At the highest level of Countrypopular, amid a period of extreme paranoia among the American public, Ridley Scott he directed a film that now looks like the perfect time capsule. He recruited two A-listers to lead the espionage thriller set against the backdrop of Middle Eastern politics, which predates similar films. Green Zone, The Hurt Lockerand Zero Dark Thirty. That film is still a minor entry in Scott’s impressive filmography, but it occasionally appears on the streaming charts.
The film was released in 2008, the same year as another tentpole about America turned into a surveillance state: The Dark Knight. It follows a CIA operative who was tracking down terrorism while embedded in Jordan, and his handler back home in Virginia. Leonardo DiCaprio plays the field worker, and Scott is a regular collaborator Russell Crowe playing the handler. Mark Strong appearing in a supporting role as head of Jordan’s intelligence agency, while Golshifteh Farahani appearing as a love interest in DiCaprio’s character.
The film also marks an early major role for Oscar Isaacwho would go on to work with Scott again Robin Hood – the period action film ended the filmmaker’s ten-year creative collaboration with Crowe. Unlike Oscar-winning Scott and Crowe Gladiatoror even their infamous crime American Gangsterthe political thriller did not perform at the box office.
COLLmeANInteractive
Service file
Movie/Interrogation/What Bond
Name Branch
Status Active File 06 of 06
Comparative AssessmentEyes only
Collider QuizWhichJamesBond AreYou?8 Questions · 6 ActorsSix actors. Six completely different views of the same man: dangerous, attractive, complex, and almost certainly wearing a very good suit. Only one of them shares your unique way of moving through the world. Eight questions will work out which Bond you really are.The Six
Connery
Morag
Dalton
Brosnan
Lazenby
Rock
The name is confirmedYour Fund is
Six actors. One role. Your answers identify the Bond that shares your presence, your approach, and your unique way of carrying stress as the most dangerous person in the room.
1962-1971Sean ConneryDr. No to Diamonds ForeverYou were always going to end up here.
You are the original, and you carry that truth without needing to name it. There is an authority in the way you inhabit a room that others spend careers trying to reproduce.Why Is This You
You don’t explain yourself, justify yourself, or comfort yourself for anyone’s comfort. The confidence is structured, not achieved.
Connery’s Bond established everything, the tone, the menace, the cool, because Connery himself had the innate presence to make something that was never there feel inevitable.
You share that quality: the feeling that you were always going to end up here, doing just this.
Bond’s first name. In your case, it always was.
The OriginCool structuralAuthority
1973-1985Roger MooreLive and Let Die to A View to a KillThe light is the technology.
You understand what worse people miss: that wit is its own form of intelligence, and that making people laugh is not an escape from danger, but a way to master it.Why Is This You
Bond Moore is not admired simply because the lack of effort looks easy, and the lack of effort is the hardest thing to do.
You have one quality: a lightness that disarms people before they realize how sharp you are.
The raised eyebrow, the well-timed whip, the refusal to be rattled. These are not effects. They are a philosophy about how to move through a world that wants to be too real.
You never let it go.
The Whipno doubtEffortless
1987-1989Timothy DaltonThe Living Lights, License to KillYou took it seriously when no one asked you to.
You took the role seriously when everyone wanted you to land, and refusing to take the easy way out of anything is what defines you the most.Why Is This You
Bond Dalton has a real moral weight: he feels the cost of what he does, he has lines he will not cross, and he is not interested in the version of himself that pretends otherwise.
You share that intensity. You push harder than the situation technically calls for, because you have a standard and you stick to it.
He was ahead of his time, the Bond the franchise wasn’t quite ready for yet, arriving just when he was supposed to.
You know what that feels like.
Moral weightNo shoreBefore him
1995-2002Pierce BrosnanGoldeneye to die another daySome people just respond to their moment.
You are the total package, and you know it, which is part of what makes you so effective and occasionally so terrifying to the people around you.Why Is This You
Brosnan arrived in the role looking exactly how Bond was supposed to look, and he delivered that expectation with a professionalism that made it look effortless.
You have the same quality: a smooth ability, a charm that works like a precise instrument, and the ability to make even difficult things look like they weren’t.
His four films revived the franchise after a six-year hiatus and made Bond a household name again. There is a reason for that.
The reason is that some people just fit their moment perfectly. You are one of those people.
The PackageDetailed charmRevival
1969George LazenbyOn Her Majesty’s Secret ServiceHistory tends to go up with people like you.
You went into something really big with less preparation than anyone around you thought was enough, and you delivered something real anyway, which is the most impressive achievement.Why Is This You
Lazenby’s single outing is, by many measures, one of the best Bond films ever made, and it’s no small part of why.
You share his quality of raw mystery: more polished than the alternatives, more honest about it, capable of something real that that approach cannot produce.
He was not highly regarded, and then he was not, and then history caught up with him.
You are the type of person that history captures. Give it time.
Movie only onerawUnrated
2006-2021Daniel CraigCasino Royale with no time to dieIncomprehensible, then undeniable.
You stripped everything back and found what was underneath, and what was underneath was harder, more honest, and more human than expected.Why Is This You
Craig’s Bond is the most psychologically complete: a man doing a punishing job, bearing his costs imperfectly, capable of love and loss in indelible ways.
You share that depth. You don’t hide behind the role or the charm or the suit. You let the work show what it really costs.
It was controversial from the moment it was announced and definitive by the time it was finished. The doubters became believers.
That arc, of being underappreciated and then denied, is one you know intimately.
Split backHuman Costdefinitive
Closest games
1· · ·0%
2· · ·0%
3· · ·0%
An Interactive ColliderCOLLmeANMore quizzes at collider.com
This is the Political Thriller Starring Two A-Listers
We are talking, of course, about him Body of lies. The film grossed around $120 million worldwide against a reported $70 million budget – although three A-listers certainly wouldn’t have come free, the film was also shot in several international locations. The mixed reviews certainly didn’t help. The film now holds a score of 54% on aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus reads, “Body of lies rely on the performances of Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio to lift it beyond the usual spy thriller.”
According to FlixPatrol, Body of lies has seen a viewership spike recently. It is currently among the most popular films on the domestic Apple TV chart, which seems to have another two-hander at the top with Crowe: The Nice People. Apparently, Crowe’s latest release, the acclaimed Western drama The Weightin both hands. On the other hand, DiCaprio was last seen in One battle after anotherand he is about to start working on it Michael Mannand long-lived Heat 2. You can look Body of lies at home, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
