In today’s video, we will look at the 2018 American Spy Thriller Red Sparrow, where Ballerina
Dominika Egorova is recruited to 'Sparrow School,' a Russian intelligence service where
she is forced to use her body as a weapon. Her first mission, targeting a C.I.A. agent,
threatens to unravel the security of both nations.
Spoilers ahead! You have been warned. Now like the video and subscribe to the channel
if you enjoy this video.
In the opening scenes of the movie we are introduced to our two lead characters Dominika
Egorova and Nate Nash. The setting is modern day Russia. Dominika is listening to music
whilst Nate is listening to a coded recording. As Nate decrypts the code and removes a weapon
from underneath his desk, Dominika arrives at the theatre and begins to apply make-up.
Dominika is a famous ballerina and as she begins to perform, we see Nate Nash, a CIA
agent, enter the park to meet his Russian mole, code-named Marble. The classical music
playing over the scenes intensifies as does the situation for our two leads. Nate is confronted
by the police and fires a gun to create a distraction from his mole.
He is chased through town, where he manages to make it to the US embassy. Dominika is
lifted and spun through the air by her leading man, but as he goes to put her down, he drops
her and she lands badly. Nate drops to the floor in surrender at the same time as Dominka
falls and breaks her ankle.
Dominika’s uncle, Ivan, who is the deputy director of the SVR comes to visit and offers
her a job working with him. He also gives her photographs of her lead man kissing the
girl who replaced Dominika in the ballet. Dominika understands that she was dropped
on purpose and goes to confront the pair. She walks into the theatre to find the two
ballet leads having sex in the bathroom. She beats them both violently with her walking
stick then leaves. When she returns home her mother is on the floor unable to get up and
it becomes clear to Dominika that she will have to take her uncle’s job if she wishes
to maintain good care for her mother.
We see Dominika getting dressed up as her uncle's voice relays instructions. She is
tasked with seducing Dimitry Ustinov for information, but when they go to his room he begins to
rape her. As this is happening another SVR agent enters the room and kills Dimitry, strangling
him with a piece of wire. Dimitry’s blood drips onto Dominika who is taken away by the
SVR agent. Dominika is given two choices: train as an agent or be killed for witnessing
the murder of Dimitry.
Dominika is sent to state school 4 to train as a Red Sparrow. Here she meets the Matron
who tells her that if she cannot be of service to her state, she will put a bullet through
her head.
Teaching begins and the matron calls Dominika, along with a boy named Victor, to the front
of the class and tells them to strip. Victor complies, but Dominika refuses.
Meanwhile, Nate is back in Washington for his debrief where he is suspended from foreign
assignments. Nate argues that he has been with Marble for three years and Marble will
refuse to work with anyone else.
Dominika’s training continues with activities such as shooting, lock picking and learning
how different substances can be used and traced. Dominika excels.
Nate is in a meeting with the CIA. He tells them that he has a tail, which makes him believe
Marble is still alive. As the CIA have been unable to establish contact with Marble, they
give Nate one final assignment, to meet Marble in Budapest and get him to communicate via
one of the other agents.
At State school 4, Matron tells the class the purpose of a red sparrow. Every human
being is a puzzle with a missing piece. A red sparrow must establish the real need of
the other person and become that missing piece. The students are assigned returning soldiers
and told to take care of their needs.
Dominika picks a quiet boy and takes him to her room...
Later when she is showering, a fellow sparrow walks in and tries to rape her. She rips off
the shower handle and beats him with it.
Dominika’s uncle, Ivan, is in a meeting with the senior members of the SVR including
General Korchnoi, to discuss Nate. They are aware that Nate will be trying to establish
contact with their mole and they are keen to send in another agent to establish the
mole’s identity.
Though Dominika has caused friction with the matron due to her continued refusal to obey
orders, she is given the assignment in Budapest. She must get close to Nate, establish trust
and find the mole.
Dominika moves into an apartment alongside another agent called Marta.
She is quick to establish contact with Nate, but he is quick to realise that she is a Russian
agent. Dominika inspects Marta’s room and discovers that she is assigned to buy classified
intelligence from a senior US staff member, Stephanie Boucher.
Nate has invited Dominika to dinner, but she doesn’t show, instead waiting outside for
him to leave. She then follows him back to his apartment and gets him to talk about the
incident in the park that we witnessed at the beginning of the movie.
Dominika is contacted by Ivan. She tells him that she is building trust with Nate and has
extracted information about the night in the park. When Ivan pushes her, asking why she
is not working more quickly, Dominika says that she is helping Marta with her assignment
When Dominika returns to her apartment, Marta has been brutally murdered for sharing the
details of her assignment and Dominika is threatened with the same if she fails to deliver
results.
Dominika goes to Nate and tells him everything. He offers her a position working for the CIA
and tells her that he would never treat her how her uncle does.
Dominika passes a lie detector given by the CIA and takes up their first assignment to
meet with Miss Boucher and swap the intelligence for fake discs to give to the Russians. She
completes this task, but as she leaves the hotel she is captured by the Russians and
taken home.
Here she is tortured.
We see her repeatedly asked if she gave Miss Boucher to the Americans.
The first time she says no she is stripped naked, locked in a room with her hands tied
to the ceiling. Water pours down on her and there are blasts of intensely heavy metal
music.
The second time Dominika says no she is beaten with a hammer across her legs, arms, and finally
her head.
The final time Dominika says that she did not give Miss Boucher to the Americans, she
is threatened with a gun, but when the trigger is pulled it becomes clear it wasn't loaded.
Ivan enters the room to talk to Dominika. He tells her that he can only provide so much
protection for her. She responds by telling her uncle that this was all part of her strategy;
she had to make the American’s believe her credibility, she needed to give Nate a reason
to believe her and now that she has been tortured, Nate will have total trust in her. Dominika
asks her uncle to let her go back and prove that she can get the job done efficiently.
At this point we are left to wonder whose side she is really on?
Upon Dominika’s return to Budapest, she is reunited with Nate, they passionately embrace
and the care they have for each other seems to be genuine. However, in the middle of the
night, Dominika awakes to find that Nate is no longer asleep next to her. She walks out
into the kitchen where she sees Nate tied to a chair, an SVR agent slowly torturing
him. At first we see the shock on Dominika’s face, but she knows what she must do and we
soon see the distant look return to her eyes. She offers to help extract information from
Nate by peeling off slices of his skin. Nate yells out in pain but Dominika continues…
As the trust builds between Dominika and the SVR agent, he lets down his guard just long
enough for Dominika to attack him and free Nate. The two of them work together to bring
down the Russian, but not without sustaining wounds and injuries themselves.
As Dominika recovers in hospital it looks like it is all over for her. She has blown
her cover to the Russian’s by saving Nate’s life and she has no further cards to play.
General Korchnoi comes to talk to her, a man who we have seen to be steadfast and intimidating
throughout the movie. Just as all hope is lost, Korchnoi makes the shocking confession
that it is he, who is the mole. Korchnoi is impressed by Dominika’s work and dedication
and wants her to give him up in order to gain the full trust of the Russians. She can then
take over his role, by giving Russian intelligence to the USA. Korchnoi accepts his fate and
awaits the arrival of the Russian’s to impose his imminent death.
A team of Russians and American’s gather on the airfield to trade ‘moles.’ Nate
holds onto Dominika’s arm and asks how she was able to give up the mole so easily. He
is disappointed in her decision.
We see Marble step out of the helicopter with a bag over his head. Nate continues to express
his dismay by telling Dominika that the Russian’s will never let them take Marble alive. She
says that one day he will understand what she has done, but Nate reiterates that he
will not, because he is not in the habit of “throwing people away.” Dominika begins
to move towards the Russians, Marble towards the Americans. All that is left is for Nate
to confirm the mole’s identity. The bag is lifted and in a huge final twist we see
that the man Dominika has named as the mole is not Korchnoi, but is in fact her uncle,
Ivan.
In a sequence of flashbacks we see that Dominika has worked for a long time to implicate her
uncle: removing a glass from Nate’s apartment and placing it in Ivan’s and opening a bank
account in Ivan’s name into which she got the CIA to transfer money.
There is a look of resignation in Ivan's eyes and as he passes Dominika he says “You have
killed me.” Her response to him is “Didn’t I do well uncle?”
They walk past each other but as Ivan approaches the American’s he is shot dead. The Russian’s
grab Dominika who is in shock and push her into the helicopter.
She is later receiving a medal of honour from the Russian’s. Korchnoi gives her a nod
as everyone applauds.
Dominika returns to looking after her mother. She receives a phone call. There is no voice,
only the sound of the classical ballet music, which makes her smile.
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