Love in a World of Lies in Black Bag

Before I get started here, I think you should know that I'm going to get into what might be considered spoiler territory pretty much right off in this piece. Personally, spoilers don't really bother me. But if they do bother you, be sure not to keep reading after this picture of a black bag.

How can you have a healthy relationship between two professional liars? How can you build trust when you both know neither of you can be trusted? The answer, according to Steven Soderbergh's 2025 spy thriller, Black Bag, is constant surveillance.

If you start watching this film expecting a lot of James Bond-style stunt work or Jason Borne-style fight scenes, you will be disappointed. This is not that kind of spy movie. In some ways, it's not a spy movie at all, but a romance drama that happens to be about spies.

The relationship at the center of the film is that of MI6 agent George Woodhouse, played by Michael Fassbender, and his wife, Kathryn St. Jean, played by Cate Blanchett. George is ordered to investigate when Kathryn, along with two other spy couples, becomes suspected of leaking some super-secret MacGuffin software. As the story progresses, we see each relationship strained by the investigation, but George and Kathryn start off on the most stable ground.

For the first half of the movie George keeps finding clues pointing at his wife. There's a mystery movie ticket in her purse for a movie she claims not to have seen, there are suspicious financial transactions, etc. By the time George starts pointing the spy satellites at her, the obvious conclusion is that he is starting to believe his wife is guilty. But in this genre, the obvious conclusion is only the correct conclusion when the film has failed.

Black Bag has two twists, only one of which really matters. The twist that matters is much more subtle than a lot of spy movies can manage. It turns out that George doesn't suspect his wife at all. He starts surveilling her not because he suspects her but to try and figure out who is setting her up. This leads him to the twist that doesn't matter, where George's boss, who ordered the investigation, is revealed as the secret bad guy. This has been done so many times it almost feels like they did it in this movie as a joke.

When you can lie about everything, when you can deny everything, how do you tell the truth about anything?

-Clarissa Dubose

As the other relationships crumble, George and Kathryn remain steadfast in their commitment to one another. When Clarissa Dubose, one of the suspects, asks George how he makes his relationship with his wife work, he tells her they make it work by each keeping constant surveillance on the other. Is this a healthy relationship? Probably not. But it might be the best relationship one can have in a world of lies.

Sadly for us, the world we live in also happens to be full of lies.

Back in 2023, famed mass surveillance apologist, billionaire, and all-around bastard Larry Ellison drew criticism when he said this:

Citizens will be on their best behavior because we are constantly recording and reporting everything that's going on. We're going to have supervision. Every police officer is going to be supervised at all times, and if there's a problem, AI will report the problem and report it to the appropriate person.

-Larry Ellison, all-around bastard

The omnipresent electronic eyes of Larry's dream dystopia will no doubt be mostly blind in places like his private island or in the doomsday fortresses of his fellow broligarchs. Those in power would like nothing more than to assign a computerized watchdog to monitor each and every one of us at all times. How else can they trust us in the world of lies they helped create? How can we trust each other?

Black Bag is a solidly crafted film, with engaging characters and a decent story. Its book of love has it wrong, though. Spying is an act born of distrust. If surveillance created trust, prisoners would be the most trusted people on the planet. Instead, they are the most oppressed. A surveillance state and a police state aren't much different; they both make prisoners of us all. All except the rich bastards, of course.