The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is a 2015 spy film directed by Guy Ritchie and written by Ritchie and Lionel Wigram. It is based on the 1964 MGM television series of the same name, which was created by Norman Felton and Sam Rolfe. The film stars Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer, Alicia Vikander, Elizabeth Debicki, and Hugh Grant. The film was produced by RatPac-Dune Entertainment and Davis Entertainment while Turner Entertainment Co., the original TV series current holder, was also involved.
In 1993, John Davis obtained the rights for a film adaptation based on the original series. However, the film fell into development limbo due to multiple script rewrites. Over the years, Matthew Vaughn, David Dobkin, and Steven Soderbergh were optioned for directing until Ritchie signed on in March 2013. The film premiered at Barcelona on August 2, 2015, and was released on August 14, 2015, by Warner Bros. It received mixed reviews from critics and was a box office bomb, grossing only $107 million worldwide on a $75–84 million budget. Rolling Stone listed this movie 45th on the best action movies of all time.
Plot
In 1963 CIA-Agent Napoleon Solo extracts Gaby Teller, daughter of nuclear scientist Dr. Udo Teller. Solo and KGB Agent Illya Kuryakin are ordered to team up and stop Alexander and Victoria Vinciguerra, Nazi sympathizers using Teller to build their own private nuclear weapon.
The men travel to Rome with Gaby, whose uncle Rudi works for the Vinciguerras. Muggers take Kuryakin's father's watch, but Kuryakin does not react in order to maintain his cover. Solo and Kuryakin break into a Vinciguerra shipping yard and find traces of uranium. While escaping into the water Kuryakin nearly drowns, but Solo saves him.
The following day, Gaby meets with Rudi and Alexander and betrays Kuryakin and Solo to them. Rudi tortures Solo, but Kuryakin rescues him and tortures Rudi. Rudi reveals the weapon is hidden in an island fortress where Gaby has been reunited with her father. Teller completes the weapon, and Victoria kills him.
Solo and Kuryakin are approached by Alexander Waverly, a MI6 officer who reveals Gaby is his undercover officer. They infiltrate the Vinciguerras' compound. Solo finds Kuryakin's stolen watch on a guard. Alexander attempts to escape with the warhead, but is intercepted and killed. Solo retrieves the disc with Teller's research but realizes Alexander's warhead was a decoy—Victoria has left with the real warhead. Solo distracts Victoria via radio while Waverly launches a homing missile, destroying the nuclear weapon and killing Victoria.
Kuryakin confronts Solo in his hotel room, and Solo returns the stolen watch. Kuryakin admits his assignment was to kill Solo and take the disc for his government. Solo replies that he knew this, and had the same orders. They instead burn the contents of the disc, to give neither side the upper hand in the arms race. Reuniting with Gaby and Waverly, the trio have been reassigned to Waverly's international organization. Waverly gives them a new mission under a new codename: U.N.C.L.E.
Cast
Henry Cavill as Napoleon Solo
Armie Hammer as Illya Kuryakin
Alicia Vikander as Gaby Teller
Elizabeth Debicki as Victoria Vinciguerra
Sylvester Groth as Uncle Rudi
Christian Berkel as Udo Teller
Luca Calvani as Alexander Vinciguerra
Misha Kuznetsov as Oleg
Jared Harris as Adrian Sanders
Hugh Grant as Alexander Waverly
Production
Development
Producer John Davis optioned the film rights to the 1960s TV series in 1993, setting up a development deal for an adaptation with Warner Bros. and series producer Norman Felton. Davis has estimated that he commissioned 12 or 14 different scripts over the course of 20 years, with writers Jim and John Thomas, John Requa, Glenn Ficarra, and Scott Z. Burns. Quentin Tarantino was briefly attached following the success of Pulp Fiction, but opted to make Jackie Brown instead. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. continued to labor in development hell with directors Matthew Vaughn and David Dobkin. Steven Soderbergh was attached to direct Scott Z. Burns' screenplay, with production slated to begin in March 2012. Executives from Warner Bros. wanted the budget to stay below $60 million, but Soderbergh felt that amount would not be adequate to fund the 1960s-era sets, props, and international settings required for the film. Emily Blunt was nearly cast as the female lead, but she left the project shortly after Soderbergh departed in November 2011.