Oral fixations and bullet-riddled Ken dolls – "The Gray Man's" got it all.
In the opening scene of "The Gray Man," we're introduced to Courtland Gentry. Court's been
in a Florida prison since 1995, with a lot of years on his sentence still ahead of him. The
year is 2003 when Agent Donald Fitzroy pays him a visit. Fitzroy offers Court the chance to walk out
to freedom with him at that moment — all he has to do is agree to kill "bad guys" for the CIA.
Court becomes a disposable Sierra agent, his former identity
destroyed. Much like his future existence, this first sequence is shrouded in mystery.
The details of Court's past are cloudy, and neither he nor the audience can trust
Fitzroy yet. But most of all, who's Winky, and what happened to his cantina?
Before the movie even shows a frame on screen, an off-screen Court is heard asking,
"If this is about Winky's Cantina, I didn't have anything to do with it. [...] I like
honey buns as much as the next guy, but I'm not gonna gouge your eye out for one."
It's certainly a curious way to start things off, and the story isn't returned to for the rest of
the movie. Maybe the sequel will finally explain what happened at Winky's Cantina.
Right before Sierra Six and Sierra Four square off in "The Gray Man," Four reveals that he's also a
Sierra agent — that Six has been sent to kill one of his own. This news doesn't seem to affect Six,
as he completes his mission by delivering a fatal blow. With his dying breath,
and to prove he's authentic, Four tells how Fitzroy also recruited him to join the agency.
We then get a quick flashback of Four in handcuffs taking bubble gum from Fitzroy as he goes over
his file. It's the same offering Fitzroy gives Six when they first meet in the Florida prison.
The flashback suggests that Fitzroy had his recruitment process down to a science.
If the convict doesn't take the gum, is that a red flag?
Is the offer to join Sierra then rescinded? Or is it just a weird habit of Fitzroy's?
Before his death, Sierra Four informs Six of the reason he was sent to kill one of his own.
He has information that proves some of the agency leaders have been behaving
badly. One of those leaders is agency Group Chief Denny Carmichael,
who's part of the new regime that's basically forced out the original leaders who created
the Sierra program. As Four is dying, he forces Six to take his necklace,
which hides a flash drive with all the intel he needs to bring down the corrupt leadership.
Six confirms to Carmichael that the target has been eliminated. Carmichael, knowing what's on the
flash drive, is clearly agitated, and he starts asking Six about his exchange with "the target."
Six never gives a straight answer, but he doesn't flat-out lie
either. He simply avoids the questions and steers the conversation his way.
This is a common theme with the character. He's not one to give up information unnecessarily,
but he also isn't a liar. The original Sierra leaders, Fitzroy and Margaret Cahill,
are the only ones who always get a truthful answer from him. Whether his lying-without-lying
is a skill that comes with being a super secret agent, or if it's just who Court is, is unclear.
During one scene in "The Gray Man," Suzanne Brewer barges into the men's bathroom to finish
a conversation with Carmichael, who's doing his business in the last stall.
As Carmichael leaves the stall, the pair squabble about his choice to bring in "sociopath" Lloyd
Hansen to deal with Sierra Six. Carmichael walks over to the sink during the exchange, but neither
soap nor water actually touch his hands. He has a tantrum with the paper towels, fixes his shirt
cuffs, but never runs the water. To be fair, the scene cuts before he leaves the bathroom, but
it doesn't look good for the cleanliness of his hands. If you weren't fully sold yet on
Carmichael being an evil villain, his questionable hygiene habits surely push him over the edge.
Recently retired Donald Fitzroy knows all about Lloyd Hansen and his checkered past
with the CIA. Lloyd was relieved of his duties for things like bad ethics,
zero impulse control, and unsanctioned torture, which is somehow worse than regular sanctioned
torture. But it looks like all of those qualities ultimately helped Lloyd to become an entrepreneur.
He's the guy the agency calls to do the dirty work. Fitzroy makes a snide comment about Lloyd
spending his time strangling cats because the private sector doesn't pay that well.
If you've ever glanced at Chris Evans' Instagram page, you're probably aware of
his dog Dodger and how much he adores him. But does that mean that he's anti-cat in real life?
During a 2017 interview with Parade, Evans discussed his feline co-star in the film "Gifted."
"I'm not a cat person. I respect cats,
I think they're beautiful creatures. I just don't think they like me."
Of course, Evans' thoughts on cats are much, much milder than those of his "Gray Man" character.
In reality, the line in the film has nothing to do with Evans, but rather is a subtle reference
to another Netflix original. In a Still Watching Netflix interview, the Russo brothers revealed
that the line is meant as a nod to the disturbing Netflix documentary "Don't F**k With Cats."
"It's really a reference to sociopathy."
Two years prior to the main story of "The Gray Man," someone leaked
Fitzroy's personal information, which made his niece Claire a potential target. At the time,
Margaret Cahill was the bureau chief, so she had the authority to put Sierra Six
on security detail for Claire. There's a brief scene of Six,
Fitzroy, and Cahill discussing the assignment, which takes place in Cahill's London office.
During the scene, Cahill is shown sitting at her desk smoking. If you look closely, you can see two
big boxes of Lucky Strike cigarettes directly in front of her on the desk. Jump ahead to the
movie's present day where we meet a retired Margaret, and a slow pan of her home reveals
prescription medicine bottles and an oxygen tank. It's pretty clear that Cahill's heavy smoking
ultimately led to a struggle with cancer, and we're told that she only has three months to live.
When we first see Sierra Six in Bangkok, he's sitting at a table in the middle of a party.
He snacks on some hors d'oeuvres and keeps the toothpick to chew
on until he's forced to chase down his target. Throughout the film,
he can be seen doing a lot of random snacking and sporadic gum chewing. When he enters the
Fitzroy Hong Kong home, he's immediately chastised by Claire about chewing gum.
Since it's her uncle who seems to have a penchant for Bubbalicious,
it's not entirely clear who made that rule.
It's possible to read Six's penchant for snacking and chewing as a kind of oral
fixation — an idea in Freudian psychology that's theoretically connected to childhood neglect.
In the context of fiction, it can make for an interesting character trait.
We don't get a lot of backstory on Six's childhood, but we do know that it was far
from happy. Maybe that has something to do with his love of gum, or maybe he just likes snacking.
There must be some perks to make the whole CIA thing worthwhile. Maybe one of them is being able
to travel anywhere at the drop of a hat. Early in "The Gray Man," Agent Miranda is in Berlin
being accused of protecting Six, even though she barely knows him. While Carmichael is suspending
her from field duty, he gets a text that Six is in Vienna. Being the skilled spy that she is,
Miranda reads the text in the reflection of his glasses and forms a plan. Right when Six is about
to get shot by Lloyd, Miranda saves the day by hitting the assassin with a tranquilizer dart.
At this point, Miranda is rouge. She's been suspended from fieldwork,
and surely her travel privileges have been revoked. Sure, Berlin and Vienna
aren't too far apart in the grand scheme of things, but it would still take at least a
few hours to make it all happen. The speed with which Miranda arrives at Six's location
is really only believable if she walked out of Carmichael's office and right onto a plane. The
specifics of her travel plan are some of the many unanswered questions in "The Gray Man," but it
just seems a bit hard to imagine that she'd end up in the exact right place at the exact right time.
Lots of film lovers are excited by cameos, and the Russo brothers are no different. In 2014,
the duo directed "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," and they've noted on Instagram that the
fight on the freeway is one of their "favorite fight sequences while working with Marvel."
It wasn't just the technical nature of the sequence that made it a favorite; the fact that
they snuck quite a few friends and family members into the scene may have played into that as well.
Joe Russo himself has also managed cameos in several different MCU films. This may now just
be something to expect from the director. Russo shows up at the end of "The Gray Man" as well,
playing one of the executive CIA agents. Once all the dust has settled, Russo's character
can be seen at a conference table telling Carmichael, Miranda, and Suzanne Brewer that
he doesn't know how to defend their actions. Russo told Screen Rant that the main reason he
keeps doing the cameos is for his kids, who are "entertained" by seeing him pop up in the movies.