Jessica Chastain’s secret agent movie includes a surprise twist and it's ending potentially sets up a sequel about further female agent activity.
One of the earliest theatrical releases of 2022, The 355, is now available to the public but some may need a recap on what exactly happened at the end of the movie. The Simon Kinberg-directed secret agent film takes a few plot twists in the process of getting the story to its endpoint. Twists are generally expected in a movie about secret agents but The 355 throws them at the audience very quickly and with little explanation.
The 355 follows a team of female agents played by an all-star cast, including Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, and Penelope Cruz. Each woman has a different set of skills which they use to retrieve a piece of technology that could bring the world to total chaos in the wrong hands. Although each of the women works for a different national intelligence agency, they learn to trust one another in their efforts to obtain the device.
The movie contains many of the hallmarks of spy/secret agent movies, such as fake deaths and double agents. The film has largely received negative reviews prior to and since its release that point out these story points and twists as clichés, along with a lack of development for the main characters. While there was hope that The 355 might be a Bond-esque story with female leads, its confusing plot leaves it far behind the excellence of 007. Here’s a guide to potential audience questions after viewing The 355:
What Was So Special About the Drive?
Even with the multiple twists that come throughout The 355, the plot threads continue to weave themselves around a mysterious hard drive. Simply called “the drive” by the film’s characters, the device is introduced in the first scene of the film and switched hands many times between intelligence agents and master criminals. Agents attempt both to buy or steal the drive for their respective agencies but ultimately the man behind the curtain attempting to possess the drive is a powerful man named Elijah Clarke (Jason Flemyng). But what is the draw to the seemingly innocuous device?
As The 355 vaguely explains the tech, the drive contains a special decryption program that can access any system. This makes it a fair rival to any of the gadgets seen in the Bond movies. At one point in the movie when the device is in enemy hands, it is used to cause city-wide power outages and plane crashes. Loose gun CIA agent Mace (Chastain) and company are terrified by what the use of this device might mean, describing a world falling apart.
Little reasoning is given as to why the drive was created or how it actually provides access and control over-complicated systems, such as city electricity which is run through power grids and not computer-based systems. Even with a lack of knowledge about how the drive works, it is in high demand. The CIA first offers a lot of money to Luis Rojas (Edgar Ramirez, recognizable for his role in James Gunn’s social commentary Bright), a rogue agent of Colombia’s DNI, for the drive before it is stolen and it is later auctioned for an exorbitant amount of money on the darknet.
Nick & Mark’s Betrayal Twist Explained
The allure of the drive brings about the biggest twist of The 355 in the form of Nick Fowler’s (Sebastian Stan) betrayal of Mace. As colleagues, the pair began their pursuit of the drive together supposedly on behalf of the CIA. The two start up a romance before being separated in an intense chase for the drive. Although Mace is told that Nick died in the chase, she is shocked to come face-to-face with him once again (mirroring the history of the MCUs Bucky Barnes, another Stan character) after her CIA superior, Larry Marks (John Douglas Thompson) encourages her to go rogue to retrieve the drive in his honor.
Nick reveals to Mace that he has been working for Clarke the whole time and that he has been sent to the art auction in Shanghai to bid on a piece of art in which the drive is hidden. It is only a little later revealed that Marks was also on Clarke’s payroll and that Mace was duped by both men. Nick and Marks were using Mace’s skills and rebellious streak to their advantage to obtain the drive for Clarke. Mace is understandably upset by the betrayal but is conflicted by her attachment to Nick, providing emotional stakes for The 355s central character.
How Agent Sheng’s Art Auction Sting Worked
Nick’s betrayal is revealed in The 355s most glamorous set-piece, a lucrative art auction at a gallery in Shanghai (where Mission Impossible IIIs Ethan Hunt traveled in search of the Rabbit’s Foot). After turning the drive into Marks, it is quickly stolen again by an agent of the Chinese MSS (Bingbing Fan). Former MI6 agent Khadijah Adiyeme (Nyong’o) tracks the drive to Shanghai and informs Mace, German agent Marie Schmidt (Diane Kruger), and Colombian psychologist for the DNI Graciela Rivera (Cruz).
With the drive hidden inside an antique art piece, participants placed bids on the vase while simultaneously bidding on the drive over the darknet. The agents make a plan to infiltrate the auction and get the drive back but are thwarted. They are then taken to a safe space by the Chinese agent, who reveals herself as Lin Mi Sheng, and tells the group that the auction was an elaborate set-up.
The late-coming The 355 twist reveals that Sheng and her father (making secret agent life a family affair, like the Spy Kids movies) were part of an MSS plan to see who would show up to bid on the drive. The MSS would use this information to attempt to bring down those who were involved in illegal activity. The drive placed in the art piece was a fake; Sheng had the drive the whole time. This plan works for a short time, until Clarke learns that Nick bid an enormous amount of his money on a fake drive.
How The 355 Sets Up a Potential Sequel
Nick quickly seeks to fix his mistake, locating Sheng’s safe space, and threatening and killing the agents' loved ones until Sheng gives up the drive. Khadijah destroys the drive but the women are implicated in the crimes and are forced to go on the run. A couple of months later, Mace and the other women seek revenge on Nick, who has been promoted by the CIA. Mace begins reminiscing to Nick about the story they were told in training of agent 355, an unnamed woman who served as a spy for the colonies during the American Revolution. After poisoning Nick and leaving him to be arrested for his crimes, the women part ways but seem to have an understanding that they’ll probably work together again. The 355 doesn’t overtly announce a sequel as Marvel films do with a post-credits scene but the ending leaves the story open for one.
Despite the film’s title, the group of women is never formally referred to as the 355. This leaves potential for the story to continue; perhaps Mace could start a new agency, along with her international teammates. Or maybe a sequel could stick to the core five women as the 355 as they seek to investigate the corruption of their own intelligence agencies. As Craig’s Bond movies have shown, it can be difficult to create a satisfying follow-up to a secret agent movie, particularly with the disappointing performance of Quantum of Solace. A sequel to The 355 is likely dependent on the box office returns of the film; with reviews being so negative, it doesn’t seem likely that the sequel set-up will pay off.
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