Who will be our next James Bond? With Denis Villeneuve firmly planted in the director’s chair, it’s only a matter of time before the world meets its newest martini-sipping, cold-blooded operative. And with Amazon at the helm of the franchise, the next 007 will likely be as masculine as they come—a nice chunk of red meat thrown to the same audiences that eat up Prime Video originals like “Reacher” and “Jack Ryan.”
But maybe it doesn’t have to be that way. One recent spy thriller (which just made its streaming debut) reveals another path forward for the world’s most famous secret agent.
“The Amateur,” available on Hulu on July 17, made a quiet theatrical debut earlier this year. Based on the 1981 novel by Robert Littell (while also riffing on the Canadian film adaptation released that same year), the movie offers a unique spin on the spy genre that could give James Bond the bold reinvention he needs.
A Different Kind of Spy
“The Amateur” features Rami Malek in a role that may seem familiar at first. The star of “Mr. Robot” plays yet another geeky hacker. However, this time, instead of taking down the system, he’s working to protect it as a code-breaker for the CIA. Each morning, Charlie Heller kisses his beautiful wife (Rachel Brosnahan) and then reports to the basement of Langley, where he stares at computer screens all day.
But everything changes after terrorists murder Charlie’s wife. When the CIA drags its feet in finding the culprits, Charlie identifies them himself and hands the details over to his boss (Holt McCallany), who refuses to act on the information. So Charlie takes matters into his own hands, training as a field agent with Colonel Robert Henderson (Laurence Fishburne) before setting out to murder the man who killed his wife.
Charlie isn’t your typical secret agent. He’s awkward, nervous, and twitchy—all characteristics that typically define a great Rami Malek role.
“If it’s a guy behind a computer screen or who feels overlooked by society or who’s disenfranchised and alienated, those characters just speak to me,” Malek told The New York Times. “I find them profoundly human.”
A more ‘human’ hero
Charlie is also very bad at the one thing he’s determined to do: kill terrorists. Despite his training, he consistently flinches when presented with the opportunity to get vengeance. But rather than give up, he leans into his strengths, constructing complex traps to terminate his victims. In one sequence, he pumps pollen into a room to take advantage of his victim’s allergies. In another, he uses oxygen to crack the glass of a swimming pool designed to hang between skyscrapers high above the ground.
That’s not typically the approach taken by 007, who prefers to shoot first and ask questions later. However, Malek argues that it’s a more realistic portrayal.
“I don’t know if you’ve ever had a gun in your hand or fired a weapon, but it’s terrifying. It’s dark and it’s cold and it’s not in the least way easy or as simple as it’s made out to be,” he told NYTimes, adding that it’s “harsh. It is cruel. It may imbue some people with a sense of power, but that’s not what it does for me.”
The same goes for the many explosions throughout “The Amateur.” Charlie isn’t the type of hero who can walk to his car calmly as a building burns behind him. Instead, he flinches and often sprints in the opposite direction.
“It’s much harder to walk away from an explosion with your eyes wide open, not looking back, of course,” Malek said. “I would love to see someone try to do it in real life. It’s an impossibility.”
The next James Bond?
Rami Malek almost definitely will not be the next James Bond (the role is virtually guaranteed to go to a British actor). However, whoever gets the job, hopefully, they’ll take something from “The Amateur.”
“Maybe one day in the future the mold will be broken, and a guy like me can play a Bond or be in a Mission: Impossible,” Malek told NYTimes, later adding, “Charlie is consistently underestimated. That’s something many of us can relate to.”
Then again, maybe that isn’t so unrealistic an idea. Daniel Craig’s version of James Bond started as a hesitant young operative. Then it evolved into a more familiar take on the character. Adding even more nuance and realism to the next iteration of 007 could make the character even more relatable. That might not be what some fans want from their escapist spy franchise. However, it would certainly make for an interesting movie.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, director James Hawes put it simply. “The tropes you want as an audience for a spy thriller are there,” he said, “but with a twist.”
Whether Amazon and Denis Villeneuve are willing to explore that twist with a franchise as important as James Bond remains to be seen. In the meantime, we’ll always have “The Amateur.”
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