During the peak of Homeland‘s popularity, amid a period of tremendous paranoia among the American public, Ridley Scott directed a movie that now seems like the perfect time capsule. He recruited two A-listers to headline the espionage thriller set against the backdrop of Middle East politics, which predates similar films such as Green Zone, The Hurt Locker, and Zero Dark Thirty. The movie in question remains a minor entry in Scott’s formidable filmography, but it occasionally pops up on the streaming charts.
The film was released in 2008, the same year as another tentpole about America having turned into a surveillance state: The Dark Knight. It follows a CIA operative on the hunt for a terrorist while embedded in Jordan, and his handler back home in Virginia. Leonardo DiCaprio plays the field operative, while regular Scott collaborator Russell Crowe plays the handler. Mark Strong appears in a supporting role as the head of the Jordanian intelligence agency, while Golshifteh Farahani appears as the love interest of DiCaprio’s character.
The movie also marks an early major role for Oscar Isaac, who would go on to work with Scott again on Robin Hood — the period action movie ended the filmmaker’s decade-long creative collaboration with Crowe. Unlike Scott and Crowe’s Oscar-winning blockbuster Gladiator, or even their acclaimed crime epic American Gangster, the political thriller underperformed at the box office.
COLLIDERInteractive
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Film/Quizzes/Which Bond
Name Branch
Status Active File 06 of 06
Comparative AssessmentEyes Only
Collider QuizWhichJamesBond AreYou?8 Questions · 6 ActorsSix actors. Six completely different visions of the same man: dangerous, charming, complicated, and almost certainly wearing a very good suit. Only one of them shares your particular way of moving through the world. Eight questions will figure out which Bond you really are.The Six
Connery
Moore
Dalton
Brosnan
Lazenby
Craig
The Name Has Been DeterminedYour Bond Is
Six actors. One role. Your answers point to the Bond who shares your presence, your
method, and your particular way of carrying the weight of being the most dangerous person in the room.
1962-1971Sean ConneryDr. No to Diamonds Are ForeverYou were always going to end up here.
You are the original, and you carry that fact without needing to announce it. There is an authority in the way you occupy a room that others spend careers trying to replicate.Why This Is You
You don’t explain yourself, justify yourself, or soften yourself for anyone’s
comfort. The confidence is structural, not performed.
Connery’s Bond established everything, the tone, the danger, the cool, because Connery
himself had the innate presence to make something that had never existed feel inevitable.
You share that quality: the sense that you were always going to end up exactly here, doing
exactly this.
The name is Bond. In your case, it always was.
The OriginalStructural CoolAuthority
1973-1985Roger MooreLive and Let Die to A View to a KillThe lightness is the technique.
You understand something that more serious people miss: that wit is its own form of intelligence, and that making people laugh is not a retreat from danger but a way of mastering it.Why This Is You
Moore’s Bond is underrated precisely because the effortlessness looks easy, and
effortlessness is the hardest thing to manufacture.
You have the same quality: a lightness that disarms people before they realize how sharp you
really are.
The raised eyebrow, the perfectly timed quip, the refusal to be rattled. These are not
affectations. They are a philosophy about how to move through a world that would like to
take itself too seriously.
You have never let it.
The QuipUnrattledEffortless
1987-1989Timothy DaltonThe Living Daylights, Licence to KillYou took it seriously when nobody asked you to.
You took the role seriously when everyone wanted you to coast, and that refusal to take the easy version of anything is the most defining thing about you.Why This Is You
Dalton’s Bond has genuine moral weight: he feels the cost of what he does, he has lines
he won’t 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 requires, because
you have a standard and you hold yourself to it.
He was ahead of his time, the Bond the franchise wasn’t quite ready for yet, arriving
exactly when he was meant to.
You know what that feels like.
Moral WeightNo CoastingAhead Of It
1995-2002Pierce BrosnanGoldenEye to Die Another DaySome people simply fit their moment.
You are the complete package, and you know it, which is part of what makes you so effective and occasionally so infuriating to the people around you.Why This Is You
Brosnan arrived at the role looking exactly like Bond was supposed to look, and he delivered
on that expectation with a professionalism that made it seem effortless.
You have the same quality: a smooth competence, a charm that operates like a precision
instrument, and the ability to make even difficult things look like they weren’t.
His four films revived the franchise after a six-year gap and made Bond a blockbuster
property again. There is a reason for that.
The reason is that some people simply fit their moment perfectly. You are one of those
people.
The PackagePrecision CharmRevival
1969George LazenbyOn Her Majesty’s Secret ServiceHistory tends to catch up with people like you.
You stepped into something enormous with less preparation than anyone around you thought was sufficient, and you delivered something genuine anyway, which is the more impressive achievement.Why This Is You
Lazenby’s single outing is, by many measures, one of the finest Bond films ever made,
and he is not a small part of why.
You share his quality of raw authenticity: less polished than the alternatives, more honest
for it, capable of something real that technique alone can’t produce.
He was underestimated, and then he wasn’t, and then history caught up with him.
You are the kind of person history catches up with. Give it time.
One Film OnlyRawUnderrated
2006-2021Daniel CraigCasino Royale to No Time to DieUnderestimated, then undeniable.
You stripped everything back and found what was underneath, and what was underneath was harder, more honest, and more human than anyone expected.Why This Is You
Craig’s Bond is the franchise’s most psychologically complete: a man doing a
punishing job, carrying its costs imperfectly, capable of love and loss in ways that
can’t be dismissed.
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.
He was controversial from the moment he was announced and definitive by the time he was
finished. The skeptics became the believers.
That arc, of being underestimated and then undeniable, is one you know intimately.
Stripped BackHuman CostDefinitive
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A Collider InteractiveCOLLIDERMore quizzes at collider.com
Here’s the Political Thriller Starring Two A-Listers
We’re talking, of course, about Body of Lies. The movie grossed around $120 million worldwide against a reported budget of $70 million — while three A-listers would certainly not have come cheap, the film was also shot in numerous international locations. The mixed reviews certainly didn’t help. The film now holds a 54% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus reads, “Body of Lies relies on the performances of Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio to elevate it beyond the conventional espionage thriller.”
According to FlixPatrol, Body of Lies witnessed a viewership spike recently. It’s currently among the most popular movies on the domestic Apple TV chart, which happens to be topped by another two-hander featuring Crowe: The Nice Guys. Incidentally, Crowe’s latest release, the critically acclaimed Western drama The Weight, is yet another two-hander. DiCaprio, on the other hand, was last seen in One Battle After Another, and is about to begin working on Michael Mann‘s long-awaited Heat 2. You can watch Body of Lies at home, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
