My Spy is a 2020 American spy comedy film directed by Peter Segal, written by Jon and Erich Hoeber, and starring Dave Bautista, Chloe Coleman in her film debut, Kristen Schaal, Parisa Fitz-Henley, and Ken Jeong. It follows a CIA agent who finds himself at the mercy of a precocious nine-year-old girl in a family that he and his tech support are surveilling while undercover.
My Spy was released theatrically on January 9, 2020 in Australia by STX Entertainment. On April 8, 2020, its distribution rights were purchased by Amazon Studios due to the COVID-19 pandemic having shut down theaters worldwide. It was released digitally on Amazon Prime Video and in select U.S. theatres on June 26, 2020, to mixed reviews.
Plot
JJ is a former US Special Forces soldier newly hired as a CIA operative. However, JJ's lack of subtlety causes him to blow his first major mission: busting an illegal weapons-grade plutonium trade in Pripyat between the Russian mafia and Hassan, a Middle East terrorist. Despite this, his boss David Kim assigns him and tech operator Bobbi, who hero-worships JJ, to keep an eye on the in-law family of Victor Marquez, a French illegal arms dealer who has obtained construction plans for a miniaturized nuclear bomb which he intends to sell to Hassan. Victor lost these plans to his brother David, who hid them before he was murdered by Victor; Kim suspects that the plans may be in the possession of David's American wife Kate and their 9-year-old daughter Sophie, who moved from France back to Wicker Park, Chicago, after David's demise.
JJ and Bobbi move into the building where Kate and Sophie live, and set up their surveillance. However, Sophie soon finds one of their hidden cameras, backtracks its signal and stumbles upon the operation post. Confronting JJ and Bobbi, she blackmails JJ into keeping her company while she tries to fit into an American kid's life and make some new friends at her school Oaktree Charter School. Despite JJ's social awkwardness, the two slowly begin to bond, and JJ also becomes acquainted with Kate and her neighbors Carlos and Todd. Sophie has JJ train her in the basics of the espionage trade, and brings him and her mother closer together.
However, Kim eventually finds out about JJ's personal involvement with his targets and takes him and Bobbi off the mission. JJ reveals his assignment to Kate, who rejects him in disgust. At the same time, Victor discovers and counteracts the CIA's surveillance and coerces his lawyer Koll into revealing where David might have hidden the plans. After faking his own death, he travels to Chicago, confronts Kate, JJ, and Sophie and retrieves the plans. Carlos and Todd burst in and intervene, revealing themselves as independent arms dealers who are also after the plans. Bobbi's clumsy attempt to help results in Victor escaping with the plans and Sophie as his hostage.
JJ and Kate pursue Victor to an airfield in Naperville, where JJ grounds Victor's escape plane and starts a fistfight with him. In her attempt to escape, Sophie accidentally sets the plane in motion, leaving it hanging at the edge of a cliff on some wire fencing. Victor forces Sophie, who has hidden the real plans, to surrender them. Before he can shoot them, Kate clubs him onto the fence and JJ pushes the plane off the cliff, sending Victor to his death. After being reinstated by Kim for his success, JJ has himself permanently assigned to Chicago, where he moves in with Kate and Sophie.
Cast
Dave Bautista as J.J., a CIA agent tasked with surveilling Sophie's mother in hopes of locating her criminal brother-in-law Chloe Coleman as Sophie, a nine-year-old elementary school girl who blackmails J.J. into training her to be a spy Kristen Schaal as Bobbi, J.J.'s tech specialist Parisa Fitz-Henley as Kate, Sophie's mother Ken Jeong as David Kim, J.J.'s boss at the CIA Devere Rogers as Carlos, Sophie's gay neighbor Greg Bryk as Victor Marquez Ali Hassan as Azar Noah Danby as Todd, Carlos' partner
Production
On October 5, 2017, it was reported that STX Entertainment had finalized a deal to develop a then-untitled action-comedy film starring Dave Bautista. Bautista was also expected to produce the film with Jonathan Meisner, with Drew Simon overseeing the project for the studio.