Nathan Muir (Robert Redford) is a CIA agent.  He's been all over the world and pulled off some tricky operations.  Now it's his final day before retirement and the wily old fox must pull off the trickiest operation of his career, with no advance notice or pre-planning. 

The time is 1991.  The place... is CIA Headquarters. 

Tom Bishop (Brad Pitt) has been arrested in some sort of rogue operation at a Chinese prison.  Bishop is a former protege of Muir's, but parted company with both Muir and the Agency a number of years ago.  Nontheless, Muir expects that the CIA and the US government will step in and arrange a trade of some sort. 

But no.  The US and China are about to make a major trade agreement, Tom Bishop is no longer an Agency asset and was not working on an Agency operation.  The Chinese plan to execute Bishop in 24 hours, and the US government isn't going to do a thing to stop it.

So Muir will. 

Using his contacts and his knowledge of espionage, Muir must arrange and implement a rescue and do it within 24 hours, without leaving the headquarters building, and while spending most of the day in a conference room with superiors who would stop him if they could figure out what he was doing.

All of which is not to say that the entire movie takes place in offices and conference rooms.  The conference is about Bishop, and the participants what to know what Muir knows.  So the story of Muir and Bishop is told in flashbacks, from their meeting in Vietnam to their parting in Lebanon.

Bishop was an Army sniper when he caught Muir's attention.  Seeing a potential recruit, Muir pulled strings to have Bishop's next tour in Germany, in a job as boring as possible to make Agency work look more attractive.

Bishop is duly recruited and the training beginning.  Several maxims Muir delivers are:  "Don't ever risk your life or your career for an asset.  If it comes down to you or them, send flowers", and "You go off the reservation, I will not come after you." 

Students of film formula will not be surprised to learn that Muir is going to break both these guidelines to save Bishop from a Chinese firing squad.  (Not a criticism - it's formula because it's satisfying.)

It's in Lebanon that Bishop gets involved with a mystery woman, aid worker Elizabeth Hadley (Catherine McCormack), and an operation goes disastrously wrong.   And Bishop has had enough.   He's out, and that's the last Muir ever sees of him. 

The fieldwork is interesting, lots of paranoia and exotic locales, but what's particularly intriguing is watching Muir work the offices and corridors.   This is one of those movies that you might want to go back and rewatch once you understand what he's up to.   I don't want to give too much away, but it involves diverting personnel in the field, forging a signature, withholding information while gaining access to information he has no right to,  and a red herring about a potential condo purchase in the Bahamas.   It also costs him his life savings. 

But hey, that's what friends are for.  Male bonding, dontcha just love it?

This one's a keeper.



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