| Director | David Leitch |
|---|---|
| Budget | $30 million |
| Box office | $100 million |
In November 1989, days before the collapse of the Berlin Wall, KGB agent Yuri Bakhtin kills MI6 agent James Gascoigne and steals his watch, which contains a microfilm document with a list of the names of every intelligence agent active in Berlin.
A day later, top-level MI6 spy Lorraine Broughton is dispatched to recover the list of names. She is told to keep an eye out for Satchel, a mysterious double agent for the KGB. Arriving in Berlin, Lorraine is picked up by two men, but realizes they are KGB agents and escapes from them after one mentions their boss, Aleksander Bremovych. She is then picked up by her real contact, maverick MI6 station head David Percival.
Lorraine searches Gascoigne's apartment and discovers a picture of him and Percival. Percival has previously denied knowing Gascoigne, so, when the West Berlin police ambush her while she's searching Gascoigne's apartment, Lorraine suspects Percival. When she visits a restaurant mentioned by the KGB agents, she encounters Bremovych, but their meeting is interrupted by novice French agent Delphine Lasalle. Although initially suspicious of Lasalle, Lorraine later enters into a relationship with her. Lasalle suggests that they should work together.
Percival, having tailed Lorraine, surveils a watchmaker she visited and spots Bakhtin. Lorraine is informed that Satchel's identity has been compromised. Percival kills Bakhtin and takes the wristwatch, from which he discovers Satchel's identity.
Meanwhile, Lorraine learns that Spyglass, the Stasi officer who gave the list to Gascoigne, has memorized it. Unaware that Percival has the list, she makes plans with him to escort Spyglass to West Berlin. Percival meets with Bremovych and offers Satchel's identity "to keep the balance", and tips him off about their plan to extricate Spyglass. Lasalle covertly photographs the meeting.
During the extrication of Spyglass, Percival secretly shoots and wounds him. Lorraine battles multiple KGB agents while trying to escape with Spyglass, but after a grueling fight and a car chase, their car is pushed into the river and Spyglass drowns. Lorraine makes it to West Berlin and realizes Percival has planted a bug in her coat.
Lorraine tells Lasalle, who calls Percival and threatens him with her knowledge of his Bremovych meeting. He then goes to Lasalle's apartment and kills her, fleeing as Lorraine arrives moments later. She finds Lasalle's photographs and realizes Percival has the list. He attempts to flee, but Lorraine intercepts, kills him, and takes the list.
It is now ten days since Gascoigne was killed. Lorraine is debriefed by MI6 executive Eric Gray and CIA officer Emmett Kurzfeld. While there, she discovers that Percival told Gray he had the list and he was "very close to Satchel". Lorraine presents Lasalle's photographs and doctored audio recordings, which paint Percival as Satchel. She denies knowing the list's whereabouts, leaving MI6 no choice but to close the case.
Three days later in Paris, Lorraine, now speaking in Russian, meets with Bremovych, who addresses her as "Comrade Satchel". He, having learned from Percival there was more to Satchel than he had previously known, orders his men to kill her, but she kills them. Speaking with an American accent, she explains to Bremovych she has always fed him misinformation to manipulate the KGB, then kills him.
Later, she and Kurzfeld return to the United States with the list. In their conversation, it is implied that Lorraine is actually a triple agent and has been working for the CIA all along.