Tapping into nostalgia for ‘90s spy thrillers of late, 20th Century Studios’ globe-trotting espionage revenge thriller features Rami Malek’s quietly ingenious CIA decryption analyst as the everyman reluctant hero. “He’s not a killer, he’s not trained with weapons, he probably wouldn’t survive in a fist fight. So, he has to be smarter than everybody else,” says German cinematographer Martin Ruhe (Showtime series The Agency, The Tender Bar) of Malek’s Charlie Heller. The introverted and devoted husband spirals into a global killing spree when his wife, Sarah (Rachel Brosnahan), is savagely murdered in a terrorist attack while she is in London for a conference.
Rather than dishing out bone-crunching beatdowns a la John Wick, Charlie leans into his decryption expertise, advanced math skills, and deep intelligence to defeat the baddies, who are led by Russian mercenary Horst Schiller (Michael Stuhlbarg). Indignant that the CIA is slow to bring Schiller’s men to justice, Charlie soon blackmails his superiors (who have been ordering unsanctioned black ops) into providing him with mission-specific field training so that he can take matters into his own hands.
Directed by James Hawes (Slow Horses), Ruhe reveals how he approached this refreshing addition to the revenge genre thriller, including Charlie’s inventive ways to permanently dispatch the enemy (one is an ingenious method using pollen), and how he turned the entire camera crew into a roving team of eyes for a crucial set piece that sets Charlie’s anguished revenge plot into motion.
The film focuses on Charlie’s humanity, grief, loneliness, and social awkwardness. In many of the close-ups on Malek, he really does a terrific job navigating through a labyrinth of emotions after Sarah’s sudden death. Which cameras and lenses were used on this film?
We opted for the Alexa Mini LF cameras and ALFA anamorphic lenses, which were the only lenses at the time that provided 2:1 anamorphic images in large format. We wanted anamorphic to give us that large scope so we could be with him on his journey from his hometown in Virginia to London, Paris, Marseille, and Istanbul. We wanted to be close to him and experience everything with him.
Hawes’s approach is more grounded in reality. In terms of the visual language, even though this is an action thriller, it looks and feels quite different.
Some action movies are so stylized that everything starts to look the same. Charlie’s not a superhero, so the reality aspect was very important. That’s also why we used the handheld camera with tracking vehicles to keep it simple and to stay close to Charlie, his experience, and his emotions.
In the first half hour, Charlie frantically searches for clues of the London attack by analyzing CCTV footage and decrypting data. It’s hard to imagine making all that coding and tech-heavy shots visually dynamic on the screen, but you did it! How was that accomplished?
Part of that is the production design, like the decryption room and his office at Langley, which is a beautiful set designed by Maria Djurkovic in a practical location, and that gave me a lot to work with. The other part is the attack in London, which we shot as if that happened for real, with 10-12 iPhones. We distributed them to the camera crew and just let everybody film. We also had some hard-mounted cameras. When Charlie locates the killers on surveillance and social media footage, that’s how you would expect it in real life. That’s another reason we went for realism. It’s also Rami—computer screens can be so boring, but his acting and the precision of the moment all make it very exciting. We were pretty precise in how we shot it, usually with two cameras in that room to get the most out of it. We got really close to him—there are micro shots of his eye in some scenes. Sometimes you look over his shoulder. You want to be in his head, and that’s what we tried to achieve.
How long did it take to shoot that hostage and bombing sequence, including with the iPhones?
I was there with a different camera. We made sure to get the key moments, but also wanted it to be like found footage. We also had three or four consumer cameras and a couple of GoPros.
On a normal day, how big is your team?
I usually work with two cameras. I operate one, and I have a B-camera/static camera operator with me. When I need more cameras, like for the final scene on the open water, we had four or five cameras on different boats.
How long was this shoot?
It took around 60 days. It was a pretty fast, ambitious schedule. I think our set list was 130-140 sets in 60 days, and we traveled a lot. That’s another reason we wanted small, lighter cameras: We knew we were going abroad and would not be able to control everything. You just embrace what’s there and have to move fast.
Charlie’s hunt for justice takes him to Paris, Marseille, Istanbul, and Madrid. How do you make each location shine and still ground the story in realism?
You try your best to embrace what’s there. We started shooting in May or June of 2023 and had to stop because of the strikes. By the time we started again in December, we’d lost some locations, including an apartment in Paris. So, we shot that in the studio on location. We wanted to shoot the final open water sequence in Riga, but it was too cold, so we shot that in Istanbul, and the open water scenes went to Marseille. It was a lot of moving parts.
Spoiler alert!
Charlie’s first intended kill is one of Schiller’s associates, Gretchen (Barbara Probst)—he tortures her with an extreme dose of pollen while she is trapped inside a booth. Where was that shot?
Yes, she has asthmatic issues, which is an actual thing where they measure lung function. Once he releases the pollen into that booth, she can’t breathe. I think it’s really smartly written. Then, when she runs out into the street and is hit by the car, we were running with her with a handheld camera and did some trickery to make the hit look real. I think it works quite well because people are surprised.
Was that booth built on set?
It was built on location at an old hospital in London. The hallway, the room inside, and the hallway outside are all practical locations. When they run down the stairs, that’s still in London, and when they come out, that’s in Paris.
The Amateur is in theaters now.
Featured image: Rami Malek as Heller in 20th Century Studios’ THE AMATEUR. Photo by John Wilson. © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.