The Amateur

The Amateur is a globe-spanning espionage thriller directed by James Hawes and adapted from Robert Littell's 1981 novel, previously filmed the same year it was published. Rami Malek headlines as Charlie Heller, a brilliant but introverted CIA decoder and cryptographer far more comfortable behind a computer than in the field. Produced by 20th Century Studios, the film reframes the revenge-thriller template around an unconventional hero whose weapon is his intellect rather than his fists.

When Charlie's wife Sarah, played by Rachel Brosnahan, is killed in a terrorist attack in London and his superiors refuse to act, he blackmails the agency into training him and sets out to hunt the perpetrators himself. His pursuit carries him across Paris, Madrid, Istanbul and beyond, improvising lethal, elaborately engineered traps as he goes. Laurence Fishburne, Caitriona Balfe, Jon Bernthal, Michael Stuhlbarg and Holt McCallany fill out the ensemble.

Released theatrically in April 2025, The Amateur earned a solid worldwide gross and drew reviews that praised Malek as a compellingly atypical action lead even as some found the plot conventional. It found a wider audience on streaming, arriving on Hulu in the United States, where its cerebral spin on the spy genre played well with home viewers. It streams on Hulu.