THE SECRET AGENT

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy

The film starts in Brazil, 1977 during the country’s military dictatorship, “a time of great mischief”. A man named Armando Solimões (Wagner Moura) arrives at a gas station, where a dead body is lying in full view on the ground, covered by newspaper. The gas station attendant tells him the man was trying to steal something and got shot, and the police have not arrived to investigate because of the Carnival holiday. A police sergeant arrives and inspects Armando’s car before letting him go.

Part 1: The Boy’s Nightmare
The corrupt Chief Euclides (Roberio Diogenes) is joined by his sons Arlindo (Italo Martins) and Sergio (Igor de Araujo) as they arrive at a station, where they find a shark carcass has been cut open. Inside is a severed human leg.

Armando arrives in the town of Recife and meets a woman named Dona Sebastiana (Tânia Maria), a former anarcho-communist who houses other political refugees and dissidents, including Clovis (Robson Andrade), Claudia (Hermila Guedes), Haroldo (João Vitor Silva), Thereza Vitoria (Isabel Zuaa) and her husband Antonio (Licinio Januario). After settling in, Armando goes to visit his son, Fernando (Enzo Nunes), who has been living with Armando’s in-laws, Sr. Alexandre (Carlos Francisco) and Dona Lenira (Aline Marta Maia), since the death of his wife Fatima (Alice Carvalho). Armando has led Fernando to believe that his mother passed away from pneumonia, though it is implied she was killed. His ultimate goal is to get out of Brazil with Fernando safely.

In Sao Paolo State, two hitmen, Bobbi and Augusto Borba (Gabriel Leone and Roney Villela), shoot a body in a trunk and dispose of it in the river. The following day, the two are brought in to meet with Henrique Ghirotti (Luciano Chirolli), the former executive director of Eletrobras. He hires the two men to kill Armando.

The film cuts to the present day, where two students, Flavia (Laura Lufesi) and Daniela (Isadora Ruppert), are listening to audio recordings of conversations that took place between Sebastiana and others who met with a woman named Elza (Maria Fernanda Candido).

Part 2: Identification Institutes
Armando is brought in to work at an identity card office with the other dissidents, under the fake name “Marcelo Alves”. He is told to report things to Euclides. As the group gathers in the early hours, they watch outside the windows as a woman is brought in for a deposition because her housekeeper’s daughter was fatally run over under the woman’s watch. The girl’s mother arrives after being told the time and location of the deposition was being changed, and she yells angrily at her employer, who cowers behind an office door.

Armando spends time with Euclides, considering him to be arrogant. He joins the chief and other men as they interrogate a Holocaust survivor named Hans (Udo Kier), whom Euclides suspects of being a nazi. Armando is then contacted by a man named João (Marcelo Valle), who warns him that he is being targeted by Ghirotti and that they need to speak in a secure location.

Armando goes to Alexandre’s movie theater during a screening of “The Omen”. He contacts João on the phone there and tells him he cannot leave the country.

João arranges for Armando to meet with Elza, a political resistance leader, in a private hotel room. In recorded tapes (which Flavia and Daniela are shown listening to), Armando discusses how he met Ghirotti years earlier and immediately had a negative impression of him. Ghirotti took issues with Armando’s tech company handling operations in the northeast of Brazil when his own work is dealt with in the southeast. Ghirotti was also rude and condescending to Fatima, who stood up to him during a confrontational dinner that ended with Armando in a physical altercation with Ghirotti and his son (whom Armando also hated). Elza informs him about Bobbi and Augusto being hired to go after him. Armando leaves the hotel and slips into the crowd of people celebrating Carnival.

At the morgue, Sergio and Arlindo replace the human leg from the shark with an animal’s leg. They toss it in the river, which seemingly causes it to come to life and gives it strength to violently attack and kick people in the park, leading newspapers to start spreading an urban legend about the “Hairy Leg” terrorizing Recife. Meanwhile, Euclides and his sons meet with Augusto and Bobbi as they arrive in Recife. Bobbi gathers intel on Alexandre working at the theater.

Armando returns to Dona Sebastiana’s home and joins the other dissidents as they share a drink. He knows that he must get moving soon, so he spends a final evening with them. At night, Armando has a nightmare about the body he saw at the gas station, causing him to wake up screaming and prompting Claudia (whom he has been sleeping with) to calm him down.

Part 3: Blood Transfusions
Augusto and Bobbi meet a man named Vilmar (Kaiony Venancio) and hire him to be a gunman and track down Armando. Bobbi tails Alexandre as he goes to meet with Armando.

Vilmar shows up at the office and identifies Armando, who does not respond but attempts to quietly slip out. He goes to Euclides and suggests he is in danger. Arlindo and another cop go outside, where they are shot dead by Vilmar, though he gets shot in the leg. Chaos breaks out in the streets. Bobbi pursues but is shot dead by Vilmar in a barbershop after he earlier disrespected him. Armando seemingly gets away.

Jump back to the present day, as Flavia is reading a newspaper article about how Armando was murdered, and his corpse is featured on a newspaper, with the implication that he was framed for being a corrupt professor. Flavia gathers her work together in a drive.

Flavia goes to see Fernando (now played by Wagner Moura), who has become a doctor. She interviews him about his father’s past and what happened to him, as well as the identity of Armand’s mother India, whom he had been trying to find files on when he worked at the identity card office. Fernando admits that he has few memories of his father, and he is fine with moving on and not interested in the tapes that Flavia offers him. As she leaves, Fernando mentions how he was obsessed with wanting to see “Jaws” as a kid even though the shark on the poster gave him nightmares, and Alexandre eventually took him to see it in the theater that has since turned into the clinic where he works. Fernando then bids Flavia farewell before returning to work.

During the military dictatorship in 1970s Brazil, a man named Armando Solimões is targeted by a corrupt executive named Henrique Ghirotti over a past dispute. Armando hides under the name "Marcelo Alves" and works with other political dissidents while trying to find a way to escape the country with his son Fernando.

Two hitmen go after Armando at his office, but he seemingly escapes while one of the hitmen is killed. The present day reveals through a newspaper article that Armando was murdered on the streets and framed as being corrupt. A university student named Flavia goes over tapes and articles about Armando and his past work, which she uses to interview Fernando, who has become a doctor. Fernando admits that he has few memories of his father and is not interested in the files that Flavia offers him.