Tony Scott

Spy Game is a true to life composite of many real operations. Spy Game is more real than fiction and is based loosely on the character of intelligence operative Tom Golden, the son of an Arkansas dirt farmer. Golden was assigned to the CIA's Phoenix program during the Vietnam War. Nathan Thomas Muir was Golden?s CIA code name in Southeast Asia, and during his CIA operations in Indochina. Golden served a distinguished career in the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the CIA. He served in Southeast Asia, Eastern and Western Europe, and Central and South America. Tony Scott does a great job of presenting the true to life dangers faced by Intelligence Agents in the field and the bureaucratic decisions sometimes made in Washington that are driven by politics. Set in 1991, the film depicts the U.S. and Chinese Governments on the verge of a major trade agreement with the American President due to pay a visit to China to seal the deal. The Central Intelligence Agency gets word that their Special Activities Division operative Tom Bishop (Brad Pitt) has been captured trying to free an Englishwoman, Elizabeth Hadley (Catherine McCormack), from a Chinese prison near Su Chou (Suzhou). Bishop is being questioned under torture and will be executed within twenty-four hours unless he is claimed by the U.S.