簡單地說，這是一部關於Edward Wilson (Matt Damon)的故事。英文的片名其實和中情局誕生沒什麼關係啦
複雜地說這部片到底在演什麼呢?由於我表達能力不好已經是眾所皆知的事情了，所以我在維基上找到了一段很棒的描敘來幫我講解劇情囉。(不過它講得太詳細了，所以請想要看電影的朋友們，千萬不要在看電影前閱讀這段文字，會破壞妳看電影的感覺唷!)
關於劇情(大雷) Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
The movie begins in 1961 with Edward Wilson (Matt Damon). During his commute to work a young boy approaches Wilson and asks for change for his dollar. Later arriving at work he uses the serial number from the dollar to decipher a message, 'cardinal'. This segment sets the tone for the rest of the movie.
The stage is set for the main plot of the movie as Wilson witnesses the failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion. After viewing the dead bodies on the beach, Edward tells Ray Brocco (John Turturro) that "there is a stranger in the house". They know it was an insider who informed Fidel Castro (or more likely Moscow) of their plans. Later, a photograph and a recording on reel to reel tape are dropped off anonymously to Edward. His team cannot identify anyone in the photograph as it is grainy and there's too much noise on the tape to distinguish anything. He gives it to his department to find any clues.
Edward goes to a diner and meets with FBI agent Sam Murach (Alec Baldwin) who leaves and seemingly forgets his hat. Edward then slides the hat over to him, feels under the brim, and finds a cleaning ticket. He goes to a dry cleaner and gets a package. It has a shirt and under the shirt is a dossier on Phillip Allen (William Hurt).
Soon, the movie cuts to one of the many flashbacks of Edward's life, this time to 1939. Edward is attending Yale and is asked to join Skull and Bones. He does so knowing it is a brotherhood with powerful connections. There, he goes through a hazing ritual in which he must reveal something no one knows. He talks about witnessing his father (Timothy Hutton) commit suicide as a young boy, and hiding the suicide note from his family. When asked what it said, he says he never read it, but one of his fraternity brothers insinuates that his father was under suspicion of treason.
While studying in the library, he meets Laura (Tammy Blanchard), a deaf student. The two begin dating, but the relationship is strained; Laura, a Catholic, will not have sex with him, while it is implied that he is embarrassed to introduce her to his friends.
Edward is approached by Murach to spy on his poetry professor, Dr. Fredericks (Michael Gambon) who they believe has Nazi connections through the American German Cultural Committee. He reluctantly does as asked, causing the professor to resign, particularly after the professor tries to make a pass at him, which Edward immediately rejects. Murach was referred to Edward by one of the members of the S & B Fraternity.
Edward attends a Skull & Bones Society retreat on Deer Island in 1940. It is here he meets Clover (Angelina Jolie), a sister of a classmate and fellow Skull & Bones member as well as a Senator's daughter. It is also here that he meets General Bill Sullivan (Robert DeNiro), a powerful military intelligence official. Sullivan asks him to join the Office of Strategic Services and lets him know fellow S & B members are part of the team. He wants him to go to London, a proposition which Edward accepts. The next scenes depict Clover obviously interested in Edward and eventually seducing him.
Edward is then shown on the beach with Laura, with whom he has been romantically involved. Clover's brother informs Edward that his sister is pregnant and suggests that he 'do the right thing' and marry her. Edward is shown attempting to block Laura from reading his lips. Laura is shown walking away perhaps from having read Clover's brother's lips (although later in their lives when they meet, Laura asks Edward if he'd had children). Laura has earlier expressed frustration about not being introduced to Edward's friends, and the differences between them.
Edward marries Clover and during the reception, a man in uniform comes to see him. He asks Edward if he is still interested in seeing the world. He accepts and tells his new wife that he is to be sent off to England in one week. There he spends the next six years in the war effort, "saving the world" as his wife had previously referred to it, possibly mocking his efforts. He meets with British intelligence Officer Arch Cummings (Billy Crudup) and Richard Hayes (Lee Pace), a fellow S & B and classmate. He is then to be tutored in espionage by a seasoned pro, Fredericks his old poetry professor. Edward apparently ruined 2 years of undercover work being done by his professor. Later Edward is asked by Cummings to encourage his old poetry professor to leave intelligence work due to his compromising homosexual liaisons. The professor refuses as indicated by his tying of Edward's shoe, a pre-arranged signal that the professor is apparently privy to, and meets his death soon after, which Edward tries to prevent until it's too late. Before his death, he told Edward to "get out while you still can... while you still have a soul".
The timeline then moves to post-war Berlin. Both the Americans and the Soviets are trying to gather as many German scientists as possible. At an old bombed-out church, Edward meets his Soviet counterpart, codename "Ulysses." Ulysses informs Edward that his Russian code-word is "Mother" and lauds Edward as what Ulysses sees as a formidable adversary. Edward is shown interviewing potential German informants with the aid of a female German translator. This translator wears what appears to be a hearing aid device which seems to intrigue Edward and perhaps reminds him of Laura. The translator later cooks for Edward and the two have a sexual encounter. However, following the encounter Edward notices that the translator has removed her hearing aid and appears not to need the device which now appears to be a piece of spy equipment. The next scene shown is one of the German translator being shot. The shooter is not shown but the next scene shows Ulysses finding the presumed hearing aid inside of his teapot.
Edward returns home and meets his son, Edward, Jr., for the first time. He gives him a ship he made and put in what looks like a glass watch casing. His wife informs him that she no longer goes by Clover and is now Margaret. She further asks that the two sleep in separate beds until they get to know one another again. Margaret informs Edward that her brother John was killed in Burma in 1944. Both Margaret and Edward acknowledge that they have engaged in infidelity during their long separation. Sullivan approaches him to help form a foreign intelligence organization and wants Edward to work with Hayes and under Allen.
As life continues, his son grows up and his relationship with his wife continues to grow more distant. When his wife has friends over for dinner, they ask if he really works for the CIA. Edward replies that his wife has a "vivid imagination" and that he is just a civil servant at the trade office.
Edward then is given an assignment to interview Valentin, a Russian requesting asylum and claiming to be a high ranking official who knows Edward's counterpart in the Soviet government, Ulysses. Edward attends a production of The Cherry Orchard with Valentin who claims it is a bad translation. It is at the theater that Edward encounters Laura, his college sweetheart. Laura admits to dreaming of what their lives would have been like together. They return to her house and end up sleeping together. Soon after, Clover is sent pictures depicting Laura and Edward during their romantic encounters. Clover loudly interrupts a S & B party throwing the pictures at Edward. Edward breaks a date with Laura by sending his assistant to return a cross he'd kept of hers when they were college sweethearts. This act perhaps confirms that he reciprocated her strong feelings for him which have remained over the years, yet suggests their continued separation is a cross they must bear. During this same S & B party, Edward has a discussion with Hayes regarding the upcoming Bay of Pigs Invasion. His son overhears the discussion, and Edward tells his son he cannot repeat what he overheard to anyone.
Edward visits Edward, Jr. at Yale. He tells his father he has been approached by the agency looking for young recruits and he wants to sign up. Edward tells his son it's a difficult life and tries to talk him out of it, but Edward, Jr. is adamant. Edward and Margaret have an argument over the issue, adding to their highly conflicted relationship, which Edward soon reveals that his son was the reason why they had only married.
Time passes. After analyzing the photograph and tape that had been dropped off anonymously at Edward's house earlier in the movie, the CIA officials make a number of findings. The photo depicts a Caucasian man and an African woman. They can deduce that there are three church belfries, the country of origin of the ceiling fan, the Baobab tree design on the curtains and the design of the stone balustrade on the balcony. They are unable to identify a blurred item on the nightstand which they feel might be significant. Over time the discern more details from the audio tape. They distinguish church bells, a plane flying overhead, the woman's French accent, and the use of the Spanish word for pig. They also determine that the track has been tampered with to make some of the dialogue indiscernible. From these clues, they figure it is possible for the photo to have been taken in three places, all in Africa, one of those places being the Congo.
Edward goes to the Congo and tracks down the room. The object they couldn't identify was a container holding a round glass object with a boat inside. Edward realizes it is his son who is the Caucasian male making love to the African woman. Ulysses has apparently been awaiting Edward's arrival at the scene of this recording. Ulysses plays the recording of the liaison that's been the focus of the analysis. This time, however, the audio clearly allows one to hear Edward, Jr. relate the information he overheard at the earlier S & B meeting to his female companion. Ulysses informs Edward that the African woman was a Russian spy who has now apparently fallen in love with Edward's son. Ulysses encourages Edward to commit treason by spying for the Russians for the sake of his son's safety. Edward confronts Edward, Jr., and his son tells him that he is in love with this woman and that they are getting married. Edward tells him she is a spy, but he won't believe his father and leaves.
In the next scene, Edward reveals Valentin as a spy for the Russians after finding evidence in the binding of the book Ulysses by James Joyce. This discovery also leads to Cummings' demise as a co-conspirator of Valentin', as Cummings is shown in an earlier scene giving this book to Valentin as a seemingly benign, clever gift that refers only to Valentin's knowledge of Ulysses, the Russian spy. As Arch and Edward speak over the phone after Valentin's cover is blown, Edward says "You were right. You will die alone without any friends.", to which a visibly affected Arch hangs up.
Edward is shown in a public scene with Ulysses where he declines the offer to run counter-intelligence for the Russians. Ulysses notes that Edward does not want his son's fiancee to become a part of the family and that "neither of us can trust her." Edward offers the dollar bill from the opening scene to Ulysses' aide, saying "it's a cardinal rule to be generous in a democracy," thereby betraying the aide as the CIA spy codenamed "Cardinal" and repaying the debt he owes Ulysses for ending Edward Jr.'s dangerous engagement.
Edward convenes with Margaret and Edward, Jr. in the aforementioned Congolese room prior to the wedding ceremony. Sensing the tension, Edward, Jr. offers to pour champagne for them. His parents both toast to Edward, Jr.'s happiness.
Later, Edward, Jr. and the wedding party are at the church awaiting the bride's arrival. Simultaneously, the woman boards a small plane with a wedding dress in hand. Halfway through the flight, the crew opens the door and throws the bride out of the plane. Edward, arriving late to the church, informs his son of the death of his fiancee. Edward Jr. reveals that she was pregnant. Margaret is quick to accuse Edward of playing a role in the death; Edward emotionally embraces his son after learning his son's future bride was pregnant.
Upon returning home, Edward opens his father's sealed suicide note, which reveals that his father was a traitor, and burns it.
The film ends with Edward at the new CIA headquarters where he will be the head of counter-intelligence and his fellow Skull and Bones classmate, Hayes, will be CIA director.
有人說這部片很悶，不過我倒不覺得，只是整部片的氣氛很沉重
導演(
這部片裡面的"兇手"其實挺容易猜出來的，但是他對Edward的
裘利小姐的角色讓人覺得大材小用，角色本身沒有太大的發揮空間
片中其他角色都十分的精采，Arch Cummings(
劇情當中有兩個讓我很難受的片段，一個是Edward和Clover坦誠他會娶她只是為了他們的兒子。這段婚姻本來就是很有名無實的，宴客當天就接到命令將被徵召去英國擔任情治工作(我覺得他的答應是一種變相逃避)，一去就六年，回美國之後仍就沒有家庭生活，不斷地忙碌，接秘密電話。Clover憤怒地說出：「What you do? I don't know what you do! You leave at five, you're home at ten, seven days a week! I live with a ghost! I don't know anything about you! 」可惜沒有愛的感情根本沒有東西可以挽回!當Edward終於說出口的時候，我是掉眼淚了。
另一個片段則是雙胞Mironov，在偵審後來出現的Mironov時，各種手段讓人看得好難過，雖然明知道是演戲，是化妝出來的。但對於這種不人道的方式，仍然感到心痛。最後被偵訊的Mironov跳窗自殺，Edward看著身邊這位自稱Mironov的先生，內心起了懷疑卻仍鎮定地對他說相信他真本尊，這種心情真是難堪吶。
片中也有不少對白挺妙的，像在英國工作時擔任Edward助手的Ray Brocco(John Turturro)來報到時，發生了以下的對話…
Edward Wilson: How do you know I am the right person?
Ray Brocco: I was told you were a serious son of a bitch with no sense of humor, there can't be two of you.
這大概是全片我覺得唯一讓我笑得出來的橋段了~但他們的另一段對話就讓人笑不出來了…
Joseph Palmi: You're the guys that scare me. You're the people that make big wars.
Edward Wilson: No, we make sure the wars are small ones.
另外為了要讓
Joseph Palmi: Let me ask you something... we Italians, we got our families, and we got the chuch; the Irish they have the homeland, jews their tradition; even the niggas, they got their music. What about you people, Mr. Wilson, what do you have?
Edward Wilson: The United States of America, and the rest of you are just visiting.
片尾新的CIA總部成立時，Edward和Hayes站在入口處，唸出牆上寫的字「 Jesus said "...you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32」另外下面寫著另一行小字「Thou shalt not bear false witness, unless it be for the sake of national security which, in turn, shall imprison your soul.」我真的很佩服這些人自我催眠的功力，我果然沒有當情報員的天份，太沉重了。接著這Hayes若有所思的又說起「Someone once asked me, Why don't they put a 'the' in front of CIA? And I said to him, do you put a 'the' in front of God? 」，這時候我轉為佩服編劇可以寫出這麼狂傲的台詞。
剛看完電影的時候，含問說：「兒子的未婚妻是誰殺的?」，我和小宜都理所當然覺得是Edward派人去殺的。但是我看不懂開頭的cardinal和片中其中一個橋段Edward說到「It's a cardinal rule to be generous in a democracy」，看了維基的summary才恍然大悟。這些人講話都高來高去的，像我英文程度這麼差怎麼會看得懂啦。><很久沒看完電影之後還要做功課的經驗了，不過我想懂歷史的人看完應該會看到更多片中想要傳遞的訊息吧~
另外我在網路上讀到一篇review，有興趣的人也可以參考看看囉。=)
http://tulsatvmemories.com/chewshep.html
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