From the studio that brought you The Bourne Identity and the genre defying blockbuster film maker, Simon Kinberg comes The 355, a fast-paced thriller that brings audiences international with a group of formidable female spies.
A dream team of top agents from all over the world including CIA agent Mason ‘Mase’ Brown [Jessica Chastain], German agent Marie [Diane Kruger], former MI6 ally hailing from the UK, Khadijah [Lupita Nyong’o], skilled Columbian psychologist, Graciela [Penelope Cruz] and the mysterious Lin Mi Sheng [BingBing Fan] join forces to retrieve a lethal, top-secret weapon that has fallen into the wrong hands. As the chaos unravels around the globe from Paris to Morocco to London and Shanghai, this band of badass women will single handedly save the world – or die trying.
The 355 paid homage to the real-life mystery spy from the Revolutionary War. Known only by the code name of 355, this female operative played a pivotal role in George Washington’s Culper Spy Ring, helping to deliver vital information about British troop movements to American generals. Her actions were monumental yet hundreds of years later, we still have yet to learn this soldier to the revolution’s name. While serving on the jury for the Cannes Film Festival in 2017, star of the film Chastain noticed posters all over the French Riviera resort town advertising for upcoming action films and almost all of them were starring men. The genesis for the female dominated action cast took place shortly after. “Sometimes you have to have an idea and follow through with it. I always ask myself; it may not be probable but it’s possible and if it’s possible then you should work towards making it happen,” Chastain explains. With that mindset, she connected with director Kinberg and set out to create the film that hadn’t really ever been done before.
Please do not be fooled, a female action movie does not mean less action or watered-down fight sequences, The 355 made sure to keep every aspect of the film as natural as possible while still oozing thrill and entertainment. Kruger’s character Marie was particularly aggressive seeing as she was a weapons specialist. If it can shoot, hit, or slice, Marie was going for it but these sequences were physically demanding and each member of the cast performed most of their stunts. Kruger having just returned from maternity leave recalls the physical demand this role required, “I remember feeling very deflated after the first week of training just because I felt like my body wasn’t responding as I was used to.” However, viewers would never be able to know considering her fight scenes were some of the best.
The 355 is in theaters January 7.
