! In this one, CIA agent Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill) and KGB operative Illya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer) join forces to stop a mysterious criminal organization trying to gain more nuclear weapons. The two spies must learn to put aside their differences in order to achieve their mission.

MUNICH Eric Bana Geoffrey Rush 2005

Munich (2005)

Is it possible for the good guy to end up on the wrong side? That’s a question that plagues Eric Bana’s character, Avner Kaufman, in this historical thriller. After eight members of the terrorist group Black September murder 11 Israeli athletes and their coach at the 1972 Olympics, the Israeli government sends Avner to retaliate. But as the number of kills increases, Bana’s character begins to wonder whether his actions are truly for the greater good.

Available to stream on Cinemax

TRUE LIES Tia Carrere Arnold Schwarzenegger 1994

True Lies (1994)

So many aspects of this movie make it an entertaining watch. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a spy whose family thinks he is a salesman with lots of business trips. So when he discovers that his wife (Jamie Lee Curtis) is considering having an affair with a man (Bill Paxton) pretending to be a spy, he tries to win her over again—all while trying to stop a group of international terrorists led by Tia Carrere.

Available to buy on Amazon Prime Video  

M. BUTTERFLY Jeremy Irons John Lone 1993

M. Butterfly (1993)

A French diplomat (Jeremy Irons) assigned to Beijing falls in love with an opera performer (John Lone) who is tasked with spying on him for the government. There’s more to the story than that, but we’ll refrain from giving away too many spoilers. 

SALT Angelina Jolie 2010

Salt (2010)

What’s interesting about this movie is that it was originally written for a male protagonist, with Tom Cruise attached to the project. The script was later rewritten specifically for Angelina Jolie, and we think it’s better for it. Jolie plays a CIA agent who goes on the run after she’s accused of being a double agent. The film received rave reviews for Jolie’s acting and grossed almost $300 million at the box office.

SNOWDEN from left Joseph GordonLevitt Shailene Woodley

Snowden (2016)

Most spy movies are about protecting classified documents. That’s not the case in this biographical film about Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who leaked information about the NSA’s illegal mass surveillance. This drama starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt follows the events surrounding the breach of national security that had global consequences.

THE SUM OF ALL FEARS Ben Affleck Morgan Freeman 2002.

The Sum of All Fears (2002)

Ben Affleck stars as CIA analyst Jack Ryan in this spy thriller based on Tom Clancy’s 1991 novel of the same name. Morgan Freeman appears as William Cabot, director of the agency, who works with Ryan to try to stop a plot to start a nuclear war. 

TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY from left David Dencik Gary Oldman 2011

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

You know things are serious when you’re forced out of retirement to handle a mission. During the Cold War, a veteran (Gary Oldman) works to uncover a Soviet agent within MI6. The film is based on the novel of the same name and also stars Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Tom Hardy.

Available to stream on HBO Max

THE CONVERSATION Gene Hackman 1974

The Conversation (1974)

This mystery follows a slightly paranoid and extremely secretive surveillance expert who begins to believe that the couple he’s been spying on might be in danger. He takes things into his own hands to do everything he can to figure out whether the couple will or won’t be murdered.

RED from left Helen Mirren Bruce Willis Morgan Freeman 2010.

Based on the comic books of the same name, this first film of a series is a comedic take on the story of retired CIA agent Frank Moses (Bruce Willis), whose life is threatened by assassins and a former black-ops agent. The acronym RED is used to describe Frank because he is retired and extremely dangerous.

Available to stream on Showtime

SHINING THROUGH Michael Douglas Melanie Griffith 1992

Shining Through (1992)

During World War II, an American woman of Irish and Jewish-German descent, played by Melanie Griffith, agrees to go undercover in Nazi Germany in order to uncover information regarding a German bomb. The stakes are high—and made even higher when another agent betrays her.

Image may contain Vest Clothing Lifejacket Apparel Human Person Face Water Transportation and Vehicle

Spy Kids (2001)

People of all ages love this family movie about a brother and sister (Alexa Vega, Daryl Sabara) who become involved in their parents’ espionage. Director Robert Rodriguez called the film “Willy Wonka meets James Bond,” to give you an idea of the tone.

Available to stream on Starz

Image may contain Human Person Transportation Vehicle Motorcycle Motor Scooter Vespa and Scooter

Directed by Bridesmaids auteur Paul Feig, Spy stars Melissa McCarthy as a desk-bound CIA employee who becomes a field agent. Jude Law, Rose Byrne, Jason Statham, Bobby Cannavale, and Allison Janney round out the cast in this hilarious action comedy.

THE 355 from left Penelope Cruz Jessica Chastain Diane Kruger Lupita Nyong'o 2021. ph Robert Viglasky  © Universal...

The 355 (2021)

Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, Penelope Cruz, Fan Bingbing, and Diane Kruger are a group of international spies who must work together to save the world. Cool—but what does “355” stand for? The title is a nod to the real-life Agent 355, the code name of a female patriot in the American Revolutionary War and one of the country’s first spies.

Available to stream on Amazon Prime Video

BLACK WIDOW from left Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow David Harbour as Red Guardian Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova...

Black Widow (2021)

You don’t have to be a huge Marvel fan to appreciate this standalone film centered around Natasha Romanoff, a.k.a. Black Widow. The movie has all the explosions, fight scenes, and intrigue you’d expect from an action flick starring a former SHIELD agent while also delivering heartwarming themes about sisterhood and found family. 

Available to stream on Disney+

The Gray Man .  Ana de Armas as Dani Miranda Ryan Gosling as Six. Cr. Paul AbellNetflix © 2022

The Gray Man (2022)

The Gray Man is one of the most expensive movies ever made by Netflix, and it shows. The cast is stacked with actors like Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Regé-Jean Page, Alfre Woodard, and Billy Bob Thorton. The Russo brothers—as in, the guys behind Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Avengers: Endgame —direct. And the plot takes the movie’s hero, Six, an assassin on the run after he discovers compromising details about his CIA handler, everywhere from Bangkok to Prague to Croatia. It’s one of this year’s best summer movies , full stop.

Available to stream on Netflix

RED NOTICE from left Ryan Reynolds Gal Gadot Dwayen Johnson 2021. ph Frank Masi  © Netflix  Courtesy Everett Collection

Red Notice (2021)

There are a lot of spy movies on Netflix, but few are as fun as this film about an FBI agent (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) who teams up with a notorious art thief (Ryan Reynolds) in order to catch an even more notorious art thief (Gal Gadot). What follows is an entertaining, if somewhat predictable, heist movie made charming by Johnson and Reynolds’s banter. 

Available to stream on Netflix.

TENET from left Robert Pattinson John David Washington 2020. ph Melinda Sue Gordon  © Warner Bros.  Courtesy Everett...

Tenet (2020)

A CIA agent learns how to manipulate time in order to prevent future attacks in this sci-fi thriller written and directed by Christopher Nolan. Warning: You probably won’t understand what’s going on for the majority of the movie. Just go with it. You’ll be satisfied by the end. 

Available to stream on Hulu

NO TIME TO DIE from left Daniel Craig Ana de Armas 2020. ph Nicola Dove  © MGM  Courtesy Everett Collection

No Time to Die (2020)

This James Bond film marks Daniel Craig’s last as 007, and many argue it’s his best. It certainly doesn’t hurt that the script was cowritten by Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Also great: Ana de Armas, who is so memorable as a CIA agent that people have been calling for her to take over the franchise next. 

The Best Laptop Bags for Every Kind of Commuter

By Jake Smith

The 10 Best Vibrators For Every Desire, According to Our Sex Toy Testers

By Suzannah Weiss

11 Best Liquid Highlighters for Glazed Skin With Minimal Effort

By Denise Primbet

21 Celebrities With Gray Hair Who Are Fully Embracing the Look

By Elizabeth Logan

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, the assignment.

secret assignment movie

Now streaming on:

“ The Assignment ” is a film that arrives in theaters having already inspired vast outpourings of anger from two groups —the transgender community, which appears to be offended by its very premise, and action buffs, who are put off both by the premise (albeit for different reasons) and what they feel is a lazy execution that fails to offer the requisite thrills. While I am sympathetic to the complaints of both groups (somewhat more for the former) and recognize that it is indeed deeply flawed in many areas, I cannot quite agree with either. This is a modestly scaled B-movie by one of the best genre filmmakers of our time, Walter Hill , that has enough skill and personality going for it to make it worth checking out, even if it doesn’t quite live up (or down, depending on your perspective) to its borderline sleazy premise.

And what is that premise, you ask? In a nutshell, Frank Kitchen ( Michelle Rodriguez … just keep reading) is a ruthless San Francisco hitman who runs afoul of Dr. Rachel Kay ( Sigourney Weaver ), a brilliant but deranged surgeon who has lost her license for conducting various rogue experiments. Frank kills Dr. Kay’s brother, and the good doctor seeks vengeance and experimental research into the importance of physical identity on the psyche. She arranges with crime boss Honest John Hartunian ( Anthony LaPaglia ) to have him grab Frank and bring him to her secret lab, where she proceeds to perform gender reassignment surgery on him. Dr. Kay asserts that the surgery will take away Frank’s desire to kill. Needless to say, Frank sees things a little differently, and, once she discovers that the surgery cannot be reversed, she methodically hatches a grisly revenge plot on everyone involved with her transformation from Honest John and his goons all the way up to Dr. Kay. Helping Frank in her quest is Johnnie ( Caitlin Gerard ), a nurse with whom Frank had a one-night stand before his transformation and who doesn’t seem particularly nonplussed by recent developments, though it seems that she may be harboring a few secrets of her own.

At first blush, one can easily understand why the transgender community might be a tad put off by the very existence of “The Assignment,” but the actual film is nowhere near as offensive as it might initially seem. For one thing, the film as a whole is so willfully and deliberately pulpy in tone (I could easily see a short version of this tale fitting perfectly into the confines of a “ Sin City ” film) that it is hard to take the alleged provocations on display with any degree of seriousness—this is a film that is so archetypal in nature that the sort-of sweethearts at its center are literally named Frank(ie) and Johnnie. Additionally, to suggest that Frank is meant to represent all transgender people is nonsense because he is clearly not one himself, and, outside of the obvious physical construct, little about him changes after undergoing his forced surgery. I would also point out that no less of a filmmaker than Pedro Almodovar used the notion of unwilling gender reassignment surgery as a plot point in his own unabashed genre exercise, “ The Skin I Live In ,” and no one seemed especially put off by it even though the deployment there was arguably more questionable from a taste perspective than what is seen here.

That said, “The Assignment” is still a problematic work in many ways from a purely cinematic perspective. The screenplay by Hill & Denis Hamill (which Hill has been toying with since the late ‘70s) is an awkward construction with much of the story presented in a series of flashbacks, as the now-incarcerated Dr. Kay recounts the story to another psychiatrist ( Tony Shalhoub ). This concept is especially problematic since Hill is at his best when he allows characters to define themselves purely through their actions instead of relentlessly explaining themselves as they do here. The film also screams out for a more overtly stylized visual treatment in the vein of something like his great “ Streets of Fire ”—a fact underlined by the occasional bits of black-and-white photography and comic book-style transitions—that might have also helped to underscore the kind of pulpy approach Hill was clearly going for. Another big problem, at least at first, is the casting of Michelle Rodriguez as Frank. There is nothing wrong with her performance but the early scenes in which she portrays the male version of Frank, complete with a wildly unconvincing beard and a lingering close-up of his genitalia for good measure, do inspire a few bad laughs right when the film is trying to establish itself. For some viewers, it may never recover from that.

For those who can get beyond that, “The Assignment” contains plenty of points of interest. Sigourney Weaver is pretty much a blast throughout as the snidely condescending doctor who sets all of the events into motion. As for Rodriguez, once she sheds the beard, her performance improves greatly. Obviously, we know she can do the steely-eyed badass stuff as well as anyone else but she also gets a couple of quieter moments amidst the chaos where she displays a more vulnerable side without stepping out of character—in one, she consults a doctor about whether the surgery can be reversed and begins shyly inquiring about certain personal details regarding her new equipment. In the other, she is about to go to bed with Johnnie when she realizes that she has no idea of how to approach lovemaking from a female perspective. (“You’ll do fine,” she is reassured in a line that is both funny and strangely touching.) As for Hill, while he is clearly working with a lower budget than usual here (with Vancouver substituting, not too convincingly, for San Francisco), he is still able to establish a convincingly noir attitude toward the material and the scenes of violence are done in a spare and economical style that is a relief from the over-the-top pyrotechnics of most current action films. (He also gets bonus points for employing Giorgio Moroder to deliver a cheerfully retro synth score.)

It is easy to see how the dramatic excesses of the plot could prove offensive to the transgender community, though I can just as easily see “The Assignment” one day becoming a cult favorite in the way that the once-controversial “ Cruising ” would eventually find some fans within the gay community that once scorned it. As an exercise in unapologetic pulp fiction, it gets the job done in a smart, efficient and slyly subversive manner. As the latest entry in the Walter Hill filmography, it definitely belongs on the second tier. Even though it may not be the equal to a classic like “ The Driver ” or “Streets of Fire,” it will do until that next masterwork does come along.

Peter Sobczynski

Peter Sobczynski

A moderately insightful critic, full-on Swiftie and all-around  bon vivant , Peter Sobczynski, in addition to his work at this site, is also a contributor to The Spool and can be heard weekly discussing new Blu-Ray releases on the Movie Madness podcast on the Now Playing network.

Now playing

secret assignment movie

Brian Tallerico

secret assignment movie

Glenn Kenny

secret assignment movie

Perfect Days

secret assignment movie

The Seeding

Simon abrams.

secret assignment movie

Under the Fig Trees

Carlos aguilar.

secret assignment movie

Monica Castillo

Film credits.

The Assignment movie poster

The Assignment (2017)

Rated R for graphic nudity, violence, sexuality, language and drug use.

Michelle Rodriguez as Frank Kitchen / Tomboy

Sigourney Weaver as Dr. Rachel Kay

Tony Shalhoub as Dr. Ralph Galen

Caitlin Gerard as Johnnie

Anthony LaPaglia as Honest John Hartunian

Paul McGillion as Paul Wincott

  • Walter Hill

Writer (story)

  • Denis Hamill

Cinematographer

  • James Liston
  • Phil Norden
  • Giorgio Moroder
  • Raney Shockne

Latest blog posts

secret assignment movie

The Enduring Laughs—and Life—of Harold Ramis

secret assignment movie

The Internet Will Never Let Russell Crowe Forget Les Miserables

secret assignment movie

Berlin Film Festival 2024: Honoree Martin Scorsese Honors Powell and Pressburger

secret assignment movie

All That Kong: When Bob Fosse Wanted to Make a King Kong Movie

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Rotten Tomatoes Newsletter

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

  • Upcoming Movies and TV shows
  • Trivia & Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
  • Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

Movies / TV

No results found.

  • What's the Tomatometer®?
  • Login/signup

secret assignment movie

Movies in theaters

  • Opening this week
  • Top box office
  • Coming soon to theaters
  • Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

  • Netflix streaming
  • Amazon prime
  • Most popular streaming movies
  • What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

  • Dune: Part Two Link to Dune: Part Two
  • Io Capitano Link to Io Capitano
  • Orion and the Dark Link to Orion and the Dark

New TV Tonight

  • Star Wars: The Bad Batch: Season 3
  • The Second Best Hospital in The Galaxy: Season 1
  • Constellation: Season 1
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender: Season 1
  • Can I Tell You A Secret?: Season 1
  • Last Week Tonight With John Oliver: Season 11
  • James Brown: Say It Loud: Season 1

Most Popular TV on RT

  • Shōgun: Season 1
  • One Day: Season 1
  • True Detective: Season 4
  • Halo: Season 2
  • House of Ninjas: Season 1
  • One Piece: Season 1
  • Resident Alien: Season 3
  • A Killer Paradox: Season 1
  • Best TV Shows
  • Most Popular TV
  • TV & Streaming News
  • Prime Video

Certified fresh pick

  • Curb Your Enthusiasm: Season 12 Link to Curb Your Enthusiasm: Season 12
  • All-Time Lists
  • Binge Guide
  • Comics on TV
  • Five Favorite Films
  • Video Interviews
  • Weekend Box Office
  • Weekly Ketchup
  • What to Watch

Berlin Film Festival 2024: Movie Scorecard

All Coen Brothers Movies Ranked by Tomatometer

Black Heritage

Golden Tomato Awards: Best Movies & TV of 2023

Avatar: The Last Airbender First Reviews: It Isn’t Perfect, but It’s Respectful of the Original and Fun

TV Premiere Dates 2024

  • Trending on RT
  • Play Movie Trivia
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender First Reviews
  • Dune: Part Two First Reviews
  • Most Anticipated Movies

Secret Invasion

Where to watch.

Watch Secret Invasion with a subscription on Disney+.

Cast & Crew

Kyle Bradstreet

Samuel L. Jackson

Ben Mendelsohn

Olivia Colman

Sonya Falsworth

Emilia Clarke

Kingsley Ben-Adir

Popular TV on Streaming

Tv news & guides, this show is featured in the following articles., series info.

  • International edition
  • Australia edition
  • Europe edition

Zoe in Can I Tell You a Secret?

Can I Tell You a Secret? review – this superb documentary perfectly evokes the horror of cyberstalking

Detailed, personal, terrifying … this excellent two-parter follows a Guardian investigation into the recipient of the longest ever sentence for online stalking – by focusing on the victims

T here needs to be, I have decided, a subdivision of categories within the proliferation of offerings under the genre of true crime documentary. Foremost among them needs to be one called What Happens When Only Women Are in Danger. This, admittedly, would cover a large proportion of the genre, but then I would like some action on the issue of the sociocultural, legal and police dismissal of – and contempt for – women’s vulnerabilities, experiences and harms, up to and including murder. Maybe the repeated use of such a descriptor would be no bad thing.

Into this category would fall Can I Tell You a Secret?, the latest true crime offering from the leader of the pack, Netflix – and the first it has made with Louis Theroux’s Mindhouse production company and in association with the Guardian. It is the story of the cyberstalker Matthew Hardy, who terrorised multiple women over many years. The case was first covered in depth in G2 by Sirin Kale – then via a six-part Guardian podcast series – in 2022, the year Hardy received the longest sentence handed down in the UK for online stalking: nine years.

The two-part documentary concentrates on three of the many women whom Hardy targeted. Abby, Zoe and Lia (whose 700 pages of meticulous records of his poisonous communications with her and her friends, family and colleagues would eventually help enable charges against him) were all attractive, happy and confident young women with strong online presences when they started receiving messages from a confiding stranger, apparently female, whose gambit was often the line that gives the series its title. Generally, within a few exchanges, Abby et al would grow suspicious, investigate the profile of the messager and withdraw from communication. This is when the harassment would begin, using fake profiles and posing as the women to send sexual content to the fathers of their friends, for example, or posing as people the women had met on holiday in order to message their boyfriends, start rumours and sow division. Meanwhile, the “direct” contact between Hardy and his targets became increasingly vicious and threatening.

Can I Tell You a Secret’s Lia, whose documentation helped secure a conviction

The women went to their various local police forces and – it almost goes without saying by now – were fobbed off, told that no crime had been committed and given the impression they had brought it on themselves. (Zoe had the temerity to have some modelling shots on her social media platforms.) Eventually, one officer – PC Kevin Anderson – took the matter seriously, started investigating and found Hardy had been cyberstalking women for just about as long as he had been on the internet, since his lonely, awkward days as a teenager who had undiagnosed autism (a condition that would later see his sentence reduced by a year). Another woman, Amy, had been receiving up to 60 calls a day from him 10 years ago as part of an 18-month campaign. She had managed to get a restraining order against him. It wasn’t worth the paper it was written on.

after newsletter promotion

The documentary does an excellent job of marshalling the salient facts and pivotal points of a large, sprawling case involving multiple people and even more identities, evoking the size and shape of Hardy’s devastating work, the extent of his infiltration of people’s minds and lives, and the curtailment of their freedom that he caused. It does so without making him the star of the show (as so many of these documentaries end up doing, however good their intentions). A good rule of thumb is that if you can remember the perpetrator’s face better than the victims’ after the credits roll, something is wrong. I can barely bring Hardy’s to mind.

Many of his written communications with his victims are dramatised by an actor via terrifying voice distortion equipment. The ease and unstoppability of their transmission – so quick, so effortless, so untrammelled – is represented by telegraph wires lighting up above houses. It sounds gimmicky; perhaps it will seem so to some. But to my mind it is the perfect evocation of an insidious terror, known to some men but all women. It is induced not just by the threat of violence (so often then physically realised), but also by the awful psychological harm already being done. It is provoked by the knowledge that you are powerless against someone who hates you and your kind – and the knowledge that such people are enabled not just by society, but also by a technology that no one seems to have any interest in learning how to control.

  • Documentary

Most viewed

an image, when javascript is unavailable

‘Sons’ Review: Playing a Prison Guard With a Dark Secret, ‘Borgen’ Star Sidse Babett Knudsen Uncages Her Inner Animal

'The Guilty' director Gustav Möller returns with a thorny psychological thriller about a compassionate corrections officer triggered by the arrival of a specific prisoner.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

  • ‘Sons’ Review: Playing a Prison Guard With a Dark Secret, ‘Borgen’ Star Sidse Babett Knudsen Uncages Her Inner Animal 2 days ago
  • ‘Dune: Part Two’ Review: Timothée Chalamet Grows Up — and So Do the Sandworms — in Denis Villeneuve’s Epic Follow-Up 3 days ago
  • ‘Langue Étrangère’ Review: Two Foreign Exchange Students Fall for One Another in Volatile Teen Drama 5 days ago

Sons (Vogter)

Movie buffs may recognize the name Gustav Möller because his debut feature, “The Guilty,” played Sundance, then went on to inspire an English-language remake starring Jake Gyllenhaal. The film famously took place on one end of an emergency services line, as an overcommitted police officer tried to rescue a distressed caller whose crisis wasn’t nearly as straightforward as it sounded. An impressive example of creativity within constraints, “The Guilty” invited audiences to make an action movie in their heads while giving them little more than the tense face of a single character to look at for most of its running time.

In the film’s opening scenes, before the plot kicks in, Möller shows Eva making an extra effort toward her charges — not to compensate for being a woman in a male jail, but because she cares. She shows an almost maternal instinct in attempting to educate and anger-manage the inmates, which makes sense later, when we learn that her 19-year-old son died behind bars. It’s the kind of irony that makes for great movie characters: Eva feels she dropped the ball in raising Simon (whose entire backstory is left to the audience’s imagination), and now she pays forward the attention she should have given him, hoping that it might save some other mother’s son.

But “Sons” is not a pious tale of an inspirational prison guard. If Eva seems more compassionate than you might expect from her post, know that her charity has its limits. Just a few minutes into the movie, a fresh batch of convicts arrives, and Eva stiffens when she sees a familiar face among them: Tall and covered in tattoos, with the angry, dead-eyed stare of someone who’s given up on the world before even experiencing it, Mikkel Iversen (Sebastian Bull) is the man who murdered her son. From the moment Eva recognizes him, she starts to behave differently, and for the rest of the movie, our task is to guess what she’s thinking.

The real question — the one Möller wants swirling in our heads — is whether Eva is looking to avenge or redeem this newly arrived murderer. There are security cameras all over the prison, which makes it tricky for her to try anything too bold. But if she wants to make Mikkel’s life miserable, there are plenty of ways she can go about it, from spitting in his food to denying him bathroom privileges. And should he push back at her provocations, Eva can get him locked up in solitary confinement, or even cancel his visitation privileges — which she tries to do after seeing Mikkel’s mother (Marina Bouras) on a list of upcoming guests.

The movie may be called “Sons,” but it’s these two mothers who provide its richest parallel, as both have experienced the failure and frustration of seeing the boys they raised go astray — but of course, Mikkel deprived Eva of the chance to comfort or reform her own son. On the day of the visit, the increasingly unhinged Eva hovers outside the room, fuming. This injustice only makes her more volatile. But how far does she plan to take her retribution? For “Borgen” fans, Knudsen’s performance reveals a more unpredictable side of the star, who gives an at-times feral turn fueled by rage and regret.

Shooting in the defunct Copenhagen prison of Vridsløselille, DP Jasper J. Spanning watches Eva and the prisoners the way a documentary crew might, shadowing them at work and observing when no one else is around. This lends the film a semi-secretive sense of intimacy within a sterile and oppressive space. But it also makes some of Eva’s behavior seem egregious: She’s constantly sneaking around and scheming, as when she steals drugs from the impound and plants them in Mikkel’s cell. Surely someone must know of her son’s criminal record and tragic fate, and yet, her superiors keep making excuses for her behavior. Are there no background checks for Danish prison guards? And no consequences for beating convicts nearly to death? In “Sons,” the real question is: Where does the cycle stop?

Reviewed at Wilshire Screening Room, Feb. 19, 2024. Running time: 98 MIN. (Original title: “Vogter”)

  • Production: (Denmark-Sweden) A Nordisk Film Prod. (Denmark) production, in co-production with Nordisk Film Prod. (Sweden), Soficas DFI, SFI, Nordisk Film & TV Fond, in patnership with DR, SVT. (World sales: Les Films du Losange, Paris.) Producer: Lina Flint. Executive producers: Katrine Vogelsang, Calle Marthin, Henrik Zein. Co-producer: Eva Åkergren.
  • Crew: Director: Gustav Möller. Screnplay: Gustav Möller, Emil Nygaard Albertsen. Camera: Jasper J. Spanning. Editor: Rasmus Stensgaard Madsen. Music: Jon Ekstrand.
  • With: Sidse Babett Knudsen, Sebastian Bull, Dar Salim, Marina Bouras, Olaf Johannessen. (Danish dialogue)

More From Our Brands

This democrat is pushing big tech’s interests. his wife owns millions in tech stock, the 15 best shorts for working out, from nike to ten thousand, the mlb-nike uniform uproar: finding transparency and a good fit, the best mattress protectors, according to sleep experts, blue mountain state sequel series being shopped, alan ritchson to reprise role (report), verify it's you, please log in.

Quantcast

Tenet Explained - StudioBinder

Watch: How Nolan Directs Perspective in Tenet

Subscribe for more filmmaking videos like this.

Tenet Script PDF Download

Click to view and download the entire Tenet script PDF below.

Training Day Script Teardown - Full Script PDF Download - StudioBinder Screenwriting Software

Click above to read and download the entire Tenet screenplay PDF

Tenet m ovie plot summary, what is tenet about.

In what is arguably the most ambitious and complex film by Christopher Nolan  so far, Tenet follows an unnamed CIA agent played by a cool, calm, and collected John David Washington. The film opens guns blazing, literally. A symphony performance in Kiev is attacked and the unnamed CIA agent, dreadfully referred to in the film as The Protagonist, is sent undercover to retrieve a colleague and a strange artifact.

The Protagonist is captured and tortured, unwilling to disclose any information. He swallows a cyanide pill in an attempt to take his own life. He survives and wakes up to find out the cyanide pill was fake, the artifact was taken, and his allegiance to the agency has caused him to be adopted into a top-secret assignment known as Tenet.

What is Tenet About?

This assignment leads him to a secretive facility in which The Protagonist learns about the threat they face — inversion.

What is inversion? As we experience reality, we see objects and their entropy as they move forward in time. However, objects have been found in which their material has been inverted, causing them to move backward through time.

While this is demonstrated in the scene with a bullet, the real threat appears to be inverted nuclear weapons. Scratching your head yet?

The Protagonist and Neil - Tenet Cast

The Protagonist and Neil  •   Tenet cast

The Protagonist teams up with Neil, played by a witty Robert Pattinson. The duo tracks down the source of these inverted objects to a Russian arms dealer named Andrei (Kenneth Branagh). To get closer to the ultra-wealthy and acutely suspicious Andrei, The Protagonist enlists the help of Andrei’s wife Kat (Elizabeth Debicki). Kat loathes her abusive husband because of his threat to take her son away if she disobeys him.

The Protagonist and Kat - Tenet Cast

The Protagonist and Kat  •   Tenet cast

Without diving into specifics and ending spoilers, what ensues is The Protagonist’s persistent attempt to prevent Andrei’s malicious plan of using inversion technology to end the world. All of which is framed by and achieved through inverted action scenes that have never been seen on the big screen.

Check out the extent of Tenet’s practical effects and Nolan’s unique storytelling in the exclusive behind the scenes video below.

Behind the Scenes with the Tenet cast and crew

The secrecy around the release of the film and the Tenet movie plot was thought to prevent any spoilers. Even with an early release of what seemed to be a Tenet prologue, many Nolan fans were left with more questions than answers.

To many critics, it appears that the secrecy may have had to do with the complexity of the film rather than mystery. Even the Tenet cast has had a difficult time answering the question, “What is Tenet about?”

Tenet cast tries to explain Tenet movie plot

The confusion, however, should not distract from the wildly entertaining scenes in the film. From reverse hand-to-hand combat sequences to epic gun fights to mind bending car chase sequences , Tenet demands your attention. The stunts, the effects, and the ambition of the film cannot be mistaken for any filmmaker other than Christopher Nolan.

RELATED POSTS

  • A Complete List of Christopher Nolan’s Best Films →
  • The Best Directing Quotes from Christopher Nolan →
  • How Christopher Nolan Films Warp Sight and Sound →

Tenet movie style

Nolan’s style in tenet.

Tenet may be as close as we get to a Bond film written and directed by Christopher Nolan. A charismatic secret agent saving the world from the villainous plan of a Russian arms dealer may sound familiar. But how Nolan tells this story is anything but familiar.

Let's remind ourselves of how his previous film Interstellar was able to reinvent the sci-fi genre. Watch this complete Interstellar breakdown to see how Nolan does it, even at the scripting level.

Interstellar Explained  •   Subscribe on YouTube

Like many of Nolan’s best films , Tenet challenges our concept of time and how it unfolds in a story. Through the concept of inversion, Nolan again implements his use of circular filmmaking and storytelling that engages us deeply into the film.

The Shape of Christopher Nolan’s Films  •   Subscribe on YouTube

Inversion itself is a difficult concept to wrap your head around. Objects and people being able to move backward in time through a forward moving reality? Got it… I think.

Behind the Scenes of Tenet Christopher Nolan and John David Washington

Behind the scenes of Tenet Christopher Nolan and John David Washington

The film uses dialogue to extensively explain the concept and the plot (often to a fault). However, it is most entertaining when we are able to simply watch inversion play out on the big screen. The bizarre action sequences and car chases reminds us of the scale of film that drives us to the movie theatre. To quote the scientist that explains inversion to The Protagonist, “Don’t try to understand it. Feel it.”

Tenet Movie Poster

Tenet movie poster

The spectacle of Tenet undoubtedly lies in Nolan’s dedication to in-camera practical effects (Yes, Nolan actually blew up a real 747 airplane). There is an undeniable magic to a film that does not rely on green screens, but rather creative means to realistically portray what seems impossible.

This includes choreographed fight scenes that are meant to look inverted as well as shooting scenes in reverse to appear inverted.

The Tenet film budget of $225 million allowed Nolan in seven different countries on an imposing 70mm and IMAX process . It also enabled him to bring to life the ambitious effects few filmmakers are daring enough to envision. Needless to say, the production was made for theaters.

Final impressions of the Tenet movie plot

In conclusion....

There is no doubt that Christopher Nolan is among the leading filmmakers that is pushing cinema forward. The familiar distinctions to Nolan’s directing style prevail in Tenet yet are simultaneously presented in a brand new way.

Behind the Scenes of Tenet Christopher Nolan

Behind the scenes of Tenet Christopher Nolan

There are undoubtedly flaws in Tenet that we have seen in Nolan’s past work. Overly expository dialogue, thin characters, and glaring plot complexity, the Tenet movie plot can become exhausting to some. Nonetheless, it still encompasses much of what audiences love about Nolan’s best films.

How does the movie Tenet stand against Nolan’s best films? Take a look at our analysis of Nolan’s best movies before watching Tenet to see if it ranks among his best or worst.

Top 10 Best Christopher Nolan Movies Ranked  •   Subscribe on YouTube

Tenet takes risks, pushes boundaries and allows us to escape through film during a time where reality seems to be stranger than fiction. While it’s reception may depend entirely on the viewer, one cannot deny the grip Nolan has on his craft and the passion he has for telling a completely unique story.

  • Inception Ending Explained →
  • A Filmmaker’s Guide to Nolan’s Directing Style →
  • Why Christopher Nolan is the Master of the Shotlist →

Christopher Nolan’s Best Movies

Curious to see how Tenet stands against Christopher Nolan’s best films? Luckily, we’ve ranked Nolan’s past work for your binge viewing pleasure. Check out our complete list in the next article.

Up Next: Nolan’s Best Movies →

Write and produce your scripts all in one place..

Write and collaborate on your scripts FREE . Create script breakdowns, sides, schedules, storyboards, call sheets and more.

  • Pricing & Plans
  • Product Updates
  • Featured On
  • StudioBinder Partners
  • The Ultimate Guide to Call Sheets (with FREE Call Sheet Template)
  • How to Break Down a Script (with FREE Script Breakdown Sheet)
  • The Only Shot List Template You Need — with Free Download
  • Managing Your Film Budget Cashflow & PO Log (Free Template)
  • A Better Film Crew List Template Booking Sheet
  • Best Storyboard Softwares (with free Storyboard Templates)
  • Movie Magic Scheduling
  • Gorilla Software
  • Storyboard That

A visual medium requires visual methods. Master the art of visual storytelling with our FREE video series on directing and filmmaking techniques.

We’re in a golden age of TV writing and development. More and more people are flocking to the small screen to find daily entertainment. So how can you break put from the pack and get your idea onto the small screen? We’re here to help.

  • Making It: From Pre-Production to Screen
  • Static vs Dynamic Characters — And Why Writers Use Them
  • Best Free Romantic Movie Scripts Online (with PDF Downloads)
  • What is a Romance Trope — A Guide to Romantic Storylines
  • What is Digital Distribution — Film, Music, and Gaming
  • What Does an Animator Do — Job Description Explained
  • 97 Facebook
  • 4 Pinterest
  • 39 LinkedIn

an image, when javascript is unavailable

site categories

Justine triet’s ‘anatomy of a fall’ wins best film & director at césar awards; sandra hüller wins best actress, ‘love lies bleeding’ director rose glass on making “propulsive” crime spree pic. the secret “having a short attention span” – crew call podcast.

By Anthony D'Alessandro

Anthony D'Alessandro

Editorial Director/Box Office Editor

More Stories By Anthony

  • ‘Bob Marley: One Love’ Smokes Competition; Reggae Legend Biopic Eyes $71M Domestic Cume By Weekend’s End – Friday Night Box Office Update
  • Amazon MGM Studios Dates Sundance Acquisition ‘My Old Ass’ For Late Summer Theatrical Release
  • A24’s Alex Garland Movie ‘Civil War’ To Make World Premiere At SXSW

'Love Lies Bleeding' podcast interview with director Rose Glass

In great times of despair, come great surprises.

That’s what happened in early 2022 as the specialty box office was looking to regain its footing after the Omicron variant: Just when we thought all was lost, A24 showed up with a rare gem, Everything Everywhere All at Once, and provided arthouses some much-needed heat. The movie grossed $77M stateside, the best ever for A24.

Related Stories

Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell on writing their latest Oscar nominated song "What Was I Made For" from 'Barbie'

Billie Eilish & Finneas O'Connell On "Jackson Pollock" Approach To Writing 'Barbie's "Heart" Song "What Was I Made For?" - Crew Call Podcast

Kristen Stewart

Kristen Stewart Talks Male Gaze, Rolling Stone Cover & Queer Cinema At Berlin Presser For 'Love Lies Bleeding': "The Era Of Queer Films Being So Pointedly Only That Is Done"

secret assignment movie

Love Lies Bleeding stars Kristen Stewart as a manager, Lou, who falls for an amateur competitive bodybuilder, Jackie, played by The Mandalorian ‘s Katy O’Brian. Jackie works for Lou’s gun-smuggling dad (Ed Harris). However, everything goes sideways when Jackie takes revenge on the husband of Lou’s sister (played by Dave Franco) who has severely beaten his wife (Jena Malone). Love Lies Bleeding never let goes; in fact, it’s like Speed on acid. The pic in turning the crime genre movie inside out was a like a shot of Redbull to a sleepy Sundance, receiving a rapturous response at its Eccles Theatre world premiere. Coming away from Sundance and a recent play at Berlin, Love Lies Bleeding stands at 91% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with critics.

Deadline film critic Valerie Complex exclaimed in her review that Glass, “takes a snapshot of America. Saturated with guns, marked by bloodshed and characterized by lawlessness. However, when you add in some sexy, campy queers sprinkled in for razzle dazzle, you get a film like this full of thrills and captivating energy.”

“It’s kind of about excess and ambition on some levels and it just needed to feel propulsive and energetic,” said Glass.

We speak with Glass about how she broke story, intentionally setting the movie in the 1980s (she admits she was ‘trying to make her characters’ lives difficult’) finding O’Brian, and bringing the project to fruition with Film4.

You can listen to our chat with Glass below:

Must Read Stories

Ryan murphy reveals ‘grotesquerie’ fx horror drama & sets stars; watch teaser.

secret assignment movie

Oscar Voting Panic Sets In As Awards Races Hit Homestretch

Triet’s ‘anatomy of a fall’ wins best film, director; star sandra hüller best actress, daniel dae kim on john hughes movies: the film that lit my fuse.

Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy.

Read More About:

No comments.

Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Quantcast

  • Search Please fill out this field.
  • Manage Your Subscription
  • Give a Gift Subscription
  • Sweepstakes
  • Entertainment

A Look Back at Rock Hudson and Lee Garlington's Secret 'True Love' Story (Exclusive)

Garlington — who Hudson famously called his 'true love' in his biography — died in December at age 86, PEOPLE has confirmed

secret assignment movie

Liz McNeil is an Editor at Large at PEOPLE, where she's worked for over 30 years.

Photograph by Courtesy Martin Flaherty & The Rock Hudson Estate Collection/HBO

Rock Hudson and Lee Garlington’s love story was brief, but it was the greatest love of the legendary actor’s life.

On Sunday, PEOPLE confirmed that Garlington died at age 86 in December, nearly four decades after Hudson’s own death in 1985 . The star was just 59 at the time, and had been diagnosed with AIDS a year earlier.

The pair dated from 1962 to 1965; Hudson famously called his former partner his “true love” in his biography, which was published posthumously. 

“I broke down and cried,” Garlington told PEOPLE in 2015 of the moment he read Hudson’s biography, Rock Hudson: His Story, which revealed his lasting love more than two decades after they’d ended the relationship. “I just lost it. He said his mother and I were the only people he ever loved. I had no idea I meant that much to him.”

Garlington had been a young film extra when he first met the Pillow Talk star in 1962. At the time, “he was the biggest movie star in the world, and the rumors were that he was gay,” Garlington recalled.

“So I thought, ‘Let me get an eye on him.’ I stood outside his cottage on the Universal lot, pretending to read Variety , which was probably upside down at the time. He walked out and down the street. He looked back once. That was it.”

A year later, Garlington got a call from one of Hudson’s friends, asking if he’d like to meet the actor. “I think he had me checked out.”

Silver Screen Collection/Getty

Throughout their relationship, the decision to keep it private was never a discussion. Hudson “assumed” Garlington would, but “he wasn’t paranoid” about it.

“Nobody in their right mind came out. It was career suicide. We all pretended to be straight,” Garlington said of the culture at the time. Once, at a movie premiere, he and Hudson met Paul Newman and his wife, and the pair “kind of laughed” about a look that Newman gave them that seemed to hint that he knew they were together. “I just read it in his face,” Garlington recalled. 

Once, they were almost caught after a fan broke into Hudson’s house and slept in his bed. “In a drawer on a side table were pictures of me with no shirt on. She didn’t find them, but it shook him up. He realized he was vulnerable. He put gates on the house after that,” shared Garlington.

Garlington, who later became a stockbroker, said that the two “couldn’t take any pictures together, it was too dangerous,” so they only took pictures “of each other” — with the exception of one trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico in 1963. Garlington shared the never-before-seen shots of himself and Hudson from their vacation with PEOPLE in 2018, as the two “just lived the life of two normal gay men that loved one another” while they were there.

“We walked on the beach and took pictures of each other with his camera and drove around in an open jeep,” Garlington recalled. “ There were no paparazzi and no one knew we were there. We were just comfortable being us.”

The only picture they ever took together in a public place was at a bar in New Orleans. “His agent told him that he was never to have one of his boyfriends in a photo because if anyone saw it, they would suspect he was gay.”

Images Press/Getty 

Garlington shared that he wished the Giant star “had been born thirty or forty years later. He’d be more relaxed and at ease and it would have been a happier life. He’d also be elated by how much has changed.”

"He did not have the opportunity to live his life the way he wanted to and he had to go around hiding,” said Garlington.

The two broke up in 1965. Said Garlington: “One of the reasons we went our own way was because in a way I wanted a father figure and he was not strong enough. Rock wasn’t a real strong personality. He was a gentle giant.”

By the time of Hudson’s death 20 years later, the two had lost contact. Garlington was “shocked” by the news.

“AIDS killed everybody in those days. I called up the people taking care of him, but they said he was so sick that he wouldn’t know who I was and it was best to remember him how he had been before.”

Garlington told PEOPLE that the star's AIDS diagnosis “changed so many people’s attitudes” because Hudson “was so widely loved and appreciated.”

“He had a huge impact, much more than he ever realized,” he said. “I remember how handsome he was and what a great time we had together. He was the kindest man I ever met.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Following Garlington’s death in December — the result of complications from internal bleeding and prostate cancer — his husband, Paul, told PEOPLE, “I would like him to be remembered as the love of many people's lives but most notably mine and Rock Hudson's.”

Paul elaborated on Garlington and Hudson's life together, which he said was mostly spent at home watching movies and enjoying time as a "quiet domestic male couple."

"Everybody loved Rock for being a movie star and for his handsomeness and charm, but they all wanted something from him,” Paul continued. “But Lee loved him for who he was, rather than what he could do for Lee. Lee just loved him.”

Screen Rant

Avengers: secret wars introducing a past marvel movie actor as venom just became possible (& could be better than tom hardy).

Avengers: Secret Wars should use many characters from Marvel's live-action past, and an actor has just made the MCU debut of a new Venom possible.

  • Joe Manganiello could return to the MCU as Agent Venom for Avengers: Secret Wars, bringing in more Raimi-era characters.
  • Avengers: Secret Wars may introduce a more heroic version of Venom, distinct from Topher Grace's from Spider-Man 3.
  • The Raimi Spider-Man trilogy is more beloved than Sony's Spider-Man Universe.

Avengers: Secret Wars could introduce a past Marvel movie actor as a new version of Venom, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe movie could end up topping Tom Hardy's version of the character. While still a few years away, with Avengers: Secret Wars ' release date always having the chance to shift due to the many schedule changes the MCU has had so far — including The Fantastic Four and Thunderbolts recently swapping release dates — the film that will end the MCU's Multiverse Saga is already being heavily speculated upon. Among Avengers: Secret Wars ' many topics of discussion is the movie's cast .

Avengers: Endgame is the closest MCU offering to compare to what Secret Wars should be. The 2019 film — perhaps the best Avengers movie — featured several MCU heroes, with Avengers: Endgame 's final battle between Earth's Mightiest Heroes, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and more MCU character against Thanos and his army was the closest superhero movies have come to feeling exactly like the comics. Avengers: Secret Wars is expected to top Endgame 's character count , bringing in multiverse heroes, and a past star from Marvel's live-action movies could appear as a new version of Venom for the Multiverse Saga's finale.

Jonathan Majors' Kang the Conqueror against a panel from Marvel's Secret Wars.

What Is Secret Wars? Avengers 6's Title Explained

Joe manganiello would return as agent venom, the actor played flash thompson in sam raimi's spider-man trilogy.

Joe Manganiello's Flash Thompson turns around angry in Spider-Man

Before playing Deathstroke in a brief role in the DCEU, Joe Manganiello got to give life to a key supporting character from Spider-Man comics — Flash Thompson — in director Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy. While Flash was never much more than a regular bully in that iteration of the franchise, the character has been known to bond with the Venom symbiote in the comics and other media. Speaking to Comicbook.com , Manganiello revealed that he would play Agent Venom in the MCU . Check out what the actor had to say about playing Agent Venom for Marvel Studios below:

"Would I love to be a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe? I mean, sure. Of course it'd be fun in the right project. I heard Sam Raimi's doing Secret Wars, is that right? I don't know, man. I don't much about [Agent Venom], I'd imagine that'd be over at Sony. It would be very funny to come back that way."

In the comics, Agent Venom is a different version of the character from the one audiences are more familiar with. For starters, Agent Venom is most famously Flash Thompson, not Eddie Brock , who was the version of the character played by Topher Grace in Raimi's Spider-Man 3 and Tom Hardy in Sony's Spider-Man Universe. The character is also not a villain, with Agent Venom being portrayed as a more heroic figure. Following his time as a bully, Flash Thompson's comic book image has moved towards an ally for Peter Parker for some time, which could now happen for Manganiello's version.

How Agent Venom Could Appear In Secret Wars

Spider-man: no way home opened the door for that.

A comic book panel showing Agent Venom.

Manganiello's Flash Thompson was last seen in a cameo in Spider-Man 3 . The movie showed that he might have worked on his relationship with Peter and Mary Jane, as Flash was present for Harry Osborn's funeral. That more positive take on Manganiello's version of the character can continue in Avengers: Secret Wars . The MCU is bound to use characters from all over Marvel's live-action past for the film, and as Grace's Venom was not received well, having Manganiello's Flash Thompson — arguably the best live-action version of the character — don the Venom symbiote could lead to a major moment.

Like in the comics, Manganiello's Flash Thompson could have served in the army, losing both of his legs while serving bravely. While the Venom symbiote was presumably destroyed in the explosion in Spider-Man 3's ending, a small piece of it could have remained — similarly to what happened in the MCU. Given how Manganiello's Flash Thompson had already seemingly had a change of heart and left his bully days in the past, he could have become Agent Venom since he was last seen. Avengers: Secret Wars could then pull in Maguire's Spider-Man, Agent Venom, and other characters from Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy.

Spider-Man 1, 2, 3 Sam Raimi posters

Spider-Man: All 3 Sam Raimi Movies Ranked From Worst To Best

Sam raimi’s spider-man trilogy is more beloved than sony’s spider-man universe, the ssu has failed to be as big as sony hoped.

2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home opened the door for Manganiello to appear as Agent Venom in Avengers: Secret Wars . The latest of the MCU's Spider-Man movies brought back Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker from Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy through the multiverse. Maguire's return — allied to that of Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man and villains from both their franchises — helped Spider-Man: No Way Home achieve almost $2 billion worldwide. Based on how well the returns of Maguire, Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin, Alfred Molina's Doc Ock, and Thomas Haden Church Sandman were received, it would make sense for the MCU to use more Raimi characters .

Venom, Morbius and Madame Web form Sony's Spider-Man Universe

Every Sony Spider-Man Universe Movie Ranked From Worst To Best

Another factor that makes Manganiello's possible inclusion in Avengers: Secret Wars more possible is that it could be more exciting than if Hardy's Venom appeared. While the SSU's Venom movies are fun, the shared universe is nowhere near Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy in both fans' and critics' opinions , with the recent flop of Madame Web just showing how bad the SSU's reputation currently is. Based on that, bringing back Maguire's Peter Parker and other characters from Raimi's Spidey trilogy could create more excitement for Avengers: Secret Wars than Hardy's Venom appearing, with Manganiello as Agent Venom being an interesting possible addition.

secret assignment movie

Avengers: Secret Wars

Avengers: Secret Wars is the sixth Avengers film and takes place during phase six of Marvel's Cinematic Universe. The film will see several heroes from the prior phases return and battle against a cosmic threat to rival Thanos, and borrows elements of the Marvel Comics event of the same name.

Source: Comicbook.com

Key Release Dates

Deadpool 3 Poster Showing Two Halves of a Heart Necklace with Wolverine and Deadpool

Deadpool & Wolverine

Captain America Brave New World Character Poster

Captain America: Brave New World

Thunderbolts Marvel Movie Poster by Rob Keyes

Marvel's Thunderbolts

Fantastic Four 2025 Valentines Day Poster Featuring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Joseph Quinn

Marvel's Fantastic Four

Blade MCU Poster

Blade (2025)

Avengers Kang Poster

Avengers: The Kang Dynasty

Avengers Secret Wars Logo

  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews

Can I Tell You A Secret?

  • TV Mini Series

Can I Tell You A Secret? (2024)

Three women's lives are changed forever when a prolific stalker infiltrates their social media accounts. And they're only a fraction of his many victims. Three women's lives are changed forever when a prolific stalker infiltrates their social media accounts. And they're only a fraction of his many victims. Three women's lives are changed forever when a prolific stalker infiltrates their social media accounts. And they're only a fraction of his many victims.

  • Savannah Gracey
  • 12 User reviews
  • 5 Critic reviews

Can I Tell You A Secret? (2024)

  • Fake Online Stalker
  • All cast & crew
  • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

Lover, Stalker, Killer

User reviews 12

  • ricewithaspoon
  • Feb 22, 2024
  • February 21, 2024 (United States)
  • United Kingdom
  • Sana Bir Sır Vereyim mi?
  • See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

  • Runtime 1 hour 51 minutes

Related news

Contribute to this page.

Can I Tell You A Secret? (2024)

  • See more gaps
  • Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Production art

Recently viewed

IMAGES

  1. First Look: 'The Assignment' Trailer Starring Michelle Rodriguez

    secret assignment movie

  2. The Assignment

    secret assignment movie

  3. The Assignment

    secret assignment movie

  4. Secret Assignment (1951)

    secret assignment movie

  5. Assignment (2016)

    secret assignment movie

  6. The Assignment DVD Release Date

    secret assignment movie

COMMENTS

  1. Confidential Assignment 2: International (2022)

    1 Video 23 Photos Action Comedy Thriller The film depicts an unpredictable global cooperative investigation by South Korean, North Korean, and American detectives who have come together for their own purposes. Director Seok-hoon Lee Writers Seok-hoon Lee Im Seong-soon Je-Gyun Yoon Stars Hyun Bin Im Yoon-ah Yoo Hae-jin See production info at IMDbPro

  2. Confidential Assignment Official Trailer 1 (2017)

    Rotten Tomatoes Indie 2.25M subscribers Subscribe Subscribed 5.9K 1.3M views 7 years ago Starring: Hyun Bin, Young-nam Jang, and Ju-hyuk Kim Confidential Assignment Official Trailer 1 (2017) -...

  3. Confidential Assignment 1 (2017)

    Director: Kim Sung Hoon Genres: Action, Thriller, Comedy, Drama Tags: Detective Male Lead, North And South Korea, North Korean Supporting Character, North Korean Male Lead, Skilled Fighter, Gun Violence, Undercover Operation, Loss Of Trust, Gun Fight, Attempted Assault (Vote or add tags) Remove ads Where to Watch Confidential Assignment 1

  4. Confidential Assignment (2017)

    Confidential Assignment (2017) - 공조 . Directed by: Kim Sung-hoon (김성훈) Starring: Hyun Bin (현빈), Yoo Hae-jin (유해진), Kim Joo-hyuck (김주혁), Jang Young-nam (장영남), Lee Dong-hwi (이동휘) Synopsis: South Korean detective Jin-tae (Yoo Hae-jin) is assigned to assist the undercover North Korean agent, Lim (Hyun Bin), in a secret manhunt for a North Korean fugitive in ...

  5. Secret Assignment (1967)

    Movies Secret Assignment (1967) On Demand Secret Assignment is not available to stream with a subscription service. Buy About Secret Assignment In the fourth film of series, Secret Assignment, Raizo again plays the Jiro Shiina. This time he's out to discover who is spying for the British in the Foreign Ministry, under the code name "Cat's Eye".

  6. Watch Confidential Assignment

    Confidential Assignment. North Korean detective Lim Cheol-ryung (Hyun Bin) lost his wife and unit when his superior Cpt. Cha (Kim Joo-hyuk) betrayed him in order to steal engraving plates that print U.S. counterfeit bills. He joins a delegation to South Korea after learning that Cha has defected there. South Korean detective Kang (Yoo Hae-jin ...

  7. Secret Assignment (1967)

    Runtime 1h 28m. Director Akira Inoue. Writer Kazuo Funahashi (screenplay) Country Japan. Language Japanese. Studio Daiei Motion Picture Co., Ltd. Genres Action, War, Mystery. In the fourth film of series, Secret Assignment, Raizo again plays the Jiro Shiina. This time he's out to discover who is spying for the British in the Foreign Ministry ...

  8. Watch Confidential Assignment

    A Man When Rie learns that her late husband wasn't who he said he was, she consults a lawyer who uncovers secrets that echo his own struggles with identity. Officer Black Belt A talented martial artist who can't walk past a person in need unites with a probation officer to fight and prevent crime as a martial arts officer. The Frog

  9. Confidential Assignment

    North Korean detective Lim Cheol-ryung (Hyun Bin) lost his wife and unit when his superior Cpt. Cha (Kim Joo-hyuk) betrayed him in order to steal engraving plates that print U.S. counterfeit bills. He joins a delegation to South Korea after learning that Cha has defected there. South Korean detective Kang (Yoo Hae-jin) is assigned to the covert joint investigation in order to find Cha, but he ...

  10. Confidential Assignment 2 is gearing for September ...

    The movie welcomes two new stars, Daniel Henney and Jin Sun Kyu. Daniel will be seen to play the role of Jack, an FBI detective from the United States while Jin Sun Kyu plays the role of Jang MyungJoon, the leader of a criminal organization. ... Confidential Assignment 2 is all about a secret cooperative investigation between North and South ...

  11. The Assignment (1997)

    1 Video 47 Photos Action Crime Thriller An American naval officer is recruited for an operation to eliminate his lookalike, the infamous terrorist Carlos The Jackal. Director Christian Duguay Writers Dan Gordon Sabi H. Shabtai Stars Aidan Quinn Donald Sutherland Ben Kingsley See production info at IMDbPro STREAMING RENT/BUY from $3.99 search Amazon

  12. The Assignment (2016)

    1h 35m IMDb RATING 4.7 /10 9.2K YOUR RATING Rate Play trailer 2:01 7 Videos 42 Photos Action Crime Thriller After waking up and discovering that he has undergone gender reassignment surgery, an assassin seeks to find the doctor responsible. Director Walter Hill Writers Walter Hill Denis Hamill Stars Michelle Rodriguez Tony Shalhoub Anthony LaPaglia

  13. Secret Assignment

    Secret Assignment 100 NR 1 hr 28 min Mystery, War, Action Part of Nakano School Collection In the fourth film of series Secret Assignment Raizo again plays the Jiro Shiina This time hes out...

  14. Cast

    Cast and crew of «Secret Assignment» (Senza bandiera, 1951). Roles and the main characters. Massimo Serato, Umberto Spadaro, Paolo Stoppa

  15. Secret Assignment

    Where to Watch During World War I, four Italian agents seek German saboteurs. Massimo Serato, Umberto Spadaro, Carlo Ninchi, Vivi Gioi. Actor 4 Credits Massimo Serato Umberto Spadaro Carlo Ninchi...

  16. Secret Assignment (movie, 1951)

    Secret Assignment ( 1951 ) Senza bandiera Drama Black and White Сast and Crew Stars Massimo Serato Umberto Spadaro Paolo Stoppa Walter Rilla Heinz Moog Carlo Ninchi Guido Celano Vivi Gioi Mario Ferrari Henri Vidon Full Cast Director Lionello De Felice Camera Mario Craveri Writers Franco Brusati Jacopo Comin Lionello De Felice ... Composer

  17. 50 Best Spy Movies That'll Keep You on the Edge of Your Seat

    Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) You know things are serious when you're forced out of retirement to handle a mission. During the Cold War, a veteran (Gary Oldman) works to uncover a Soviet ...

  18. The Assignment movie review & film summary (2017)

    In a nutshell, Frank Kitchen ( Michelle Rodriguez … just keep reading) is a ruthless San Francisco hitman who runs afoul of Dr. Rachel Kay ( Sigourney Weaver ), a brilliant but deranged surgeon who has lost her license for conducting various rogue experiments.

  19. Secret assignment (7) Crossword Clue

    The Crossword Solver found 30 answers to "Secret assignment (7)", 7 letters crossword clue. The Crossword Solver finds answers to classic crosswords and cryptic crossword puzzles. Enter the length or pattern for better results. Click the answer to find similar crossword clues . Enter a Crossword Clue.

  20. Secret Invasion

    Nick Fury learns of a secret invasion of Earth by a faction of shapeshifting Skrulls; Fury joins his allies, and together they race against time to thwart an imminent Skrull invasion and save ...

  21. Can I Tell You a Secret? review

    Detailed, personal, terrifying … this excellent two-parter follows a Guardian investigation into the recipient of the longest ever sentence for online stalking - by focusing on the victims

  22. The Year of Secret Assignments

    Jaclyn Moriarty grew up in Sydney, Australia, with 4 sisters, 1 brother, 2 dogs, and 12 chickens. She studied law at the University of Sydney, Yale, and Cambridge, and worked as an entertainment lawyer before she wrote the Ashbury High novels, including THE YEAR OF SECRET ASSIGNMENTS, THE MURDER OF BINDY MACKENZIE, and THE GHOSTS OF ASHBURY HIGH.

  23. 'Sons' Review: Sidse Babett Knudsen Uncages Her Inner Animal

    'Sons' Review: Playing a Prison Guard With a Dark Secret, 'Borgen' Star Sidse Babett Knudsen Uncages Her Inner Animal Reviewed at Wilshire Screening Room, Feb. 19, 2024. Running time: 98 MIN.

  24. What is Tenet About? Nolan's Tenet Movie Plot Explained

    Tenet Movie plot summary What is Tenet about?. In what is arguably the most ambitious and complex film by Christopher Nolan so far, Tenet follows an unnamed CIA agent played by a cool, calm, and collected John David Washington. The film opens guns blazing, literally. A symphony performance in Kiev is attacked and the unnamed CIA agent, dreadfully referred to in the film as The Protagonist, is ...

  25. 'Love Lies Bleeding' Director Rose Glass On Her "Propulsive" Movie

    And that could be with A24's steroid- filled lesbian love crime spree action thriller, Love Lies Bleeding from filmmaker Rose Glass. The movie hits theaters in limited release on March 8 and ...

  26. Watch Can I Tell You A Secret?

    Three women's lives are changed forever when a prolific stalker infiltrates their social media accounts. And they're only a fraction of his many victims. Watch trailers & learn more.

  27. A Look Back at Rock Hudson and Lee Garlington's Secret 'True Love

    Hollywood star Rock Hudson and Lee Garlington dated from 1962 to 1965, and following Garlington's death in December, which PEOPLE has confirmed, we're taking a look back at their ultra-private ...

  28. Avengers: Secret Wars Introducing A Past Marvel Movie Actor As Venom

    Avengers: Secret Wars could introduce a past Marvel movie actor as a new version of Venom, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe movie could end up topping Tom Hardy's version of the character. While still a few years away, with Avengers: Secret Wars' release date always having the chance to shift due to the many schedule changes the MCU has had so far — including The Fantastic Four and ...

  29. Can I Tell You A Secret? (TV Mini Series 2024)

    Can I Tell You A Secret?: With Savannah Gracey. Three women's lives are changed forever when a prolific stalker infiltrates their social media accounts. And they're only a fraction of his many victims.

  30. Moro Movies on Instagram: "New Movie 2024 : Title: Air Force One Down

    10 likes, 0 comments - morogoromovies on February 14, 2024: "New Movie 2024 : Title: Air Force One Down : Genre : Action,Thriller : Country Of Origin: USA : R..."