Spooks: The Greater Good

Opening on a rainy London skyline and panning down to gridlock on the motorway, two MI5 agents sit calmly playing a game of I-Spy as they escort a security van through the city. Their apt game is soon disrupted by a motorcycle gang intent on freeing the suspect contained in the vehicle. At MI5 HQ alarms sound as cameras go down and boss of the operation, Harry Pearce (played with steely intensity by Peter Firth) must make a decision whether to open fire on the assailants, saving the prisoner bound for the CIA but endangering the lives of civilians or let him go, risking his job, relations with the US and a possible terrorist attack in the UK.

And so Spooks the movie begins by plunging the viewer straight into a maelstrom of espionage via the seedy underbelly of London's shadier corners. It is an exciting start which is made all the more relatable because of the locality and from the offing the capital is brilliantly presented through evocative panoramic shots and gritty street scenes from grimy internet cafe's in Brixton to dank multi-storey car parks in Southwark.

Soon enough Harry is on the run trying to catch the bad guy he let go and it isn't long before old protege Will Hollaway (Game of Thrones beefcake Kit Harington) is re-recruited by the agency to find the man who once decommissioned him. There is history between these two men which is gradually teased out up until the satisfying finale without ever feeling trite or added on. The cast is a stellar line up of familiar faces from TV and film but Harington is the most famous face on screen and he carries the film with a swaggering insouciance that has made his Jon Snow character so popular, only his Northern burr is absent which sweetens him somewhat.

The pace of Spooks: The Greater Good doesn't let up from the very beginning and is all the better for it. Amongst the car chases, gun fights and explosions there are intimate scenes between agents with arch dialogue and excellent acting, particularly from Tim McInnerny as MI5 director Mace but the action never feels gratuitous. The urgency of the narrative is essential to this type of film which may have felt corny or over-baked if it was the usual Bourne- style US action movie but there is something levelling about this film which perhaps comes from the fact it is a spin-off from a television show.

As someone who never got round to watching the BBC's acclaimed spy drama, only hearing of it due to a well reported death-by-deep-fat-fryer of one of the main cast members in an early episode, the movie clearly works as a stand alone while still featuring subtle reminders of its origins. The clever trope of killing off seemingly important people early on is still out in force and helps ratchet up the tension in an already taut thriller.

Not a moment of the 104 minute running time drags and this is a real rarity in cinema today where many flicks are either too brief or turgidly elongated. When the ending arrived another half hour could have easily been ingested but its compact editing and rigid scripting meant this was thankfully unnecessary. There are nods to spy games of old too with shades of John Le Carre and The Ipcress Files in some segments. Harington is great as the understated rebel spy looking out for his mentor and Peter Firth should be destined for some solid Hollywood roles after his grizzled performance as the man whose sole aim is to protect the agency from the insiders attempting to destroy it from within.

The film also asks pertinent and topical questions about the Wests involvement in foreign wars and the competitiveness between agencies such as MI5 and the CIA. Ultimately though this is a rip-roaring yarn which makes you want to be a spy yourself as illustrated in the stealth manner the audience members used their phones after the screening. Fans of the TV show will adore this extension of its humble beginnings as much as those who are new to it and that is the best complement of all.