Is Steven Soderbergh's Black Bag Movie Based on a True Story and Real Spies?
Black Bag centers on employees at the London-headquartered National Cyber Security Centre, leading some fans to wonder if the film is based on a true story.
Director Steven Soderbergh's Black Bag centers on employees at the London-headquartered National Cyber Security Centre — an actual organization in the UK — leading some fans to wonder if the film is based on a true story.
In the winding spy thriller, in theaters Friday, March 14 (click here for tickets), British intelligence operative George Woodhouse (Oscar nominee Michael Fassbender) must weed out a traitor that absconded with a nasty computer worm known only as "Severus."
The juicy part: the turncoat might just be George's wife, Kathryn (Academy Award-winner Cate Blanchett).
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Marisa Abela (Back to Black), Tom Burke (Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga), Naomie Harris (Skyfall), Regé-Jean Page (Bridgerton), and Pierce Brosnan (GoldenEye) round out the ensemble cast. And many of their characters are also being closely looked at by George, as he works to find the mole.
Read on to find out how much of the film is steeped in reality.
Is Black Bag based on a true story?
No, Black Bag is not based on a true story. With that said, screenwriter and executive producer David Koepp (Jurassic World: Rebirth) did find himself inspired by the accounts of real-world intelligence operatives whom he interviewed while penning the script for the original Mission: Impossible movie.
“All the spy-craft stuff was very cool, but I learned more than I ever expected about the people,” Koepp explains in the Black Bag production notes. “One woman told me that her job made it impossible for her to sustain a relationship. A line in the movie was inspired by my conversations with her: ‘When you can lie about everything, how do you tell the truth about anything?’”
He continues: “Think about it. If you want to have an affair, it couldn’t be easier. You just say, ‘I’ll be gone for three days and you can’t ask me where I’m going because you don’t have clearance.’ You can’t trust people and people can’t trust you. For George and Kathryn, the confidential information they can’t share goes into what they call their ‘black bag.’”
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Michael Fassbender's Black Bag character has trait of real-life spy chief
In addition, one particular element of Fassbender's character was inspired by the habits of 20th century espionage legend James Jesus Angleton, who oversaw the CIA's counterintelligence work for two solid decades. "Specifically, they both love bass fishing," Koepp notes. "For someone who hunts moles, bass fishing seems a pretty excellent hobby."
To further ensure accuracy, the filmmakers received declassified counsel from the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), parent organization of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) — the latter of which factors heavily into the film's narrative. Cast members Michael Fassbender, Tom Burke, Marisa Abela, Pierce Brosnan, and Regé-Jean Page all met with current members of both bodies, though for obvious security reasons, the employees could only give up their first names.
Blanchett, meanwhile, attempted to seek out spy advisors on her own and found little to no willing participants. “I suppose if I could find one, she probably wouldn’t be doing her job very well," the Oscar-winner said in the film's production notes. "But Kathryn wasn’t based on any one person. This is more a portrait of their marriage and they happen to be in espionage."
How to watch Black Bag
Black Bag opens in theaters everywhere on Friday, March 14. Click here for tickets! The film is rated R for language including some sexual references, and some violence.
