THE AMATEUR

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy

The film starts as Charlie Heller (Rami Malek) is working privately in his shed, until he is greeted by his wife, Sarah (Rachel Brosnahan). She is headed to London for a conference and says farewell to him before heading off.

Charlie works for the CIA as a cryptographer. He is shown to have a friendship with a field agent nicknamed “The Bear” (Jon Bernthal) after it is said that Charlie saved his life. He also has a secret correspondence with an anonymous person called “Inquiline”, with Charlie frequently guessing where they are located. Charlie goes through some classified files sent from Inquiline and learns that Director Frank Moore (Holt McCallany) and Deputy Caleb Horowitz (Danny Sapani) have ordered unsanctioned drone strikes in the Middle East and disguised them as suicide bombings.

Director O’Brien (Julianne Nicholson) and Moore bring Charlie into the office to reveal to him that Sarah has been killed during a hostage situation in London. Charlie refuses to believe it until he sees surveillance footage of Sarah being taken by armed men. Charlie is later brought back her belongings and her body. Among the items is a puzzle that she was going to give him as a gift, and he cries.

Charlie wants Moore and Caleb to go after Sarah’s killers, but they believe it is not a matter that can be resolved how he wants it. He digs deeper into the attack and learns the names of the four terrorists – Mishka Blazhic (Marc Rissmann), Ellish (Joseph Milson), Gretchen Frank (Barbara Probst), and Horst Schiller (Michael Stuhlbarg), the latter being the one who pulled the trigger. It was also noted from further surveillance footage that Sarah defended another woman and was taken in her place. Charlie requests training to become a field agent and personally go after the four. Moore and Caleb laugh him off, but Charlie threatens to expose their crimes even at the risk of his own incarceration. He tells them he has a dead man’s switch that will automatically send the documents to news sources if he doesn’t check in every five hours. Moore and Caleb have Charlie set up at a camp but quietly make plans to have him killed.

Charlie goes to Camp Ready, where he meets Colonel Robert “Hendo” Henderson (Laurence Fishburne). Charlie has trouble with combat and gun-training, but he is shown to know how to properly craft a bomb. After the training is over, Henderson decides that Charlie is not capable of killing. Meanwhile, Moore and Caleb hire their people on the inside to try and find Charlie’s dead man’s switch, only to determine that he was bluffing. After this discovery, the two order Henderson to eliminate Charlie, but he has already fled the camp.

Starting in Paris, Charlie tracks down Gretchen. He finds her apartment and picks the lock to get in. There, he finds info of a clinic where she treats her allergies. Gretchen and her partner arrive home, with Charlie escaping before she sees him. He has a clear shot at her, but he cannot bring himself to shoot her.

Disguising himself as a doctor, Charlie sneaks into her room and locks the door. He stuffs pollen into the tube going into her chamber after locking her inside. As she starts to suffocate, Charlie orders her to tell him where Schiller is. Gretchen appears to be losing consciousness, so Charlie lets her go, but she starts to attack and fight him in the room. Gretchen runs out into the street, where she gets hit by a car and dies. Charlie grabs her phone and runs away.

Charlie goes to Marseille, where Henderson has tracked him down due to him grabbing Gretchen’s phone. Charlie runs through a club to get away from Henderson but ends up cornered at a bar. Before Henderson can do anything, Charlie has already set up an explosion in the bathroom to allow him to escape.

Charlie contacts Inquiline and goes to Istanbul, where she is revealed to be the widow of a murdered KGB officer, Davies (Catriona Balfe). They work together at her home, where they track down Blazhic to a hotel in Madrid, learning that he pays the staff to clear the rooftop pool so he can use it for himself. While staying together, Davies asks Charlie if she can sleep next to him just so she can feel someone next to her again. He agrees.

At the hotel, Charlie corners Blazhic during his pool time. He informs him that he has rigged the pool with a device to decompress the glass so it can shatter. Blazhic tells Charlie that Schiller has disappeared, so he tries to swim away. Charlie turns the device on, and the pool begins to slowly crack apart until it shatters, sending Blazhic plummeting 16 stories to his death. As Charlie tries to leave, Henderson goes after him again, but Henderson gets attacked by an operative sent by a suspicious O’Brien. The two men fight, with the operative taking Henderson’s gun and shooting him, but Henderson fatally shoots the other man while Charlie gets away again.

Caleb deploys a strike team to Istanbul. Charlie and Davies are alerted and begin to flee the premises. While they drive far enough, the shooters spot them again, and Davies is fatally shot. Charlie manages to drive away and mourns the loss of his friend.

Charlie tracks down Ellish in Romania by pretending to stage an arms deal with him. He tricks Ellish into opening a case that activates a bomb and will go off if he moves away from it. Charlie gets Ellish to tell him that Schiller has fled Europe and is on a boat in the Baltic Sea, as well as giving Charlie the names of Schiller’s associates. After getting what he wants, Charlie doesn’t deactivate the bomb like he promised, and Ellish is left to get blown up. As the CIA continues searching for him, Charlie manages to trick them into looking for him in other countries since he’s hacked their facial recognition software.

In Primorsk, The Bear finds Charlie as he is trying to close in on Schiller’s operation. He offers to try and help Charlie get out so the CIA won’t catch him, but Charlie refuses to end his mission.

Schiller’s men find Charlie and capture him when he goes snooping around a shipyard. He is brought onto Schiller’s boat to finally confront him. Schiller defends himself by saying that while they had no intention of killing Sarah, the police had blocked off their only exit, and they needed to demonstrate how serious they were. Schiller also points out that the way Charlie killed Blazhic and Ellish, as well as causing Gretchen’s death, was just as “necessary” for him as it was for Schiller to kill Sarah. Charlie is handed a gun so he can go ahead and shoot Schiller, but Charlie reveals his real plan was to keep Schiller talking long enough to send the boat into Finnish waters. Agents soon storm the boat and arrest Schiller and his men after being tipped off by Charlie.

O’Brien later addresses a press conference, as the documents on Moore and Caleb’s drone strike operations are made public, and the two are arrested. O’Brien also tells reporters that the whistleblower (Charlie) is still alive and working with the agency. Charlie is later found by Henderson (still alive), who admits to having underestimated Charlie’s capabilities.

After visiting Sarah’s grave, Charlie goes back home to his shed and looks at a plane that she gave him as a gift. He fixes it up and takes it out to fly.

Charlie Heller is a cryptographer for the CIA. When his wife Sarah is killed during a terrorist attack in London, Charlie wants his superiors to go after Sarah's killers, but they refuse. He then blackmails Director Frank Moore and Deputy Caleb Horowitz after Charlie receives classified documents detailing how the two ordered unsanctioned drone strikes in the Middle East for their own political agendas. They set Charlie up at Camp Ready with Colonel Robert Henderson, but Moore and Caleb make plans to have Charlie killed.

After his training, Henderson deduces that Charlie is not capable of killing. Charlie escapes before Moore and Caleb can order his execution, and he goes after the killers along with help from his anonymous source, "Inquiline", AKA Davies, the widow of a murdered KGB officer. Charlie finds the first of the four terrorists, Gretchen Frank, in Paris, where he attempts to suffocate her with pollen, but she escapes and ends up getting hit by a car. The second terrorist, Blazhic, gets dropped 16 stories after Charlie destroys the glass pool he was swimming in. The third terrorist, Ellish, gets blown up by Charlie after giving him information on Horst Schiller, the man who pulled the trigger on Sarah. Henderson goes after Charlie, but he manages to evade him twice. Davies is also killed when Caleb sends a strike team after them.

Charlie lets himself get captured by Schiller's men and brought onto his boat. Schiller defends his actions by saying that they needed to show the police how serious they were. Before Charlie can shoot Schiller, he reveals his real plan was to have Schiller's boat make it into Finnish waters, which gets him arrested.

Charlie exposes Moore and Caleb's crimes, leading to their arrests. Henderson finds Charlie one last time and admits he underestimated him. Charlie later flies away in a plane given to him as a gift by Sarah.