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In James Hawes' 2025 thriller film The Amateur, Rami Malek stars as Charlie Heller, a CIA cryptographer drawn into a secret mission for justice when his wife, Sarah, is murdered during a hostage situation in London.
The event, which was originally thought to be a terrorist attack, leads Charlie to seek out the truth surrounding her death, eventually leading him to unravel secrets about the very organization he works for.
What ensues is a tale of moral compromise, institutional corruption, and passive perseverance. The film, adapted from Robert Littell's 1981 novel, remakes the story for contemporary audiences, moving beyond the spy-thriller conventions, but retaining the emotional arc of a man torn between duty and loss.
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At the end of The Amateur, Sean is arrested by Interpol after Charlie lures his boat into international waters, ensuring he faces justice.
What was CIA's plan all along in The Amateur?
The Amateur explores a long-standing CIA cover-up of unauthorized operations and manipulation of foreign conflicts. Deputy Director Alex Moore, portrayed by Holt McCallany, is shown to be conducting black ops off-the-books operations, which involve faking drone attacks and subcontracting contracts to a private mercenary outfit led by Horst Schiller (Michael Stuhlbarg).
The cover-up is extended to the fabrication of intelligence and manipulation of the media narrative in regard to civilian casualties.
Charlie, as a CIA analyst, discovers this proof through his coded letters from an unidentified informant, who is named Inquiline. After his wife gets murdered in a botched mercenary attack in London, Charlie believes the assault was not a random attack.
Not deterred by being warned away from the case, Charlie blackmails Moore into providing him with field training while secretly scheming to bring the entire operation to light.
His strategy involves planting buggered files and employing CIA tracking mechanisms on their own spies, finally catching Moore's role in the criminal operations.
What was the CIA conspiracy theory, and who tried to kill Charlie in The Amateur?
The movie constructs its plot suspense around a conspiracy inside the CIA. Moore's secret network not only plans foreign attacks, but also covers up investigations that risk exposing the truth. Based on Charlie's investigation, Moore utilized Schiller's network to carry out unsanctioned operations presented as enemy activities, such as the hostage crisis that claimed Sarah's life.
While the CIA did not directly request Sarah's murder, Moore and his crew let the mercenaries stay out of the strategy. When Charlie catches Moore dead in the act with concrete proof of these actions, it then dawns on viewers that this agency was eager to cover up uncomfortable facts all in the cause of national interest. This bureaucrat apathy becomes Charlie's true nemesis.
As Charlie continues to investigate, he catches the attention of Colonel Henderson (Laurence Fishburne), an old CIA veteran and Charlie's instructor. Moore orders Henderson to kill Charlie once he becomes a threat. However, Henderson's regard for Charlie develops throughout the course of the film.
Although he pursues him all over Europe, he balks on several occasions, and when Charlie rescues his life in Madrid after a firefight, their relationship is changed.
Henderson later retreats from the mission, seeing Charlie's real motives and the justice of his cause. Their last encounter together, following Moore's arrest, implies respect, not hostility, between them.
Did Sean go to jail in The Amateur?
Schiller, also known as Sean in some versions of the tale, is eventually arrested. In contrast to previous adaptations of The Amateur, which ended with outright vengeance, the 2025 film presents a different ending.
Charlie traps Schiller on his private boat in the Baltic Sea. Presented with a gun and the chance to take vengeance for the death of his wife, Charlie resists. Rather, he admits that he had breached the ship's navigation system and guided it into Finnish waters and brought it under Interpol's jurisdiction.
When the police arrive, Schiller is arrested. Not only does this finale affirm Charlie's development as a character, but it also serves as a drastic deviation from the vengeance-for-an-eye justice most espionage thrillers condone. In taking Schiller in alive, Charlie assures both the mercenary and his co-conspirators within the CIA are held to account by due process, not revenge.
In the closing scenes of the film, Charlie goes to stand before Sarah's grave, a symbolic ending to his odyssey. Schiller is jailed and Moore is under arrest for orchestrating illegal activity. Charlie has effectively brought down the very conspiracy that took away his wife.
The Amateur ends with Charlie piloting the restored Cessna aircraft he constructed for Sarah, a subdued reference to his love for her and to his re-emergence into a life defined, not by loss, but by purpose.
The Amateur starring Rami Malek released on April 11, 2025 and is currently available to watch in theatres only.
