← Back to Directory
The Amateur
Movie

The Amateur

2025 • Action, Thriller

Woke Score
2
out of 10

Plot

When his supervisors at the CIA refuse to take action after his wife is killed in a London terrorist attack, a decoder takes matters into his own hands.

Overall Series Review

The Amateur is an espionage thriller about CIA analyst Charles Heller, who goes rogue to seek justice after his wife is killed in a terrorist attack and his agency refuses to act. Heller, an unlikely action hero, uses his intellect and decoding skills to hunt down the mercenary group responsible. The film updates a classic revenge-thriller formula by having the protagonist blackmail his corrupt CIA superiors for the resources and training he needs. The narrative's central conflict is not purely vengeance, but a pursuit of justice that ultimately forces Heller to expose the institutional corruption within his own agency, which is revealed to be covering up illicit drone strikes and extrajudicial assassinations. The film does not center on identity politics, gender ideology, or religious critique, instead maintaining a focus on personal loss, moral compromise, and the intricacies of spy-craft.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics2/10

The narrative does not prioritize race or immutable characteristics over merit; the protagonist is an intellectual 'nerd' who succeeds based on his superior skill as a cryptographer and hacker. Casting is diverse with Rami Malek, an actor of Egyptian heritage, in the lead, but his ethnicity is not a factor in the plot or conflict. The villain's mercenary group is globally diverse, and the conflict centers on institutional malpractice and personal revenge, not intersectional hierarchy.

Oikophobia4/10

The central institutional critique is aimed at a corrupt element within the CIA, which is exposed by the protagonist for covering up illegal black ops and civilian casualties. This narrative suggests the corruption of specific high-ranking individuals rather than framing the entire Western civilization or the institution itself as fundamentally corrupt. The hero's goal shifts to demanding justice by exposing his own agency's crimes, which is a critique of institutional betrayal, a common theme in American spy thrillers.

Feminism3/10

The inciting incident is the death of the protagonist's wife, which is a traditional 'woman in the refrigerator' trope, centering her role as motivation for the male hero. There is a high-ranking female CIA Director who is portrayed as a good, anti-corruption figure, but the main female mercenary antagonist is defeated by the male hero's intellectual traps. The plot avoids overt 'Girl Boss' messaging or anti-natalist themes, instead placing a nuclear-family structure (husband-wife) at the emotional core of the film.

LGBTQ+1/10

There is no presence of alternative sexual ideologies, deconstruction of the nuclear family, or gender theory lecturing. The emotional core of the story is the male-female married couple. The focus is entirely on a personal revenge plot set within a geopolitical thriller framework.

Anti-Theism2/10

The film grapples with ethical questions of revenge versus justice and the morality of murder, which is a subjective moral framework typical of the espionage genre. This moral ambiguity is presented in a secular context without introducing or vilifying organized religion, particularly Christianity. There is no explicit attack on faith, objective truth, or traditional religious figures.