Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre is a 2023 spy action comedy film directed by Guy Ritchie. It was written by Ritchie, Ivan Atkinson, and Marn Davies, and stars Jason Statham, Aubrey Plaza, Josh Hartnett, Cary Elwes, Bugzy Malone, and Hugh Grant.
Private contractor Nathan Jasmine is hired by the British government to track down and stop the sale of a deadly new weapons technology being brokered by billionaire arms dealer Greg Simmonds. Nathan's team leader is super-spy Orson Fortune, who is reluctantly teamed up with some of the world's best operatives for the mission. In order to work their way into Simmonds' inner circle, Fortune and his crew recruit Hollywood's biggest movie star, Danny Francesco, to help them on their globe-trotting mission to save the world.
The film was released in international territories in January 2023, and then the United States two months later.
Previews: Trailer
Tropes:
- Affably Evil: Greg Simmonds is an Arms Dealer with little patience with people that betray him, but he's also quite personable and eager, and shows Hidden Depths when dealing with Danny.
- Agony of the Feet: While exiting the Ukrainians' villa, Orson shoots one of the guards through the foot.
- Ambiguously Bi: Greg Simmonds is clearly interested in Sarah, but also has interest in Danny Francesco.
- Arms Dealer: Greg Simmonds is one of the world's biggest arms dealers, having earned the nickname 'the Dark Angel of Merciless Death'.
- Artistic License – Geography: The Madrid airport shown on screen resembles more a regional airport than the real deal.
- Awesome McCoolname: Orson Fortune. Lampshaded by Greg Simmonds:Greg Simmonds: Orson Fortune. That is a sexy name.
- Badass Boast: Greg Simmonds has a very good one when he makes it clear why Arnold and Trent shouldn't have backstabbed him.
- Black Comedy: After JJ tells Orson that the guy at the bottom of the tower is not Ben Harris, the latter shows up and attempts to attack Orson, who tosses him down the tower. JJ promptly points that this one is Ben Harris.
- Black-Tie Infiltration: Orson and Sarah take advantage of Greg Simmonds' obsession with movie star Danny Francesco by recruiting Francesco to allow them to infiltrate the black-tie charity auction being held aboard Simmonds' luxury yacht in Cannes.
- Camera Spoofing: John does it to Sarah's feed at the Madrid airport to cover Mike's men abducting the courier. Sarah catches on when she sees the repeated jerky movement of a woman in the coffee shop. Later Sarah loops the security cameras in Simmonds' Turkish compound while she is hacking the money transfer. Emilia realises something is wrong when the cameras show Simmonds' office as empty when she knows he is in there.
- Caps Lock, Num Lock, Missiles Lock: After firing a missile in completely the wrong direction, Orson works out the 'R' on the helicopter's missile launcher controls stands for 'REAR', and not 'RIGHT' as he originally assumed.
- Celebrity Crush: Greg Simmonds has a fascination with movie star Danny Francesco that borders on obsession; having once offered him $10 million to jump out of a cake and sing "Happy Birthday" to him.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Greg Simmonds has bought the red Mustang Danny Francesco drove in one of his movies and had it restored to its movie specifications: including the bulletproof rear end. This becomes relevant when Danny and Sarah use the car to escape from Simmonds' compound.
- A subtle one occurs when Sarah is interrogating Simmonds' computer system for information about 'The Handle'. One of the files she opens and almost immediately discards shows the specs for a missile system. At the end of the film, Simmonds uses these missiles to blow up the derelict hotel and the satellite dishes when he is intimidating Mike, Trent and Arnold.
- Arnold and Trent, whom the team meets at Simmonds' party, are mentioned to have bought large quantities of gold. They are planning to use 'The Handle' to cause a financial collapse and use that gold to have economic control of the world.
- Chekhov's Gunman:
- When Nathan tells his British contact about the team he's putting together for the mission, he mentions that his usual hacker, John, has been hired out by Nathan's rival Mike. John uses his hacking to mess with the team's mission in Madrid.
- Arnold and Trent, two biotech moguls who Simmonds presents to Danny in Cannes, are the ones trying to buy 'The Handle'.
- One of the guards Orson beats down at the Ukranian mafia's villa in Cannes shows up at the exchange place, blowing Orson's cover.
- Chekhov's Skill: Danny Francesco's throwaway comment about doing his own stunt driving becomes very important when it is time to make a getaway from Greg Simmonds' Turkish compound.
- The Consigliere: Ben Harris is the lawyer and consigliere to Arms Dealer Greg Simmonds. When he turns up to make a pick-up personally, Nathan knows that whatever the merchandise is, it must be something incredibly valuable.
- Dead Person Impersonation: After Ben Harris falls to his death off the tower, Orson takes his place and pretends to be him for his meeting with the Ukrainians, who have never met Harris, while Sarah spoofs the call so Simmonds thinks Harris is talking with him.
- Elevator Action Sequence: When breaking into the Arnold and Trent's control tower during the climax, Orson dives into an elevator going up that contains three of their Private Military Contractors. By the time the elevator reaches the top floor, he is the only one standing.
- Enemy Mine: Greg Simmonds teams up with Orson's team to wreck Mike's plans.
- Exact Words: Greg Simmonds doesn't like speaking of his clients. He has his assistant Emilia tell Orson's team about the people who were paying him to buy the Handle for them.
- Faking the Dead: Ben Harris does an extremely short term version by planting his cell phone (which he knows Orson and his team are tracking) in another man's jacket pocket, and then shoving the man off the top of an observation tower. When JJ arrives at the foot off the tower, he initially assumes the body is Harris, and Harris takes advantage of his supposed death to get the drop on Orson.
- Groin Attack: Orson tases one of Mike's Private Military Contractors in the groin.
- Hey, Wait!:
- As Sarah is attempting to join Danny at Simmonds' garage in order to escape, Simmonds stops her and asks who she is. Turns out he just wants to tell her that he's interested in her, but that he respects Danny too much to attempt to steal his girlfriend.
- When Danny and Sarah are exiting Simmonds' Turkish compound one of the guards stops them at the gate, and it look likes the gig is up. However, it turns out the guard only wants a selfie with Danny and lets them go after he takes it.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: When Mike's goons attempt to taser Orson, he beats them and uses the taser on them.
- Jurisdiction Friction: The team's initial operation at an airport goes awry, with agents knocked out. It turns out to be a rival team from the same agency, which promotes the idea that "competition proves who's better." That this ends up nearly ruining the entire mission shows the flaw in that strategy.
- Knockout Gas: When he breaks into the Ukrainians' villa, Orson connects a tank of knockout gas to the air conditioning system and floods the place with gas until everyone falls asleep.
- MacGuffin: Orson Fortune and his team are recruited by the British Government to retrieve a stolen weapon system known as 'The Handle'. The hunt is complicated by the fact that the British Government doesn't know what 'The Handle' is: just that a lot of bad people want it and are willing to pay obscene amounts of money for it. It turns out to be a programmable AI system capable of hijacking other AI systems.
- Newspaper-Thin Disguise: Orson grabs a map off a tourist and holds it in front of his face when tailing Ben and his bodyguard. It only works for a short time.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: When Orson's cover in the encounter to trade for 'The Handle' is blown, Mike comes with his mercenaries and starts a shootout, allowing Orson to (temporarily) escape.
- Out-Gambitted: Trent and Arnold try to stiff Simmonds on his money, figuring they've got the upper hand on some quirky arms dealer. Simmonds responds first by having a hotel blown up on his say-so and then how he has his men ready to kill the loved ones of Trent and Arnold unless they pay up.
- Red Baron: Arms Dealer Greg Simmonds has the nickname 'the Dark Angel of Merciless Death'.
- Shame If Something Happened: Greg Simmonds warns Arnold and Trent that something very bad will happen to their loved ones if they do not wire the money they owe him, showing that he has tracked them all.
- Smart People Play Chess: Nathan and Orson have a game of chess during one of the flights. Played with as the working-class Orson, who is stated to have the ability to exploit any system to his advantage, has the more intellectual, upper-class Nathan trapped in a very difficult position.
- Villain Respect: Simmonds makes it clear that he finds Orson's plan to infiltrate his compound a very impressive one.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Mike has his mercenaries kill Arnold, Trent, and their bodyguards when John manages to hack into their systems. The plan backfires when the ensuing shooting kills everyone but Mike.
