Spy (2015)

Spy is a 2015 American spy action comedy film written and directed by Paul Feig. It stars Melissa McCarthy, Jason Statham, Rose Byrne, and Jude Law, alongside Miranda Hart, Bobby Cannavale, Peter Serafinowicz, Morena Baccarin, Nargis Fakhri, and Allison Janney in supporting roles. The film follows unorthodox secret agent Susan Cooper (McCarthy) as she tries to trace a stolen portable nuclear device.

Produced by Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, Feig, and Jessie Henderson, Spy had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 15, 2015, and was theatrically released in the United States on June 5, 2015, by 20th Century Fox. Spy received praise for Feig's direction and screenplay, McCarthy and Byrne's performances, as well as Statham's unexpectedly comedic performance. The film grossed $235 million worldwide against a $65 million budget. It was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards: Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for McCarthy.

Plot

Susan Cooper is a desk-bound CIA employee who remotely assists her partner, field agent Bradley Fine, on his missions. Fine accidentally kills arms dealer Tihomir Boyanov before Boyanov can tell Fine where a suitcase nuke is hidden.

Susan discovers Boyanov's daughter, Rayna, has contacted terrorist middleman Sergio De Luca, so Fine infiltrates her home. She reveals she knows the identities of the agency's field agents, including Rick Ford and Karen Walker. Rayna then shoots Fine, apparently fatally.

Since Susan is an agent but has never been in the field and is therefore unknown to Rayna, she volunteers to track Rayna herself. When Susan's boss, Elaine Crocker, reluctantly agrees, Ford objects due to Susan's inexperience and quits in protest.

With her best friend and colleague Nancy providing remote intelligence, Susan goes to Paris. A rogue Ford shows up, insisting she will fail. Susan discovers De Luca's office has been burned down, but finds a photo of a man standing next to the fire. Ford appears, argues with Susan again and leaves.

Susan sees the man from the photo switch Ford's backpack with one containing a bomb. She warns Ford in time, prompting him to throw it into the Seine, interrupting the nearby Verka Serduchka concert. Pursuing the man, she accidentally kills him during the ensuing fight. Susan finds proof that De Luca is going to Rome. Now more determined than ever, she is sent after him.

Susan's contact there is Aldo, a lustful Italian who repeatedly flirts with her. Following De Luca into a casino, Susan saves Rayna's life from an assassination attempt in which her drink was spiked with acid.

Rayna invites Susan into her inner circle, taking her by private jet to Budapest. In mid-flight, the steward kills Rayna's crew, but Susan subdues him and takes control of the plane. Rayna believes her to be a CIA agent, but Susan convinces Rayna she is a bodyguard who was hired by Rayna's father.

Nancy joins Susan in Budapest. After being shot at, Susan pursues and catches the would-be assassin: Karen, who sold Rayna the agents' names. She tries to shoot Susan, but a sniper kills her first.

Susan, Nancy and Aldo accompany Rayna to a party to meet Rayna's contact, Lia. Nancy creates a diversion, jumping on performer 50 Cent, so Susan can apprehend Lia, but Ford's inopportune intervention lets her escape. Susan catches her and, during a brutal fight, is saved from death by Fine, who is revealed to have faked his murder and is Rayna's lover and associate.

Rayna imprisons Susan and Aldo, but Fine visits them, revealing he is gaining Rayna's trust to locate the nuke, and he was who killed Karen. Susan and Aldo escape, and she follows Fine and Rayna to De Luca's mansion. There, she convinces them that the CIA has mistreated her, and she will do anything to protect Fine, as she loves him.

Terrorist Solsa Dudaev arrives and gives De Luca a suitcase full of diamonds as payment for the device. De Luca has Dudaev and his men killed, revealing his plan to resell the device, then prepares to shoot Rayna. Ford arrives and unintentionally distracts him, allowing Susan to kill his men.

De Luca escapes by helicopter with the device and the diamonds, but Susan grabs onto a landing skid. Ford chases after them and grabs onto Susan but falls into the lake. In the ensuing struggle, Susan throws the diamonds and the device into the lake below. De Luca attempts to shoot Susan, but Nancy, following in 50 Cent's helicopter with Aldo piloting, shoots him first. De Luca falls out of the helicopter into the lake.

The nuke is retrieved and Rayna is arrested, but she makes peace with Susan. Aldo tells Susan he is actually an MI6 agent named Albert, but he subsequently indicates that he might be lying. Ford realizes he had underestimated Susan and compliments her skills. Crocker officially makes Susan a field agent and gives her another assignment in Prague. Fine invites Susan to dinner, but she opts for a night out with Nancy.

The next morning, Susan wakes up in bed next to Ford and screams, while Ford claims she "loved it".

Cast

Production

Development

On June 18, 2013, it was announced that Paul Feig was developing Susan Cooper, a female spy comedy, for 20th Century Fox. Feig wrote and directed the film. Peter Chernin and Jenno Topping produced the film under the Chernin Entertainment banner, with Feig and Jessie Henderson for Feigco Entertainment. On November 12, 2013, Fox announced a release date of May 22, 2015. On March 28, 2014, the film's title was changed to Spy.

Casting

On July 25, 2013, it was confirmed that Melissa McCarthy was in negotiations to play the title role. Zooey Deschanel was originally slated to play the role of Elaine Crocker but left the project. On October 17, Rose Byrne joined the cast of the film playing the main villain. Throughout 2014, Jason Statham, Jude Law, Nargis Fakhri, Miranda Hart, Bobby Cannavale, Peter Serafinowicz, Björn Gustafsson. Morena Baccarin, Allison Janney, Zach Woods and Jessica Chaffin joined the cast, along with 50 Cent, who would be playing himself, and Nia Long, who did not appear in the finished film.

Filming

Principal photography and production began on March 31, 2014, in Budapest, Hungary. On May 27, filming was under way in Budapest and was about to wrap up. Apart from tax breaks, shooting was primarily done in Budapest because its architecture and location could allow it to appear as other places where the story took place, including Paris. A prosthetic was used for shots of Nicola (Julian Miller) exposing himself. The production team of Spy had to present prosthetics used in the shots to the MPAA for rating.

Release

Theatrical issues

The US release of film was originally scheduled for May 22, 2015, by 20th Century Fox. In March 2015, the date was pushed back to June 5, 2015, which was first assigned to B.O.O.: Bureau of Otherworldly Operations and Paper Towns; the former of which being taken off the schedule and cancelled, while the latter moved to July. Prior to its official release, Paul Feig stated that Spy went through about 10 test screenings, a process – which includes recording the audience laughter for each version – he does "religiously", with Judd Apatow (who produced the Feig-directed Bridesmaids) commenting on its usefulness for a comedy film: "It doesn't work very well if a movie is supposed to make you feel difficult emotions. If you're making a David Lynch movie, it doesn't work at all. But for comedy it's often the best way to refine jokes."

Spy was released on May 21, 2015, in Australia, Malaysia and Vietnam, and of May 28, 2015 in Israel and May 29, 2015, in Norway.

Home media

Spy was released on DVD and Blu-ray on September 29, 2015.

Reception

Box office

Spy grossed $110.8 million in North America and $124.8 million in other territories for a global total of $235.6 million, against a budget of $65 million.

In North America, the film made $1.5 million from its early Thursday night showings and an estimated $10.3 million on its opening day from 3,711 theaters, coming at second place at the box office behind fellow new release Insidious: Chapter 3. It would go on to top the box office in its opening weekend, earning $29 million. The film dropped 46% in its sophomore weekend to $15.6 million, finishing second behind newcomer Jurassic World.

Outside North America, Spy opened in ten foreign markets on May 22, 2015, earning $12.7 million in its opening weekend from 1,810 screens, and coming in fourth place at the box office (behind Mad Max: Fury Road, Tomorrowland, and Pitch Perfect 2). In the UK, Ireland and Malta, it opened with $3.9 million. The film had successful openings in South Korea ($4.8 million), Russia and the CIS ($3.1 million), Australia ($2.9 million), Mexico ($1.6 million) and Taiwan ($1.3 million).

Critical response

Spy received praise for Feig's direction and screenplay, McCarthy and Byrne's performances, as well as Statham's surprise comedic role. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 94% of 260 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "Simultaneously broad and progressive, Spy offers further proof that Melissa McCarthy and writer-director Paul Feig bring out the best in one another — and delivers scores of belly laughs along the way." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 75 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average score of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

McCarthy's performance was praised by critics. Richard Roeper of The Chicago Sun Times called her "as funny and as winning as anyone in the movies these days". Tom Russo of The Boston Globe credited the film's success to McCarthy, writing, "part of what makes the action comedy such a loopy blast is the identity shifts she pulls on the audience." Bill Goodykoontz of Arizona Republic called the film McCarthy's return to form, writing "Finally, after the promise shown in Bridesmaids, but sold short since by weak scripts in films like Tammy and Identity Thief, Melissa McCarthy gets a movie vehicle worthy of her talents."

In addition to McCarthy's, many of the supporting cast members' performances were praised, particularly Byrne's and Statham's. John Boone of Entertainment Tonight said Statham "twists his action hero persona into a delightfully delusional version of the same thing", and praised Byrne's performance, writing "For every joke that McCarthy's Susan Cooper ends up as the butt of, Byrne is the one teeing it up with perfectly understated wickedness. She can so easily spit out lines as offensive as, after Cooper delivers a punny cheers, "What a stupid, f**king toast," but make it...charming?" Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called Byrne's comedic timing "bitchy perfection".

Accolades

Possible sequel

In a May 2015 interview with The Guardian, Paul Feig said he was already writing a sequel, that includes Jason Statham's Agent Ford, though the project doesn't have a producer. In 2019, Feig explained that although a sequel to Spy could still happen, "there hasn't been any interest from the studio" in the project. In May 2023, McCarthy confirmed that everyone wants to do the sequel, but it hasn't been greenlit yet.

References

External links

Official website

Spy at IMDb