Retiring CIA agent Nathan Muir recalls his training of Tom Bishop while working against agency politics to free him from his Chinese captors.Retiring CIA agent Nathan Muir recalls his training of Tom Bishop while working against agency politics to free him from his Chinese captors.Retiring CIA agent Nathan Muir recalls his training of Tom Bishop while working against agency politics to free him from his Chinese captors.
- Awards
- 3 nominations
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaTony Scott asked for more money to film the rooftop scene in "Berlin" (in order to rent a helicopter for an aerial scene) but the producers refused. Scott believed that the scene was important and rented the helicopter with his own money.
- GoofsWhen Duncan is negotiating with Deng, he clearly tells Muir "Deng wants five-hundred-thousand YUAN for the power out in Su Chou." In 1991, this would have been about $95,500 U.S. dollars, so when Muir counter-offers and says "No way. Tell him $100K and I'll pay him in dollars," he is offering more than Deng asked for. The final price, $282,000USD, would have been approximately 1,500,000 yuan in 1991.
- Quotes
Nathan Muir: [inside a CIA briefing room] When I was a kid I used to spend summers on my uncle's farm. And he had this plow horse he used to work with everyday. He really loved that plow horse. One summer she came up lame. It could barely stand. The vet offered to put her down. You know what my uncle said?
Charles Harker: [inside a CIA briefing room] No, Muir, what did he say?
Nathan Muir: [inside a CIA briefing room] He said, why would I ask somebody else to kill a horse that belonged to me?
- Crazy creditsIn the opening credits, many of the credits are each preceded by a jumble of letters flickering on the screen. This may be a reference to the opening credit sequence of one of Robert Redford's earlier spy movies, Sneakers (1992).
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Making of 'Spy Game' (2001)
- SoundtracksRocky Mountain Way
Written by Rocke Grace, Kenny Passarelli (as Ken Passarelli), Joe Vitale (as Joey Vitale), Joe Walsh
Performed by Joe Walsh
Courtesy of MCA Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises
The movie is set in the early 1990's. Nathan Muir (Redford) is a retiring CIA officer who learns that his former protégé Tom Bishop (Pitt) has been captured while attempting a prison rescue in China and will be executed shortly. CIA brass want to know what motivated Bishop to attempt this unauthorized action and they interview Muir to find out. Muir tells the story of how he met and trained Bishop: from Vietnam to Berlin to Beirut. While Muir is setting the background, he is also working secretly behind the scenes to free Bishop. Will Muir's cloak and dagger antics be discovered before he has a chance to free Bishop? Overall the movie is not as good as other spy genre films such as Three Days of the Condor, Spy Who Came in From the Cold, or Hunt for Red October. I think Redford does well in the role of the retiring, slightly jaded CIA officer Muir. Pitt does well with what he's given, though I think his character suffers from poor writing, especially near the end of the film. Think of Spy Game as a more sophisticated Mission: Impossible (that's no knock on M:I) and you'll be pleasantly surprised.
- lukabrasi
- Feb 17, 2005
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- Spygame
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $115,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $62,362,560
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $21,689,125
- Nov 25, 2001
- Gross worldwide
- $143,049,560
- Runtime2 hours 6 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39 : 1
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