Seth Gordon, Netflix’s film, Back In Action is an action comedy-drama starring Jamie Foxx, Cameron Diaz, and Andrew Scott. Former CIA spies, Matt and Emily decided to retire from spywork to raise their children. On their final mission, they were tasked with crashing a children’s party to procure an Industrial control system key as Mr. and Mrs. Lemieux. Their target was Balthasar Gor, ex-KGB and present head of Volka, one of the most dangerous terrorist organizations in Eastern Europe. Emily managed to get Gor’s fingerprint, and as soon as they entered his study, they successfully found their target device. The key, in layman’s terms, was a master key that could be used to control some of the world’s most important structures. With the key, Gor had achieved ultimate power, and that was why the CIA had intervened. While they successfully made it out of the party with the key, soon after they boarded their extraction flight, they figured that Gor’s men had infiltrated the flight staff. What followed was an intense fight sequence and ultimately a plane crash. Emily and Matt were the only survivors. Fifteen years had passed since the incident; Emily and Matt never spoke about their old life and devoted all their attention to their children until their former supervisor showed up at their doorstep unexpectedly one day.
Spoiler Alert
Where did Matt and Emily escape to?
Matt and Emily had moved to the United States to raise their children. They were the typical protective parents, and lately, Emily had struggled to make peace with the fact that her daughter, Alice, did not enjoy her company. Emily and Matt had noticed Alice hanging out with her senior and were concerned when she mentioned she was going to stay over at her friend’s place to study. Emily was convinced that Alice was lying, and her spy instincts kicked in. The password didn’t pose much of an obstacle, and after going through the text exchange between Alice and her friends, Emily deduced that they were planning on doing drugs. As responsible parents, Matt and Emily decided to bring their daughter home from the party at a club she was attending. Alice was not happy to see her parents there, and when they tried to escort her out of the party, a few guys stopped Matt and Emily. They had no idea they had engaged with former CIA spies, and as was expected, a fight immediately broke out. Emily and Matt demonstrated their fighting skills, and people around them took videos of it. Alice was surprised to see her parents fight like professionals, but she was also extremely angry at them for invading her privacy.
That day, for the first time in a long time, Emily felt alive. She had sacrificed her career for her children, but the incident reminded her of how thrilling her job used to be. The next morning, their former supervisor, Chuck, showed up at their doorstep. He warned them that they were in danger because the video of the bar fight had gone viral. Since the key was not found at the site of the plane crash, Gor had been desperately searching for Matt and Emily, because he was convinced that they had the device. Immediately after Chuck warned them, he was shot. The couple realized that Gor’s men were already at their doorstep. They were always prepared to deal with such a sudden change of plan. The couple grabbed hold of the emergency bag that carried fake passports and IDs. Emily and Matt managed to tackle Gor’s men and sped out of their garage to pick up their children from school.
Naturally, Alice and Leo had a lot of questions, but their parents chose to keep the truth from them. They were told they were visiting their grandma in the United Kingdom. Alice reminded her mother that she had always told them that their grandmother had passed away. Emily explained that she’d never shared a good relationship with her mother, and she did not want to introduce them to her. Her excuse wasn’t good enough for their children to buy the story, but they had no other option but to follow their parents to the UK. They did end up meeting Emily’s mother, Ginny, and she was just as eccentric as Emily had described.
How was Chuck involved in the mess?
Remember how Chuck got shot at Emily and Matt’s doorstep? Well, he was still alive. While the couple suspected Baron, an MI6 agent, of being a double agent, the twist towards the end is when they discovered that it had been Chuck all along. He had started his private agency with mercenaries, and he worked closely with Gor as well. He ended up at their doorstep in the United States to make sure that it was truly Emily and Matt living there. He had faked his death to convince the couple that he was not involved in any of it. The film intentionally frames Baron as the villain and surprises us with Chuck’s reveal in the end. Baron had been doing his job well, working with Gor’s men to keep track of them in the hopes of finding the key before the terrorists did.
After Emily and Matt tackled a few of Chuck’s men, they decided to head to Ginny’s house. An important detail that Emily did not mention about her mother was that she’d been a celebrated MI6 agent, and she had devoted her life to the organization. Ginny was a little surprised to see her daughter and her family; she was not expecting them. Ginny lived in a mansion tucked away in the countryside with her lover, Nigel, a wannabe secret service agent she was training personally.
As it turned out, Matt had stolen the key fifteen years ago, and he had hidden it at Ginny’s place. He knew that if Gor found the key, it would lead to terrible consequences, so he decided to keep them. By the time Emily and Matt retrieved the key from a secret spot in the basement of Ginny’s elegant home, they discovered that Gor’s men had already trespassed onto the property and had held their children, along with Ginny and Nigel, captive. Emily and Matt freed Ginny and walked into the hall where Alice and Leo were held. Chuck was in the room, and he requested Matt to hand over the device. Matt obliged. Chuck explained that after the mission failed and Matt and Emily were presumed dead, the blame fell upon him, and he lost his job. He lost everything he valued in life, and he blamed Matt and Emily for it. He started his own agency and worked with men like Gor, in part to seek revenge on the couple, and mostly because he needed to make money.
How did Ginny and Nigel save the day?
Ginny managed to get to her kitchen and open her secret cupboard full of weapons. She was a skilled fighter, and within seconds she had taken down a handful of Chuck’s men. Matt and Emily got into action as well, and Chuck had no choice but to hold Alice and Leo at gunpoint. The couple was knocked out while Chuck and his men abducted Alice and Leo to ensure that Matt and Emily did not get the authorities involved.
Even though they’d had their differences all their lives, Ginny and Emily worked together to bring home Alice and Leo and retrieve the key. Emily had come to realize that a lot of her bitterness towards her mother stemmed from unresolved misunderstandings, and somehow the complex situation brought them close. While going through the surveillance footage at Ginny’s place, Matt noticed that Leo had tried to send them a signal. He always had his health tracker ring on, and he hoped that his parents would use it to decipher his location. Immediately after logging into his account, Matt and Emily had his coordinates. The children had been taken to Tate Modern, and the place was closed that evening because of a black-tie event.
With the key in his possession, Chuck had the ultimate power, and he even refused to entertain Gor if he failed to make it to the event on time. But of course, Gor was not someone Chuck should’ve messed with. Chuck entertained his esteemed guests, who were ready to pay any price to gain possession of the key. He demonstrated how, with only just one key, an individual or an organization could be in complete control of their surroundings. Every important building would be under their control, and they could use it to their advantage. Not only that, they could also open or close the Thames’s barrier as per their will. This feature could be used for negotiation, since opening the barrier could result in citywide floods. While Chuck was busy demonstrating how effective the key was, Emily and Matt took down Chuck’s guards and Gor’s henchmen. Baron also showed up at the event, but he chose not to arrest Emily and Matt, since they had proven their innocence by not selling the key outside. While the Secret Intelligence Service broke into Chuck’s closed-door meeting and tackled his men, Chuck escaped. He and his team boarded a speedboat and forcefully dragged Alice and Leo onto the vessel. Gor’s men confronted Emily and Matt, but thankfully Ginny handled the situation as a trained sniper. Meanwhile, Nigel was entrusted to find the key and use it to close the Thames barrier.
Will Matt and Emily reconsider joining the secret service?
Nigel’s dream of living an agent’s life came true. He was in his car when he noticed Chuck’s assistant, Daphne, leave the building with a case in her hand. He figured she was carrying the key, and with no other option in hand, he crashed his car into Daphne’s. She was knocked unconscious, so Nigel got in her car and tried to figure out a way to use the key to close the Thames barrier. He was nervous at first, but Ginny encouraged him to keep his calm and apply all the lessons he had learned about new-age technology. While Nigel tried to figure out the operation of the key, Matt and Emily hopped on a speedboat and chased after Chuck. Emily managed to climb into Chuck’s speedboat, and she took down his guards while Matt got his kids in lifejackets and advised them to jump from the boat.
During Back In Action’s ending, Nigel figured out a way to input instructions to operate the key, he tried his luck to shut down the Thames barrier and it worked. Matt and Emily had already gotten off the boat, and ultimately Chuck’s speedboat crashed into the barrier. Matt, Emily, Ginny, and Nigel had successfully saved the day, and they returned to the United States. The kids had a better understanding of their parents’ profession, and they were proud of them. After realizing how her mother had sacrificed her career to be with her, Alice chose to be kind to Emily. She did not wish for her relationship with her mother to turn bitter like Emily and Ginny’s. The mission had brought Ginny and Emily close, and they learned to be more forgiving of each other. They finally came together as a family, and Emily was in tears when Alice proposed to spend an evening with her.
In Back In Action’s ending, Baron showed up unexpectedly. As it turned out, Chuck’s body couldn’t be found, leaving enough room for a sequel. Since Emily and Matt were still the best in the business, Baron suggested they come back. He added that he wanted Emily to recruit one of her family members, and it was not Ginny. Baron needed Emily’s help to convince her father to join the secret service, but who was her father? Well, we’ll have to wait for the sequel to find our answers! Maybe he is in some way connected with the underworld and might know about Chuck’s whereabouts. Perhaps he was equally passionate about his career as Ginny, but maybe things did not work out as he had planned, and he chose to retire. Who knows? The possibilities are endless! Presumably, Matt and Emily will take their chances. After all they were not done with Chuck and given how thrilled they were to take on a mission, they will probably reconsider the offer.
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