This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Who you gonna believe,
me or your lying eyes?
Plot Overview
Severus, a code worm designed to induce meltdown in
a nuclear power plant once it gets inside, has been
compromised, and British MI6 wants to find out who took
it before it gets sold to some bad actor. Agent Meacham (Gustaf
Skarsgård) informs senior investigator George
Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) of the problem and gives
him a list of the five who have both access & clearance. The
list includes the head of sig ops, two data scrapers, one in-house
shrink, and an agent. At the top of the list sitting pretty is his
wife Kathryn (Cate Blanchett) though she's not particularly
suspect. He has a week to find out who took the worm before it
likely gets sold into the wrong hands.
George a gourmet chef
invites the four others to join him and his wife for a home-cooked
meal—one that could turn “messy.” They play a
party game designed to reveal secrets, i.e. black baggage. Office romances are par for the day, it
seems, and the six of them encompass three couples in a relationship
of one form or another, so feelings get hurt or worse.
George follows up with old fashioned sleuthing that ends up implicating his wife, but he can't believe it. He administers polygraph tests to the others—as if spies couldn't defeat them, ha, ha—in which he springs a loaded question about severus, hoping to shake something loose. Meacham dies of an unexpected heart attack.
Another dinner invite is forthcoming. This time instead of bandages to bind up a wound, they'll need carpeting to wrap up the body.
Ideology
In a trembling voice, the old man read the parable of the power of faith. “A man had three good friends. One was his bosom friend, the second was also a good friend, the third he held in low esteem. One day the king suddenly sent a messenger to this man to command him to come to the king immediately. The man was much affrighted, and asked himself what it had to signify that the king should send for him. Full of fear he went to his bosom friend and asked him to go with him to the king, but he would not go with him. Then he went to his second friend and asked him to go with him to the king, but he said, ‘I will go with thee to the door of his castle, but further I will not go.’ Then he went to his third friend, whom he held in low esteem. And he said, ‘I will go with thee to the king and will protect thee.’ And he went with him to the king and protected him. Now of these three friends the first is money, the second is wife and child, the third, whom he held in low esteem, is Thora, the commandments, good deeds, which a man esteems not. The king, that is God, the messenger is death, whom God sends suddenly to require a man's soul of him. The best friend, who is money, he stays at home, for however much a man has he can take nothing with him. The second friend, who is his wife and child, they go with him to his grave and weep and cry there, but cannot help him. The third friend, whom the man esteems not, he goes with him to the king.” (Wassermann 60–61)
There occur three deaths in “Black Bag.” Polish smuggler Andrei Kulikov (Orli Shuka) is managing the transfer of £7 million regarding severus. He gets targeted with a drone strike. It's awesome to watch his SUV flip end over end, giving a good lift to anything in there he takes with him. But alas, at the end of the movie, that money is still down here. Meacham is enjoying a quiet evening at home with his wife when his heart gives out in convulsions. She frantically attends him but to no avail. The enshrouded corpse of the culprit is seen sinking into the depths of a lake, the deeds of an attempted mass murderer being a ticket to the other place.
Here the
investigator provokes conflict à la, (Prov. 30:33) “Surely the churning of
milk bringeth forth butter, and the wringing of the nose bringeth
forth blood: so the forcing of wrath bringeth forth strife.”
The idea in the
proverb is that a state of peace and conciliation can change
to one of war just as a liquid (milk) can change to solid (butter)
through constant agitation (churning.) Or hit a critical area
(nose) and it bleeds. The former is illustrated by George in a
skiff on the lake working the tug on his line until he reels in a
fish. Similarly, he works the unseen traitor until he provokes him
to surface. The latter is illustrated by a scorned woman at the
table stabbing her untrue lover with a steak knife in the
hand. It bleeds. Similarly, a telling question on the so-called lie
detector will provoke a real world response.
Production Values
“” (2025) was directed by Steven Soderbergh. It was written by David Koepp. It stars Michael Fassbender, Gustaf Skarsgård and Cate Blanchett. British actors always display competence due to their superb training.
MPA rated it R for language including some sexual references, and some violence. The dialogue of clever, understated wit was marred by subpar audio making the clipped British accents difficult for my American ear to make out. One might try advancing the treble to compensate, which of course I couldn't do in the theater. If you have a subtitle option use it. Runtime is 1 hour 33 minutes.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
Accountability is out of the question when any inquiry can be diverted by saying, “Black bag.” These movie spies got around it by connecting with other spies who understood the game. It's like when I an engineer had a mathematics housemate. When arguing about the heat, we went over the thermodynamics equations. Others sharing domestic arrangements had to suffer us. Except for one lady who thought me a great houseguest. But her husband was an engineer so she was used to it. “Black Bag” opens a window on interpersonal relations from a certain perspective, but most anybody in social situations has some amount of adjusting to do.
This movie is heavy on secrecy but for a spy movie light on gadgets & action. The main couple had a good marriage with beaucoup trust. It's a good movie for the cerebral viewer.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Decent action scenes. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Average special effects. Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture is quoted from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev, 1769. Software.
“The Joys of the Soul” from the book of Simchath Hanefesch, as quoted in Wassermann, Jacob. The Dark Pilgrimage. Originally published in Germany under the title Die Juden Von Zirndorf (The Jews of Zirndorf). New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 1933. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org