History Film / SpyGame

* PubliclyDiscussingTheSecret: During the TrainingMontage, Muir and Bishop are shown discussing spy techniques on public streets, inside full restaurants, and in front of bartenders. A bit justified though, considering that they're in a foreign country and not everyone around them speaks fluent English, which makes it slightly less risky.

* AmbiguouslyBi: During training, Bishop is instructed to get a piece of information from a random woman on the street, and he chooses to ask where she got the dress she's wearing. Afterward, Muir criticizes his technique by pointing out, "What did you tell her? One, ''you're straight''. Two, you're engaged. Three, tomorrow's your girl's birthday. Four, you have no taste in women's fashion. What if she were an asset? You told her ''four lies'' that now have to be true." Seeing as Bishop's love interest is a woman, we're left with one conclusion.

* OperationBlank: Operation Dinner Out. [[spoiler:The rescue of Bishop.]]

''Spy Game'' is a 2001 American spy film directed by Tony Scott and starring Creator/RobertRedford and Creator/BradPitt.

* BiTheWay: During training, Bishop is instructed to get a piece of information from a random woman on the street, and he chooses to ask where she got the dress she's wearing. Afterward, Muir criticizes his technique by pointing out, "What did you tell her? One, ''you're straight''. Two, you're engaged. Three, tomorrow's your girl's birthday. Four, you have no taste in women's fashion. What if she were an asset? You told her ''four lies'' that now have to be true." Seeing as Bishop's love interest is a woman, we're left with one conclusion.

* BiTheWay: During training, Bishop is instructed to get a piece of information from a random woman on the street, and he chooses to ask where she got the dress she's wearing. Afterward, Muir criticizes his technique, saying, "You just gave her four pieces of personal information for one dubious, impersonal fact. [...] What did you tell her? One, ''you're straight''. Two, you're engaged. Three, tomorrow's your girl's birthday. Four, you have no taste in women's fashion. What if she were an asset? You told her ''four lies'' that now have to be true." Seeing as Bishop's love interest is a woman, we're left with one conclusion.

* BiTheWay: During training, Bishop is instructed to get a piece of information from a random woman on the street, and he chooses to ask where she got the dress she's wearing. Afterward, Muir criticizes his technique, saying, "You just gave her four pieces of personal information for one dubious, impersonal fact. [...] What did you tell her? One, ''you're straight''. Two, you're engaged. Three, tomorrow's your girl's birthday. Four, you have no taste in women's fashion. what if she were an asset? You told her ''four lies'' that now have to be true." Seeing as Bishop's love interest is a woman, we're left with one conclusion.

* BiTheWay: During training, Bishop is instructed to get a piece of information from a random woman on the street, and he chooses to ask where she got the dress she's wearing. Afterward, Muir criticizes his technique, saying, "You just gave her four pieces of personal information for one dubious, impersonal fact. [...] What did you tell her? One, '''you're straight'''. Two, you're engaged. Three, tomorrow's your girl's birthday. Four, you have no taste in women's fashion. what if she were an asset? You told her '''four lies''' that now have to be true." Seeing as Bishop's love interest is a woman, we're left with one conclusion.

* BiTheWay: During training, Bishop is instructed to get a piece of information from a random woman on the street, and he chooses to ask where she got the dress she's wearing. Afterward, Muir criticizes his technique, saying, "You just gave her four pieces of personal information for one dubious, impersonal fact. [...] What did you tell her? One, <b>you're straight</b>. Two, you're engaged. Three, tomorrow's your girl's birthday. Four, you have no taste in women's fashion. what if she were an asset? You told her <b>four lies</b> that now have to be true." Seeing as Bishop's love interest is a woman, we're left with one conclusion.

* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: The prison guards in Suzhou speak Cantonese, whereas they should speak Mandarin Chinese, the official language of China (or possibly Wu Chinese, which is the local language in Suzhou).

{{CIA}} operative Nathan Muir (Redford) is on the brink of retirement when he finds out that his protege Tom Bishop (Pitt), who he hasn't seen in six years, has been arrested in China for espionage. After learning that the agency has no intention of rescuing Bishop themselves, and with only twenty-four hours on the clock until Bishop is scheduled to be executed, [[TheChessmaster Muir]] utilizes all of his [[RockBeatsLaser skills]], [[MundaneSolution resources]], and [[RefugeInAudacity irreverent manner]] to find a way to rescue his friend in time. In the process, he also has to contend with the bureaucracy of the CIA's top echelon, as he's called before a committee to tell them what he knows about the younger agent, leading Muir to recall how he recruited and trained Bishop -- from their first meeting in Vietnam, through their [[StudentAndMasterTeam turbulent days together as operatives]], and finally to the woman who threatened their friendship.

* CaliforniaDoubling:
** Budapest for West Germany, Morocco for Beirut, a prison in Oxford for the chinese prison, and a building in England for the CIA [=HQs=].
** There's an in-universe example with satellite imagery of the Bahamas being substituted for satellite scans of the island where the Chinese prison is located.

* MissingTrailerScene: There's an extended cut of the training montage and torture scenes, as well as several lines of dialogue from other scenes that didn't make it into the final film.

* TheAtoner: The whole reason that Muir decides to [[spoiler: orchestrate Bishop and Hadley's rescue; all the years of being a ManipulativeBastard finally caught up to him and he decides to make it up to his former protege]].

* [[ShootTheShaggyDog Blow Up the Shaggy Dog]]: All that crazy driving and effort by Bishop to get the doctor to his appointment on time so that he can poison the target, only to see [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill the entire apartment building get blown up by truck bomb]].

* BoomHeadshot: [[spoiler: There's a quick scene where this happens to Bishop, but it was AllJustADream.]]

* BrickJoke: Muir convinces a guy to give him some information by claiming that if he goes to the Operations Center to get it, Billy Niles is going to try and collect the $100 Muir owes him. When he goes to the Operations Center later, he spots Billy and asks if he has the $100 that he owes ''him'', followed by a shot of Billy looking very confused.

** [[spoiler: RebuiltPedestal: Possibly implied with the ending.]]
* CaliforniaDoubling: Budapest for West Germany, Morocco for Beirut, a prison in Oxford for the chinese prison, and a building in England for the CIA [=HQs=].

* CallForward: The stick of gum that Bishop offers a prisoner in the first scene, later revealed to be a trick he learned from Muir.

* UsefulNotes/ColdWar

* RockBeatsLaser / MundaneSolution: Muir claims that although technology is always evolving, the best intelligence is better obtained through mundane mediums and simple hard work. [[spoiler: He proves this by using the technological bureaucracy of the CIA against itself.]]
--> "Technology gets better everyday. That's fine. But most of the time all you need is a stick of gum, a pocket knife, and a smile."

* TheSpook: Muir doesn't share his personal information with anyone, to the extent that his own co-workers don't find out until too late that [[spoiler: he's not currently married, and in fact has only been married once]] (which is an important plot point). Troy Fogler - who came up together with Muir - admits to Harker in an early scene that ''no one'' really knows him, while Bishop remarks in a flashback that Langley has seven different incorrect birth-dates on file for him, and the KGB and Mossad apparently have several more.

{{CIA}} operative Nathan Muir (Redford) is on the brink of retirement when he finds out that his protege Tom Bishop (Pitt), who he hasn't seen in six years, has been arrested in China for espionage. After learning that the agency has no intention of rescuing Bishop themselves, and with only [[YouHave48Hours twenty-four hours]] on the clock until Bishop is scheduled to be executed, [[TheChessmaster Muir]] utilizes all of his [[RockBeatsLaser skills]], [[MundaneSolution resources]], and [[RefugeInAudacity irreverent manner]] to find a way to rescue his friend in time. In the process, he also has to contend with the bureaucracy of the CIA's top echelon, as he's called before a committee to tell them what he knows about the younger agent, leading Muir to recall how he recruited and trained Bishop -- from their first meeting in Vietnam, through their [[StudentAndMasterTeam turbulent days together as operatives]], and finally to the woman who threatened their friendship.

* BerlinWall: One of the first operations Muir and Bishop did together involved sneaking a claimed Soviet Bloc defector across Checkpoint Charlie.

''Spy Game'' is a 2001 American spy film directed by Tony Scott and starring RobertRedford and BradPitt.

* ShirtlessScene: Bishop gets a couple, courtesy of BradPitt.

* BerlinWall

* {{Badass}}: Bishop definitely qualifies. His method of infiltrating the Chinese prison involves electrocuting himself with enough voltage to get himself declared dead. The Vietnam flashback also has him successfully sniping his target despite his position being compromised, shooting down a helicopter, and then half-carrying his injured spotter out alive.

** BadassInDistress: After he gets captured.

* DangerouslyGenreSavvy: The warden of the Chinese prison spots a prisoner chewing bubble gum, and adding that to everything else that happened in the last ten minutes is enough for him to order his men to stop the departing ambulance and verify that Bishop is still alive.