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“That, gentlemen, is a rectal toolkit,” says Jonna Mendez, pointing to a display case containing a metal tube and a handful of jagged devices. “You say you love your country? Well, how much?”
This Den of Geek writer and more than a dozen other journalists and influencers are a gathered on the crowded floor of the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. We’re there to learn more about spycraft, invited by 20th Century Studios on behalf of the digital release of the Rami Malek-starring espionage thriller The Amateur. Jonna Mendez is there to disabuse us of the notion that the intelligence profession is all martinis and tuxedos.
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A nearly 30-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency, Mendez is a trailblazer in the espionage game, specializing in disguise and photography. Having ascended to the level of the CIA’s “Chief of Disguise,” Mendez retired in 1993 for a quieter life with her husband Tony Mendez (who you may better know as Literally Ben Affleck in Argo). The quiet didn’t last long, however, as she began to help to design and plan the institution that would become the International Spy Museum, honoring a service that often goes uncredited … understandably so.
“The entire intelligence community was aghast! A museum was anathema [to spying],” Mendez says of the institution’s creation. But thanks in part to her expertise and expertise, the International Spy Museum has evolved past its humble 2002 beginnings. Its current home – a striking, angular edifice constructed in 2019 on L’Enfant Plaza – is a proper DC landmark and a fine gathering spot for both tourists and undercover agents alike. It’s here where we media types will learn the art of shutting up and blending in. That turns out to be harder than we anticipated.
Upon entering the museum’s first room, visitors are given an ID badge that, when swiped on certain terminals will present the swiper with an undercover identity, hometown, occupation, and mission. The initial prompt urges one to commit these to memory as to not leave a paper trail for counterintelligence to exploit. I take a photo to cheat.
The adrenaline coursing through my veins at the prospect of producing illicit kompromat causes my cheatsheet to come out blurry. Who am I again? Dave Alvarez? Drew Avila? I think I’m from New Mexico and my mission is in Mumbai. Thankfully, I require no assistance in remembering the secret code word that I silently promise the computer to never share with another living soul. Here it is.
It quickly becomes clear that I might be too earnest for this spy thing. And that’s not a problem as our friend Jonna proves more captivating than any clandestine game. If that opening rectal anecdote didn’t make it clear, Jonna Mendez is font of intriguing intelligence: “This corner represents my old office so I want to take you there first,” “You can fit a lot in a dead rat,” and, somewhat ominously “That’s probably the closest we got to WWIII…so far.”
The International Spy Museum is a worthwhile enough experience on its own, featuring countless relics of spycraft and detailed exhibits depicting espionage from the American Revolution through the present day fronts of cyber warfare and disinformation. The addition of an actual spy, however, really elevates the afternoon. Mendez happily recalls the time she Mission: Impossible‘ed President George H.W. Bush in the Oval Office with a lifelike mask. She frequently alludes to foreign agents as peers. She presides over an exhibit on The Canadian Caper that features a folded pair of her husband’s jeans.
One thing made clear by the trip is that espionage and pop culture are inseparable. The International Spy Museum has a section devoted to spycraft in entertainment. References to the world’s most famous spy are inescapable – from signs advertising a James Bond exhibit, to a display of his iconic Aston Martin out front, to a gift shop filled with 007 goodies. In describing her role at the CIA, Mendez refers to herself and her former co-workers as a collective “Q” and every field agent as a collective “James.” She is also, as it turns out, a fan of the film that organized the event.
“I loved [The Amateur] and I don’t usually love spy shows,” she says, noting that she also struggled during firearms training just like Rami Malek’s character. “I didn’t have Laurence Fishburne training me though.”
Perhaps The Amateur appeals to the CIA veteran due to its depiction of the processes that go into spycraft, and not only the results. After a personal tragedy, CIA cryptographer Charlier Heller (Malek) unilaterally elects to promote himself to the field to pursue revenge. Moving from behind a desk to behind enemy territory requires a level of thorough instruction that only Fishburne’s Robert “Hendo” Henderson can provide.
Following our day at the museum, The Amateur director James Hawes discussed the film and its digital release with reporters. According to him, what makes the spy narratives so intriguing and enduring are their accessibility.
“The espionage genre puts an everyday person out into the world to become a hero in a familiar place,” he says. “You don’t have to go to space and you don’t have to go to underwater. It could be on your own streets where suddenly the world is turned upside down.”
Hawes has a personal connection to spycraft as well: “I didn’t want to direct James Bond, I thought I was going to be James Bond. My grandfather and my uncle both worked in espionage. It’s in me.”
That lineage becomes apparent in the day’s final event – a spy-themed tour of DuPont Circle led by Spyher organization founder and former CIA officer Rosanna Minchew. Even amid the soggy humidity of an early Mid-Atlantic evening, Hawes keeps a watchful eye out for surveillance while I can’t stop thinking about rectal toolkit and its exhibit cousin: the scrotum concealment pouch.
I guess that persistent vigilance is why James Hawes directed The Amateur and I’m just a … novice.
THE AMATEUR is now available on digital platforms including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home. It arrives on 4K UHD and Blu-ray on July 8.
The post We Blow Our Cover Learning About Spies With The Amateur Director James Hawes appeared first on Den of Geek.
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