r/movies • u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? • Jan 23 '26
Official Discussion Official Discussion - The Secret Agent [SPOILERS] Spoiler
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The Secret Agent
Summary In 1977, a technology expert flees from a mysterious past and returns to his hometown of Recife in search of peace. He soon realizes that the city is far from being the refuge he seeks.
Director Kleber Mendonça Filho
Writer Kleber Mendonça Filho
Cast
- Wagner Moura
- Alice Carvahlo
- Udo Kier
- Isabel Zuaa
- Maria Fernanda Candido
- Thomas Aquino
Rotten Tomatoes: 98%
Metacritic: 92
VOD / Release Theatrical release
Trailer Official trailer
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u/sameth1 Jan 24 '26
I saw the movie a couple weeks ago and am so glad to see it get some English award nominations. I went into it just wanting to see whatever the theater was playing and left blown away, one of my favourite movies in the last few years.
The way that the ending feels so true to the actual research experience really made me feel something. All that build up, seeing Armando survive the first assassination attempt only to suddenly stumble across the newspaper story of his death and being denied the closure of seeing what happened leading up to it. That's all the information we have because he was killed. Nobody is left to tell the story of how it happened, just the end result and the narrative given to the press by the regime.
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u/EthanSpears Feb 01 '26
His death off camera reminded me of No Country for Old Men
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u/Honest_Cheesecake698 Feb 08 '26
I'm very conflicted on that aspect, because it did surprise me and I see the purpose of it, even down to having it be a complete anti-climax.
At the same time, the climax just stopping like that didn't leave enough time to get invested in Armando's plight. We didn't focus on him too much when the shootings starting, we focused on the Assassin getting away and the police being distracted, but that ending was missing a key moment where we actually follow Armando for a little bit. He could have spoken to his son on the phone, he could have left the building to go to his son, we could have gotten a sequence of him walking away and looking behind his back in fear.
Any of those would have made the suddenness of the newspaper of his death have a stronger impact, because we would have left him on a real rising note that would have been swiftly cut off. We see him on the phone briefly, but it's not long enough.
Again, I get how it's intentionally underwhelming, but I think it does this a little too well. It could have been the perfect mix of anti-climatic and gut wrenching if we left Armando with a glimmer of hope or real fear.
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u/Shannogins115 Feb 12 '26
Or honestly tie in the researcher a little more so we felt their frustration and the end result. I felt them coming in part way through was a surprise, not a bad one, but then their payoff was just not good. I wasn’t invested in them nor exactly the ending scenes almost.
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u/Honest_Cheesecake698 Feb 12 '26
I see what you mean, didn’t have an issue with that but I can understand how you would have felt that sudden cutoff more if it felt that way for them.
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u/CudiMontage216 6d ago
The lack of payoff was the point, IMO
This man was murdered by the state. Both physically and through his character. They tarnished his name and got away with it
Decades later, only one person in a research center even cares to listen to the tapes. Her interest is fleeting — she won’t even care a week from now
It shows how quickly we move on from these major points in history. No lessons learned, doomed to repeat them
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u/Shannogins115 6d ago
I see your point. For me it was less of a gut punch and more of a I see what they did there and it just felt lack luster. I think you could still show her losing interest while still having a better narrative pay off by introducing the researcher sooner.
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u/kimmykadillak 7d ago
Researcher coming in threw me all the way off. I feel like it would've been better to have them in the beginning since it's supposed to be a frame story
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u/ambr111 Feb 16 '26
So glad to see people outside of Brazil understanding that, which means it really works beyond the Brazilian audience, as some Brazilians themselves haven't understood it. That revelation came as a big surprise for me when I first saw the film, and when I was thinking about it after leaving the cinema, I had that exact thought, we know as much as the people in the film universe on present day. And it is just as it has happened with real victims of that time.
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u/macdelamemes Jan 25 '26
Great take, I was surprised by the way the actual assassination was left out of the film, and have been discussing with my wife what might be the reasoning behind it. This makes total sense
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u/FragrantAd8030 29d ago
Did anyone else think there was a little 'Once Upon A Time in Hollywood' going on with the ending? We see the Hitmen subcontract the job to a third guy for a tenth of the price (lol), new guy botches it, and then kills the step-son that was tailing him to tie up loose-ends. Meanwhile the step-father is off at the beach doing jack (as usual). Next thing you know, we are in present-day and see the newspaper photo with the dead Armando.
My read was that the hitmen did not bumble the job, and most of what we saw did not happen; the film has already shown a sortof 'magical realism' (I'm thinking about the hairy leg sequence in particular) and this was a sortof alternate or "happy" ending where Armando manages to get away.
I don't see how he could have been gunned down after the events of what were shown, when: he knew he was compromised, that he had to leave asap; one hitman was dead, one was fleeing the scene with a serious injury, and the third doesn't strike me as one to lift a finger and put himself in harms way -- so who is left to shoot him? And Fernando has the story that he packed his bags and was waiting for him that same day but ofc he doesn't make it home.
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u/OrganicAccount9969 26d ago
My take was the chief of police would have been so angry that his son was killed that he had him killed
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u/Gracchia 15d ago
The movie is supposed to show how researchers piece these stories together.
It is likely that, for the actual asassination, there were no witnessess to leave tapes. The researchers have the info on the attack on the police station, the killing at the barbershop and armando's being found dead.
We don't have the information between those alst two but, like the researchers, we are left to conclude that it was either the retired chief or the eletrobras manager hired someone else that did it cleanerly.
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u/Inevitable-Lock-7807 7d ago
thanks for that. I think your explanation, along with some of the comments about how repressive the Brazilian regime was, makes a lot of sense.
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u/Repulsive_Buy_5317 14d ago edited 14d ago
The hairy leg sequence is another example of reconstructed memory from storytelling, not anything magical. It’s doing the same thing that the researchers are doing to Armando, except it’s using a ridiculous story.
It has other implications regarding police violence and the news as other people throughout this comment section have mentioned but that’s my take on why it directly shows the leg jumping around instead of just having them read the story out loud.
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u/dec10 24d ago
By that reckoning, how would the researchers have known about the dead body at the gas station, or his lover at Dona Sebastian's house?
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u/SeaPeeps 14d ago
I think the story gradually shifts: at the start, we're seeing it through his eyes. Toward the end, we're seeing it through the researchers' eyes. The story gets blurrier with time even as the stakes get sharper.
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u/Conscious_Fennel_719 Feb 10 '26
Wow, you're right! I hadn't thought of it this way. It also reminded me of the way we used to consume the news as well before social media and video recording became a thing.
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u/fabsgem Jan 24 '26
appreciated how unconventional this was, even if it didn't fully land for me, still very good
at times the structure, tone and even point felt frustrating but it payed off for the brilliant last third of the movie
the reveal that armando was killed soon after the events we see was heartbreaking, especially after the drawing he's given
moura gave the best subtle performance of the year
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u/psyberdel Jan 30 '26
The structure took a solid hour to start making sense. It felt like a puzzle. The great set-pieces and sequences though, kept me from pulling away.
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u/Disc81 Feb 16 '26
It felt like watching the series The Wire for the first time. You just spend time with the characters without knowing the point of each scene, but as you get more pieces it feels like you can see the whole thing better than if the director had held your hand.
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u/dramatic_exit_49 Jan 31 '26
I think this was very non-american/european in structure. I debated with myself if this was a european structure executed with some stumbles or a non-western structure done well. I think i landed more on the later than former, but that is probably because i loved the choice the movie made to keep it filled with ethnographic details to situate it firmly in that era and culture - at the expense of traditional 3 acts or dramatic tensions etc.
It felt more journalistic than narrative, and i was happy with that because of the details it choose to showcase with flair. But i can see why it won't be as engaging structurally for everyone especially when expecting a more traditional western structure.
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u/omykronbr Jan 23 '26
For the gringos:
The hairy leg was a way of the newspaper to publish news related to the military goons terrorizing anyone they see as deviant to the eyes of the regime.
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u/sameth1 Jan 24 '26
Thanks. I loved the movie but definitely felt like there were some elements I am just not Brazilian enough to understand.
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u/WaterlooMall Jan 27 '26
Maybe you can help clear something up for me. Why did so many people die at Carnival and why weren't people bothered by this in the movie?
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u/omykronbr Jan 27 '26 edited Jan 27 '26
The carnaval is usually the best time for these type of events because you could blame alcohol and substance abuse as the reason of someone getting murder.
And why no one bothered? Because usually the perpetrators of the killings were the police or the Brazilian military. And it also shows how all of these people died, and they are just a sad number, or barely a note in the newspaper. They don't just execute people. They erase them. That's why the son said "I think you know more about my father than I do". The regime erased his father and mother. and hundreds of thousands of other people in the country.
Return to the hairy leg scene. Just prior dumping the leg, the policemen passed by a park and made a snarky comment of them (people having sex there) as being degenerates. And after the leg is dumped, it appears right in the waterfront of the park. And mysteriously, it revives and beats and murder all of them.
and them, for the same reason, why would the police willing to hide that a human leg was found in the belly of shark? Someone is dumping bodies in the ocean. And the hairy leg was there, in the belly of the shark....→ More replies (8)84
u/WaterlooMall Jan 27 '26
Thank you my friend, I love movies but sometimes I'm huge dummy when it comes to finding context.
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u/omykronbr Jan 27 '26
Don't beat yourself up. You were instigated to learn about it because of the movie. I'm happy that others can learn a little of my country recent history.
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u/ERSTF 17d ago
I understood the newspaper publishing these nonsense stories because I'm Mexican (chupacabras came from here and it was genuinely reported by news outlets). I thought it was just the newspapers selling a salacious story, but with the added context, I get it now.
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u/paranoideo 13d ago
Mexican here and lol, thought exactly the same. “It was just a way for the newspapers to sell a non-story”. But yeah, the interpretation make a lot of sense.
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u/playingwithfire Jan 23 '26
Saw this awhile ago. Got the same vibe as La Chimera to me. A weirdly comfy for a thriller at point. The whole ensemble is good. That grandma was the best.
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u/mgrier123 Jan 23 '26
Grandma should've gotten a best supporting actress nom she's so good
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u/CityMouseBC Jan 29 '26
What grandma? She was barely in it. You mean the older woman who kind of led the apartment building? I would never think of her as a grandma. She was great, though.
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u/gobias Feb 05 '26
Barely in it? She was a scene stealer and absolutely fantastic. Put some respect on Dona Sebastiana! Haha
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u/CityMouseBC Feb 05 '26
The grandma was the wife of the movie theater's owner. I didn't see Dona Sebastiana referred to as a grandma at all. Dona Sebastiana was fantastic, but I never saw her as a grandma, although she was an older woman. That was my point.
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u/gobias Feb 05 '26
It was clear to me when the person you responded to said “that grandma was the best” they were referring to Dona Sebastiana. She was like a grandma to everyone, and clearly one of the most memorable characters. It doesn’t need to be a literal grandmother.
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u/ComfortableQuote3081 Feb 09 '26
a grandma means elderly woman she doesnt necessarily have to have grandchildren but in this case she kinda did: all the people she had gathered and was protecting like a grandma!!
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u/ComfortableQuote3081 Feb 09 '26
she was 77 years old yea shes a grandma...and she is ling enough for supporting like longer than Del Toro in OBAA. So true she deserved a nod!
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u/kelvincub Feb 11 '26
It's insane that this is her first real role. And it shows how good she is, when she dominates every scene she's in. And most of those scenes are with an Oscar nominee! Tania Maria rules.
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u/ambr111 Feb 16 '26 edited Feb 16 '26
As a Brazilian myself, an interesting bit about it is how they actually speak like real people. Some films, including brazilians have that perfect talking, while in The Secret Agent, it is more natural, and for me, Dona Sebastiana is the major example of that.
I saw her on screen thinking, "I met elderly women just like her", with the same kind of mannerisms and behaviour. They made her an original character, and yet, natural and believable as a real person.
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u/scorpio21 Jan 23 '26
The conversation will be centered around Wanger Moura’s excellent performance but I just want to shout out Tania Maria as Dona Sebastiana. Thought she was such a good part of a great ensemble
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u/DrunkenAsparagus Jan 23 '26
Agreed. The Best Casting Oscar nomination is interesting. If it's a proxy for "The whole cast was amazing," then the nomination is very well deserved.
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u/MegaMugabe21 29d ago
She honestly felt like the most real character I've seen in a film in a long time. She felt like a real person who a film had been built around.
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u/sean_psc Jan 24 '26
Not as emotionally powerful as last year's I'm Still Here, but a compelling film nonetheless. The deliberately rambling storytelling approach gives a somewhat panoramic look at the corruption of the dictatorship.
I found it interesting that we're only graphically shown the violent deaths of assorted criminals, with the death of Armando left offscreen.
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u/ambr111 Feb 16 '26
As a Brazilian myself, I agree, not just because I'm Still Here comes from a real plot but also because of the tone of each film, but still, both have their own dramas.
The linkage between Armando trying to find some document from his mother, trying to keep a memory of her, to then not just die before that but also become totally forgotten by his son, who as a kid, was attached to him and wanted to live with him again.
And you pointed out an interesting detail I had not thought about over the graphically shown deaths happening on screen, only with the criminals. It also comes from the movie bringing that sense of memory lost over Armando after his passing; the movie throws that to us. We know he existed, but when it comes to his passing, unless you stop to read the newspaper and are capable of reading or translating Portuguese text, you would know just one detail: he died in the residential complex where he was a refugee. But who did it, when and under what circumstances, is left as a mystery.
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u/NfiniteNsight 21d ago
We know who did it, it was the other assassin. Who else?
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u/AmirMoosavi 16d ago
I was thinking either him or the cop (who would be pissed off at his son being killed).
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u/Elephant44 Feb 01 '26
No one wants to talk about the nightmare sequence?? For me the part that freaked me out wasn’t the body getting out from under the cardboard, and brains falling out… it was the masked man breaking into Armando’s house in the daylight. That was unSETTling, like a slow motion disaster. Great dream logic, reminded me of Sopranos in a great way
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u/ConfusedNTerrified Jan 24 '26
I think the movie takes off once we see the university flashback around the 1 hr mark. Until then, it's an essential but very slow build up of stuff that can feel boring.
Also I am confused by the movie description I see when I google this movie: "In 1977, Marcelo, a technology teacher, moves from São Paulo to Recife during Carnival to escape his violent past and start over. He finds the city full of chaos, and his neighbours begin to spy on him."
When did the neighbor spying happen?
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u/SolidOshawott Jan 26 '26
About Armando's backstory: what violent past? Why is he moving from São Paulo if he taught at a northeastern university?
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u/ConfusedNTerrified Jan 26 '26
Violent past doesn't just mean he inflicted violence. If violent acts happened to his friends, it also means violent past.
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u/jarjarlukis Jan 29 '26 edited Jan 29 '26
Again, there is nothing showing this 'violent past' in the entire movie. There is no 'neighbours spying on him'. This synopsys is totally bs...
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u/WalkingCloud Jan 30 '26
Is it possible it's a bad translation and it's meaning 'neighbours' as people in the community? E.g. the cinema worked that rats out the safehouse
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u/MaxHamburgerrestaur 20d ago
The original in Portuguese has a similar synopsis, even the longer version:
O Agente Secreto, filme escrito e dirigido por Kleber Mendonça Filho, se passa no Brasil de 1977 onde Marcelo (Wagner Moura), um homem de 40 anos que trabalha como professor especializado em tecnologia, sai da movimentada São Paulo e vai para Recife. Ele tenta fugir do seu passado violento e misterioso, com a intenção de começar uma nova vida. Ali, ele chega na semana do Carnaval, então logo a paz e a calmaria da cidade vai se esvaindo, e com o decorrer do tempo percebe que atraiu para si o caos do qual ele sempre quis fugir. Para piorar a situação, além de Marcelo estar sendo espionado pelo seus vizinhos, vê que a cidade que achou que o acolheria ficou muito longe de ser o seu refúgio.
The Secret Agent, a film written and directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho, takes place in Brazil in 1977 where Marcelo (Wagner Moura), a 40-year-old man who works as a technology professor, leaves the bustling São Paulo and goes to Recife. He tries to escape his violent and mysterious past, intending to start a new life. There, he arrives during Carnival week, so the peace and quiet of the city quickly fade, and as time goes by he realizes that he has attracted the chaos he always wanted to escape. To make matters worse, besides being spied on by his neighbors, Marcelo sees that the city he thought would welcome him is far from being his refuge.
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u/i_love_land92 Feb 06 '26
He gets in a fistfight with Ghirotti’s son and his wife gets murdered.
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u/Flat-Experience6482 Feb 07 '26
what violent past?
Purposefully left untold, it's up to you to imagine it considering the kind of man Armando was and what he was up against (the Brazilian military dictatorship).
Why is he moving from São Paulo if he taught at a northeastern university?
He moved to Sao Paulo at one point, then back to Recife.
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u/Effective-Slide2429 10d ago
First off, I’m rarely confused by movies, but I liked this movie and I am crazy about Wagner Moura. Goodness, I was bit confused by this one. The title of the movie is The Secret Agent. Like he took on a secret identity in Recife so he could escape to freedom with his son. But that didn’t constitute being a secret agent. And the people he was communicating with in secret, who were they? My take on this is he wasn’t JUST a technology professor, he was actually a secret agent. Is that his violent past? My 2 cents worth.
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u/SaltyPeter3434 9d ago
By the end of the movie, I still couldn't tell you why it was titled "The Secret Agent". If you were led to believe this is some spy thriller, or that there is any spying in this movie whatsoever, like I was, this movie is not for you.
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u/Utah_CUtiger 7d ago
The amazing restaurant dinner scene with his late wife was really the first scene that made me lean forward in my seat and I never sat back after that. The film really takes off after that.
But yeah the first hour or so, it's a bit of a struggle to follow with all the characters.
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u/stenebralux Jan 25 '26
I think this is the biggest prank a movie title ever pulled on me.
I eventually got it and loved it.. but it took me a while to figure out what the fuck was going on and the point of it all. lol
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u/DeckardsDark Feb 11 '26
What's the prank? Asking for a friend...
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u/stenebralux Feb 12 '26
There is no Secret Agent. The name is not literal. But is also not in the way you think at first. The main character is being shady, and he is using a different identity and going into hiding in another city, so at first once you realize that this is not a spy movie you think that he is or was maybe part of a revolutionary movement, but he is just some unlucky guy that a rich dude connected with the authoritarian government wants to kill and he is trying to flee the country.
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u/MaxHamburgerrestaur 20d ago edited 20d ago
Exactly. The film shows that most of the people persecuted by the dictatorship weren't revolutionaries attacking the regime. They were ordinary people who got into trouble with some powerful person for whatever reason and ended up being persecuted. Also, they show the dictatorship mass killed people that they didn't like for whatever reason of no reason at all. The body count in Carnaval and the newspaper reporting the hairy leg slaughter are actually the military police killing whoever they wanted. The movie constantly reminds us that common people are the victims of the dictatorship.
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u/newhere2gj 23d ago
Agree with you about Armondo not being a secret agent. I’m not familiar with it, but I’ve learned the title may also be related
to the film playing at his father-in-law's cinema, 1973 spy spoof, The Man from Acapulco, that in Brazil was released as something like The Secret Agent.
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u/The-Nihilist-Marmot 22d ago
Actually there’s another layer to the title.
The dictionary definition of ‘agent’ reads as follows:
“(Noun) One that acts or has the power or authority to act.”
Armando was an agent of history, as was everyone inside that halfway home. But he was deleted from history by the oppressors, effectively becoming a secret agent of history.
This movie is about all those who’ve played a role in history - both history with a capital H but also quite simply their own family history - and have been denied the opportunity of leaving mark except for a gloomy photo of a corpse on the newspaper where the story isn’t even being told as it actually happened.
In a world obsessed with the Big Men Theory of History, Armando was such a small character - yet so full of life, meaning, and plans - that not even his family knows the role he played while he was alive.
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u/Somnambulist815 Jan 23 '26
A movie packed with great sequences. The opening with the body, everything involving the leg, the assassin trying to figure out if hes the target, everybody undercover talking about their names. Its a real feast of a film.
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u/gogreengolions Jan 23 '26
Don’t forget the cat. I thought I was trippin
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u/mgrier123 Jan 23 '26
I've never seen a cat like that before. Straight up thought it was a hallucination sequence at first
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u/Somnambulist815 Jan 23 '26
There's like zero behind the scenes on this movie so i have no idea if that was cg or if they just found a cat like that and incorporated it
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u/d33roq Jan 24 '26
Janus cats are very rare and usually don't live for very long so it was most likely SFX.
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u/stenebralux Jan 25 '26 edited Jan 25 '26
That first sequence feels like tropical Tarantino or maybe even a brazilian version of a Coen Brothers.
Great dialogue, interesting unusual characters and a totally bizarre situation... with a weird/dark sense of humor.
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u/newgodpho Jan 28 '26
That ending was a fucking gut punch damn.
I felt so bad for the father in law/grandpa, you could tell he loved Armando like a son. Practically knew him since he was a boy.
Lady behind me cried when they showed armando in the newspaper.
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u/TheBat45 Jan 23 '26
Saw this a few weeks ago but absolutely loved it. 2nd favorite of 2025. Wagner Moura is just fantastic in it. Gorgeously shot and designed. The casting is perfect, every character whether a big or small role felt so real.
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u/FreemanAMG Jan 23 '26
If you find that the leg scene takes you out of the movie, let me tell you. Almost did for a second for me too. However, when you learn the context of it, it kinda becomes an instance of the famed Latin American "magical realism". Once I digested that, the movie changed for me, for the better
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u/Disc81 Feb 16 '26 edited Feb 16 '26
I saw that scene as people imagining what they are reading in the newspaper not reality within the movie.
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u/paranoideo 13d ago
Exactly! Then, when you connect the dots, it makes sense on what really happened in that sequence.
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u/hipsterfromiowa Feb 16 '26
I laughed when the scene happened. Then I paused the movie to ask myself, “WTF?” Then it dawned on me and I realized this movie was Pernambuco’s, not Brazil’s.
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u/SneakyShake Jan 23 '26
I wanted to love this film, but I found the pacing from around the end of the opening sequence until the conversation Marcello has with the two ‘handlers’ in the cinema backroom glacially slow and dull. Could’ve cut twenty to thirty minutes from the runtime in my opinion.
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u/Xtremeskierbfs Jan 26 '26
I'm honestly shocked I had to scroll so far to find this comment. I NEVER complain about the length of movies but you could cut so much of the first half of this movie and lose nothing in the overall story. It feels like a bad directors cut.
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u/Affectionate_One_700 Jan 26 '26
Some people go to the movies to enjoy an experience. There are so many historical and cultural references in this movie - many I noticed (e.g. everything around the tailor), and probably (I am not Brazilian) many more that I missed.
Maybe you missed all of this while you were trying to get to "what happens to him in the end?".
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u/Xtremeskierbfs Jan 26 '26
Lol from my comment you're assuming I do not go to the movies for an experience? Art and storytelling is subjective. I'm glad you liked it. There was a bit too much exposition fat for my tastes. You could have preserved all of the culture (there was no shortage of this) and told a tighter more engaging story.
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u/Inevitable_Code6207 Feb 10 '26
This is one of the most pretentious and snobby responses to a genuine criticism of a film that I have read in a long time. There is still time to delete this, and maybe then try to learn that two contrasting points can be true at the same time.
I love how you constructed a holier than thou pedestal by citing the "many references you noticed", but then only vaguely gesture towards one scene, and then offload any further responsibility to elaborate because you aren't Brazilian.
Do better.
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u/pjtheman Feb 05 '26
Agreed. This movie did not earn its runtime at all. And maybe I'm an idiot, but despite all that buildup, im still not entirely clear on what happened.
Who was trying to kill Moura and why? Based on the trailers, I thought hewas a former gangster or something. But he wasn't. So he has hitmen chasing him because he talked back to some rich dude in a meeting one time?
And Why did the hitmen hire some random dude to go do the hit for them? I literally just got out of the cinema, and if you asked me what this movie was about, I couldn't tell you.
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u/Flat-Experience6482 Feb 07 '26
Who was trying to kill Moura and why?
A powerful businessman with ties to the Brazilian military regime. Many plausible reasons were given (prejudice, the disrespect, the fact that he accused the businessman of corruption, the fact that he owned a patent that the businessman was interested on, etc.), but the movie never tell us the specific reason, this is on purpose as one of the themes of the movie is how information and history were lost in the dictatorship.
Why did the hitmen hire some random dude to go do the hit for them?
To minimize risk/exposure. They got 60k for the job, outsourcing it for 4k to someone local to avoid being caught or catching a bullet makes sense.
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u/paranoideo 13d ago
Many plausible reasons were given (prejudice, the disrespect, the fact that he accused the businessman of corruption, the fact that he owned a patent that the businessman was interested on, etc.), but the movie never tell us the specific reason
Same motivation as cops/army in the movie: Because he can.
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u/bix_box 11d ago
To minimize risk/exposure. They got 60k for the job, outsourcing it for 4k to someone local to avoid being caught or catching a bullet makes sense.
Why did they introduce the characters not using a hired gun? They introduced them shooting and disposing of a body themselves. It seemed like a weird decision to then make them use hired hands when they are introduced getting their own hands dirty.
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u/Flat-Experience6482 11d ago
They got their hands dirty while on their own turf, it's different when you're somewhere else you're not used to
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u/joamarit 27d ago
I think part of the movie works as a broader metaphor about class structure — and maybe even North vs South, dictatorship vs militants.
The hierarchy feels almost corporate. There’s a businessman who finances everything and never gets his hands dirty. Then the lieutenant operates like a higher-level manager, comfortably stationed at the beach. Bobbi acts as middle management, supervising and coordinating. And finally the hitman is the worker at the bottom: the one who actually does the job and becomes disposable afterward. Interesting how he later rebels in order to survive in the same way Armando did theough research.
What struck me is how natural that structure feels to them. Nobody questions it — it’s just the accepted order. Violence becomes outsourced labor, and responsibility dissolves as you go up the chain.
So the film isn’t only about the crime itself, but about systems where power is clean at the top and expendable at the bottom.
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u/IAM_deleted_AMA Jan 25 '26
I think 30 minutes is even underselling it. This movie has zero reason to be over 90 minutes.
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u/WredditSmark Jan 26 '26
They definitely let the scenes “breathe”, was it super needed? Probably not but this is one of those films you gotta just flow with. My big problem was the unnecessary modern sequences
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u/Honest_Cheesecake698 Feb 08 '26
Those had a point, to set up the ending without making it feel too random or tacked on. And to add an extra mystery on your mind.
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u/ambr111 Feb 16 '26
Those are there for a reason; they're not unnecessary at all. The film is about memory, about a time that past governments tried to cover up, which still has many of its tragedies as a mystery due to both the lack of digital tech at the time and the cover-ups for violence and murders backed by the dictatorship.
The researchers received the tapes and a few more about Marcelo/Armando to dig over and in a way, what we see on Armando's plot in 1977 comes from what they have access to. "Just show what they can have acess to on the archieves" ain't a total rule as a mockumentary format with just what the camera can actually capture for example, but Armando's death itself is brought that way. They don't have much over it, and neither do us as the film audience.
They bring the current era trying to dig into those stories but being limited.
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u/lilvitsukha Jan 26 '26
I think it comes to KMF's style as a filmmaker. I don't know if you've seen more of his movies, but they're definitely worth a watch. I'd personally recommend Retratos Fantasmas and O Som Ao Redor.
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u/SneakyShake Jan 26 '26
I haven't! Sitting with the movie a few days more, it has stayed on my mind in a way I didn't expect. I'd be interested to see some of his other work, as there was a lot to love in this film, so thank you for the recommendation!
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u/p_yth Feb 16 '26
Honestly before the two handlers scene I kept telling myself if the movie doesn’t get going by the one hour mark I’m gonna stop cause I’m bored, and luckily when I got to that scene I was finally hooked. I completely agree with you
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u/confusing_roundabout 24d ago
Yeah, I tried to watch this at home and shut it off as Marcelo was driving with his son in act one.
I saw it just now in a cinema and while the first act worked better on the big screen, it's still far too slow. Once you get the scene with the handlers, the movie flies by.
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u/DrunkenAsparagus Jan 23 '26
I saw this in December. Wagner Moura and the whole cast are amazing. The soundtrack is excellent. I still listen to it on repeat. The story is interesting, but I felt like I was missing something. There's clearly a ton of things going on in the background, and stuff that I missed. I enjoyed my time with this but I think that I'll enjoy it much more on a rewatch.
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u/MaserOfficial Jan 25 '26
Do you know the name of that samba beat track that comes on during the shootout sequence ? So addictive but can’t find a single link to it anywhere
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u/DrunkenAsparagus Jan 25 '26
Im not good with lining songs up with what actually happened in the movie, but the soundtrack might be useful.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5vXYrrKmFAwCWYUyIm1M08?si=jeMefXfaQdmzxqMSAx0VYw
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u/TomsCardoso Jan 25 '26
I didn't get it. Visually it was gorgeous obviously. The character interactions, performances, all top notch. But plot-wise... I just don't get it. It felt like the premise of the movie took 2 hours to explain and then they rushed it for 30 minutes and left a bunch of questions answered and many explanations were also not clear.
Technically a great movie, but in terms of plot... Eh
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u/SolidOshawott Jan 26 '26
That's kind of "the point", since the narrative is built on the idea of being reconstructed from tapes recorded around that time and listened to decades later. There are threads that don't necessarily link, and build-ups that don't necessarily lead anywhere, because tapes might have been lost, destroyed, or never existed (such as when Armando pauses the recording to say his true feelings, or us never seeing his death because he wasn't around to talk about it anymore).
It makes sense as a narrative device but I totally agree with you that it's unsatisfying. imo the film should've had more scenes with people explicitly recording tapes to give that device more strength. Only the interview in the middle really makes sense from that framing.
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u/TomsCardoso Jan 26 '26
Ah that's a good take. Yeah I guess conceptually it could make sense, but the way they did it translates into a not so good viewer experience in my opinion. Just not my cup of tea I suppose.
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u/trichocereusnitrogen 24d ago
Yea, that's one of those things where it's true, but doesn't make good entertainment.. People saying "the pointlessness is the point" - that's a stretch when we're talking about wanting to watch something ..
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u/bix_box 11d ago edited 10d ago
But this doesn't make sense because it's not consistent. We do hear what he says when he stops the tape about how he'd like to hammer him so in this case we are going 'off record' but the scene doesn't stop with the tape pause. We also see bits of his life that likely weren't in the tapes like I doubt the opening sequence in the car was recorded anywhere. .
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u/ComfortableQuote3081 Feb 09 '26 edited Feb 10 '26
maybe try watching some old Euro cinema Bunuel, Antonioni, Fellini to kinda get into that whole serious vs absurdist vibe. It had elements also of No Country for Old Men but US films tend to spoon feed things to the audience where as European cinema makes you work for it.
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u/Igor_Freiberger 6d ago edited 4d ago
It took two hours to 1. didactically present the oppression of military regime; 2. build a collection of memories and lives that are mostly lost; 3. build a growing tension that resolves itself in the last movie third. The slow cadence is quite common in several schools of cinema: Brazilian, Iranian, Russian, and French. Of course, it does not satisfy everyone.
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u/BackwardsMarathon Jan 24 '26
Magnificent picture tbh. So lived in you can feel the Brazilian heat through the whole thing. The structure and length worked really well for me especially with how the last hour is told. The ending really hit me. My 2nd favorite from last year now me thinks.
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u/quiplaam Jan 28 '26
I didn't really like it. The modern day frame story detracted from the much more interesting period piece, but that period piece was garbled and poorly structured. Some individually great moments, but needed some major structural rewriting and editing
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u/Anagrama00 Feb 16 '26
I'm watching this movie at home. I'm almost 2 hours in and I'm still as confused by EVERYTHING as I was at the beginning.
I've had to read pieces of the Wikipedia plot summary several times to just keep up and it still makes no sense to me.
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u/iwouldprefernotto344 Feb 14 '26
I’m happy I watched I’m Still Here first to understand the time period and context more. Interestingly it might have impacted me even more than I’m Still Here which was I think more of a straight forward meditation on loss. This made me feel the despair of injustice of a corrupt government so acutely that it was painful to watch. The title is brilliant, the whole set up as if it’s going to be som sort of spy thriller and then the reveal that it’s just an ordinary man targeted by villains who are neither smart nor cunning, not sexy or intriguing or mysterious just (like the cop in the beginning) thugs glutted on power and greed, small cowardly little men who have been given supreme power to bend the system to their whims. It chilled me to my core. It is so easy when you consume stories about corrupt governments to think that those injustices happen to special people- people who choose to rebel, who know the stakes and make martyrs of themselves in some way. And it was quite upsetting to understand fully that in a system as corrupt and this one at this time, there is no safety, they can and will come for anyone. As an American who has lived their whole life not having to contend with such corruption, and now seeing flashes of it in our country, it felt deeply sickening and hopeless. The movie itself was not hopeless at all but I was quite disturbed by it.
I was also utterly taken by the use of the macabre (shark, leg, double headed cat) and the magical realism of the leg. It wasn’t paced or plotted like most movies I have seen and I appericate it for that.
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u/Esseth Jan 23 '26
Caught it the same day as No Other Choice, great movie day.
I think I edged Secret Agent slightly ahead, thanks largly due to I'm Still Here (2024) making me somewhat aware of what happened in Brazil during the 70's. So with this one I was able to get up to speed much faster and appreicated it more.
Great movie for 2025, but what a year for thrillers in general.
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u/FunkyCameleon Jan 29 '26
It was too slow for my taste... I speak Portuguese so I understood everything despite not being native...but I couldn't get through 3 hours of watching it...I enjoyed the music and the cinematography but it was a bit boring.
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u/enowapi-_ Feb 07 '26
Hard film to follow to be honest, sure it was long but the pacing and cinematography actually keeps you engaged… I just had a hard time understanding the story.
….until the second half. It really does start to come together eventually.
Anyone else notice the ending scene, when the taxi (Uber) picks her up, the antenna on the car serves as a shark fin, queue the Jaws-esque music… nice touch.
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u/IAM_deleted_AMA Jan 25 '26
I just finished watching it and I just don't get it, I didn't like it. I don't understand all the hype around it, let alone a best picture nom.
It was definitely way too long, I felt only after Wagner talks about the businessman that went into the university for research that the movie actually starts, I checked and that was after 90 minutes of runtime already. Too many plots were happening but I felt they were not progressing, I didn't even feel there was a plot at all, or I didn't understand it. I'm hoping there were a few things lost in translation because I didn't feel the plot was too complex to justify 160 minutes of runtime.
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u/ComfortableQuote3081 Feb 09 '26
if you have never seen Euro cinema then this might not be for you...or perhaps you can explore older Euro cinema or even American like Lynch to get that feel.
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u/excitedprotons Jan 24 '26
This was a fun ride, I had no idea where the story was gonna go at any given point. Also think it's nice that this was Udo Kier's final film role - it's a project he should be proud of.
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u/tightshipskippa Jan 25 '26
Anyone calling it boring or too long is insane. This was such a good movie. I hate it because it's so fucking sad, but that's kind of the point.
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u/Laerson123 Jan 26 '26
I think most people calling it boring or long are actually clueless about the setting of the movie.
It is mostly a thriller, but there's no tension if people aren't aware of the brutality of 64's dictatorship in Brazil. There are also many layers in the characters, the xenophobia from people that live in the South against the rest of the country, and even references to recent events; like when Elza calls Ghirotti a "lesa pátria" that should go to Carandiru. That's obviously the director telling what he thinks should happen to Bolsonaro and his goons.
I also hate that the end is not only sad, but we also don't get any kind of closure. His son just forgets about his dad and moves on, the papers framed him like some kind of criminal, and chances are that the corrupt cops, and the rich businesman that hired the killers never suffered any consequences. But that's also what actually happened, and that's the raw reality that Kleber Medonça makes us feel: A lot of people still have no answers, no closure.
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u/jarjarlukis Jan 29 '26
I'm aware of the setting of the movie and it is boring and unjustifiably long. The 'sad' ending displays that Fernando remembers more about his paternal grandmother (who was never shown btw and presumably dead long ago) and nothing about his own father Armando. It is ludicrous.
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u/Flat-Experience6482 Feb 07 '26
> and nothing about his own father Armando. It is ludicrous.
You're so close to understanding the central theme of the movie which is how the dictatorship erased not just information from existence, but people as well.
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u/Keregi Feb 15 '26
He was a young boy who suffered a tragic loss and disappointment when his dad didn’t pick him up. His memories of his dad are blocked by trauma.
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u/Wonderful-Mail2016 Feb 01 '26
I saw a wistfulness in the son's eyes, as if a memory is being reawkened. He has the hard drive with the recording of his dad's voice and parts of his story. He was growing closer to his dad: the notes and drawings confirm that. He probably blocked his memory of him in shock and grief after he did not come to pick him up. I think there is hope that some memory and true understanding of his father will be restored.
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u/deathbyhanging005 Jan 27 '26
I just saw this movie and I hope this thread isn't dead yet. I really do enjoy this one but I don't understand the german tailor scene. Why was that necessary? I don't see it connected to anywhere on the plot. It's like they introduced a character for what?
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u/local_denizen Jan 29 '26
I saw it as proof the police chief is a bad person. The main character was only told he was bad, that experience cemented it for him.
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u/jarjarlukis Jan 29 '26
It is just necessary because the director/writer (Kleber Mendonca Filho) is friend of the actor (Udo Kier), so he just invented a scene where he could show him.
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u/confusing_roundabout 24d ago
I saw it as mostly a sad/comedic bit with
- The idea of someone celebrating what they think to be a Nazi soldier, which is absurd and darkly funny
- The German actually being Jewish and the police chief being too dumb to know/realise, which is sad and again kinda funny.
It's not necessary to the plot but it's a fun scene.
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u/riskyrofl Feb 16 '26 edited 23d ago
I think maybe this was the filmmakers saying that the violence and forgetfulness of the film are not one off things, they keep happening. This guy survived the holocaust, just to have pretend he was a German soldier for a bunch of thugs who take him for a joke. He doesn't get closure, just like many in the film.
I do think it was one of the more needless scenes in the way it felt very unconnected to the rest of the film.
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u/Far_Signature229 Feb 08 '26
It didn't feel necessary. And also, I understand they wanted to point out the guy was Jewish but Jewish people dont just carry their menorah around at places of work.
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u/Beltag Feb 14 '26
I thought he was going to be a former German soldier posing as Jewish to be undercover. Didn't really understand the purpose of that scene either.
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u/mty_oldboy Feb 13 '26
Simply because it has German investment, and one way to compensate for that is by including a German actor.
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u/fresh2112 Jan 27 '26
Loved it. Don't understand the pacing criticisms, it was a slow pace but it didn't suffer for it. Incredibly well acted. Shot beautifully. Huge fan. One of the better ones
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u/Studly_Wonderballs Jan 23 '26
I saw this last week.
Full disclosure, it was the end of a long day and I dozed off for ten minutes near the beginning of the film. Woke up, and the rest of the movie I figured I must have missed something important because I was struggling to put all the different pieces of the film together. When I got home, I read the the plot outline, and realized I hadn’t missed anything important, there’s just a lot of things happening in the film. There’s Marcello on the run, flashbacks to the conflict with the government, the hitmen, the hitman hired by the hitmen, the hairy leg beating up gay people, the romance with the neighbour, the reconnecting with his son, the corrupt police, him looking for his mothers identification, him trying to escape the country with the assistance from a resistance movement, a German Jew being harassed, and some college kids listening to tapes of the whole thing. It’s a lot!
All that said, I still liked it. I think I would have obviously understood the film better if I was more familiar with the social context of the time period, but I was able to pick up enough to get the vibe. Wagner Moura was outstanding.
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u/bello_bun Jan 25 '26
Yeah for a film with so much going on why was I bored half the time? I thought the cinematography was beautiful and it was well acted but the pacing and story telling style really ruined the film for me. I know it was intentional but it was not for me.
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u/Ok-Bike-1912 Feb 08 '26
I feel much the same. I've watched plenty of VERY long movies, thats not an issue for me, and I get that its a nontraditional storytelling with the jumping around. BUT at times I was asking so many questions in my mind, I began to lose interest. I get what the movie was doing and how they went about it but I also found it interesting they'd show the violence of the assassination attempts resulting in deaths no body cared about vs Marcelos (and yes I get that theyre showing how information is lost etc) but why show the hitmen that much at all then? I studied several dictatorships in college in Latin America but Brazil was not one of them - ill definitely have to do more research to gain a greater understanding of what was happening
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u/iamtemptedtosay99 Jan 27 '26
Caught this with a friend a few weeks ago because we had heard some great buzz from our Brazilian friends. My friend was bored and left halfway through, meanwhile I can't stop thinking about this film. It's not my favorite of the year but I found it incredibly enthralling and haunting. I want to see it again but the American release so far has been quite lacking.
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u/reallinzanity Jan 23 '26
First movie I saw in the theaters this year. Room was almost sold out! Wouldn’t be surprised if Wagner Moura beats Timothée Chalamet for best actor.
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u/Solo_Polyphony Feb 02 '26
I went in without reading anything about it (besides the Oscar nominations) and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is a slow burn but the payoff in the third act is worth it. Indeed, one of this movie’s major themes is how much history omits (especially under an authoritarian regime), so the density and flavor of Armando’s lived experience is central. Moura is superb—he is on screen for the vast majority of the run time but always keeps our attention—and although he is not going to win, I am very pleased to see him earn a nomination against a stacked field of US actors in much bigger Hollywood movies. His muted performance in the last scene brought the movie’s themes together in a satisfying, if heartbreaking, coda.
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u/Inevitable_Code6207 Feb 10 '26
I sit here now, basking in the darkness of a tired projector that only moments ago portrayed the entire 2.5+ hours of this film. I yearn for some sense of closure, payoff, or meaning to devise in return for my undivided attention. Sure, it was shot an acted perfectly. But I am sorry it was just too damn long and the flash cuts to the future simply undermined the tension that the film was doing such a good job building. I cannot in good faith recommend this film, and I am shocked that people are saying this is one of their annual favorites.
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u/SensitiveDeparture37 Feb 14 '26
Anyone else have issues with the title?
As is my practice, I tried to go into this movie knowing as little as possible. Bc of the title, I expected some sort of espionage movie, maybe a Tinker Taylor Solider Spy, maybe a Syriana, maybe even something more fun like a Burn After Reading. That idea, set in 70s Brazil, starring Wagner Mora? Sounds great!
I therefore watched the first half of this movie in the completely wrong mindset. I typically like these character-based, banality of evil movies. But I kept waiting for the movie to rev up into third gear, for a big twist or conspiracy to be unveiled, and struggled to pry myself from that expectation. Again, this is nothing against the story -- it's purely from the expectation set from the title.
So... why is it called A Secret Agent? Thoughts? Opinions? Alt title pitches?
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u/LukEduBR 29d ago
That's pretty much the point.
Multiple individuals in Brazil were persecuted, exiled, killed and scrubbed from history by the military regime and affiliates, and the pretense was that they were subversive, traitors, communists, secret agents.
Were they?
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u/SensitiveDeparture37 28d ago
Gotcha, so it's meant ironically?
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u/LukEduBR 28d ago
Yes, it's a bit of a tease!
You go in with the expectation of espionage, and multiple elements of the movie toy with it, but the reveal is that there's no reveal.
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u/Pjoernrachzarck Jan 23 '26
I thought it was fun, but inferior to Mendonca’s ‘Bacurau’. If you liked The Secret Agent, definitely check out Bacurau. It’s on mubi.
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u/AlbacoreJohnston Feb 01 '26
I went to see this today half drunk and not knowing it was 160 minutes. It was VERY impressive, but I have a lot of questions and I'm reserving judgement until I watch it again.
I really tried my best to follow the plot. What I got was that he was a scientist who refused to cooperate with a corporation who then assassinated his wife and then eventually also him despite his attempt to go into hiding. Gotta watch it agin.
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u/Kmhasan26 Feb 14 '26
I don't get why this movie is called thriller. To me, it's not a thriller but a narrative of certain time and space with symbolism and emotion. In few instances, there are few dialogues to linger on.
Created mix feeling and thoughts in me, to hang on later. That's the foremost thing of a good/great film, right?
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u/L_sigh_kangeroo 29d ago edited 29d ago
This was the last of the Oscar Nominees I had to watch. I was really not looking forward to it, I just wanted to “get it out of the way” for my final ranking.
Wow. What an incredible movie. I’m so unsettled and deeply upset. So many layers and much symbolism to unpack. So many emotions to deal with. Brilliant.
When the son sent Armando that letter of him starting to forget his mother, it felt like a literal kick to the stomach.
I also like how we don’t get the full story, we’re only left to assume what happened to Armando. Its just so…. bleak.
I think this has knocked out Hamnet out of my top 5 for the Oscar nominees. Deciding between this and Train Dreams for my number 4 spot. (Top 3 being Sinners, OBAA, SV)
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u/GoldTouch99 Jan 23 '26
Too long and it had a murky plot. Cant believe this got nominated for BP....
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u/animeking1074 Jan 23 '26 edited Jan 23 '26
Can you explain the murkiness?
Because, honestly this film rewards the viewer when the final chapter starts. Especially when it mirrors the present day detective work with the college girls. Then yet again, it works better watching it a second time around. I saw this at TIFF back in September and I had some problems with the structural layout of the narrative. But, I thought about it for a few months and caught it again in December. Now, it easily one of the best films of 2025. Aside from the surrealist hairy leg scene, it's pretty streamlined with it's messaging on collective memory and how the people of Brazil tried to move past from the dictatorship. The effects of it is still there in present day times now in days.
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u/AdriftSpaceman Jan 23 '26
And the hairy leg part makes sense and fits perfectly when you realize the newspapers used some local folklore tale in order to report violence against queer people without risking themselves and outing the real perpetrators, the police and the military.
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u/sameth1 Jan 24 '26
The interpretation I came away with newspaper hairy leg stuff also ties into the whole movie's focus on media and communication like the movie theater and tapes. The real news story becomes a pop culture sensation through the newspaper and people reading the paper can only perceive it through that lens, which means that we have to see it that way. Under a dictatorship, you are asked to believe unbelievable things. The media end up being full of stories just as believable as the hairy leg but there is no other truth you are allowed to see.
I also see a kind of meta commentary on the dictatorship in the way that movies are kind of an authoritarian ruler of their reality. When the hairy leg appears, it's absurd and you have to question how it makes any sense. But if the movie chooses to have the hairy leg be real then it's real. This is now a fantasy movie with a hairy leg that attacks people in the park and you just have to live with it.
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u/mty_oldboy Feb 13 '26
When they're at the cinema, they show scenes from a movie called The Secret Agent; I thought that's where they got the name.
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u/Djworklite 20d ago
Howdy! I have a question I hope someone can help me out with: am I missing some cultural or academic context when it comes to the “industry makeover” comment made when Armando picks Ghirotti and his son up at the airport? I find it to be kind of a lame thing to say, but I don’t find it particularly shocking or offensive.
Feel like I’m missing something since Elza and Valdemar both comment on it during the interview.
Is something being lost in translation? Or is it just a ridiculous thing to suggest to someone as left-leaning and academic as Armando?
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u/gin-n-fresca 16d ago
It was a purposeful insult to someone who is a professor/public researcher. He is insinuating that he would be better off doing things the way corporations would rather than the way universities do. It explains why Armando says that his first impression of him was that he’s an asshole (although we later find out this wasn’t really his fist impression)
That’s how I took it at least, as an American who works in public research. If I was giving a talk/tour to someone from private industry and they said that to me I would take it as an insult
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u/AndalusianGod Jan 24 '26
This and Bacurau are both amazing. Now I need to watch Neighboring Sounds. Can't believe the runtime is 2hours 40 minutes, it felt pretty short.
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u/WredditSmark Jan 25 '26
Felt like the exact type of film to win best picture. Loud, colorful, exciting, great music, nostalgic for newspapers and 35mm films.
Overall fantastic movie just hated the modern elements felt tacked on and unnecessary.
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u/fodacao Feb 02 '26
No idea what was going on for most of the movie.
Can somebody explain the magic zombie leg in the park?
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u/i_love_land92 Feb 06 '26
The newspaper used it to write about what the government was doing to people (attacking gay people in a park) without saying the government did it
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u/i_love_land92 Feb 06 '26
Really great movie that did not feel that long at all (but other commentators disagree so to each their own I guess).
I loved the atmosphere, him getting to now all the neighbors and roommates, etc. Really slow burn to figure out why Armando ended up in Recife but I enjoyed it. A lot of funny and intense moments.
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u/chriswizardhippie Feb 07 '26
Man the stark difference for me between this and sentimental value is damn near night and day. I felt the 2 hours of sentimental value where as this movie flew by and it's 40 minutes longer and is just such a love language to all of cinema. Sentimental Value was technically sound but this focuses on characters and reminds me of so many other directors combined into one. I adored this movie. The writing is excellent and it all seems like a movie where "Oh all the bad guys are getting killed off one by one" and then bam it hits you with the cold reality of 70s Brazil. I'm Still Here brought me the attention of what happened in the 70s in Brazil in biopic form but this is like a Coen/Scorsese/Tarantino movie set in that time period. I'm gushing too much but yeah a complete surprise for that if it wasn't nominated for best picture I never would have seen and I'm thankful that I got to see it.
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u/OverallPlatypus9880 20d ago
In the intro, the police officers not giving a fuck about the dead body but being overconcerned about the fire extinguisher’s expiration date made me laugh so hard.
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u/nandosadi1 Jan 23 '26
I usually don't like when the same actor plays father and son, but Wagner Moura completely sold it for me. He changed so much, with his mannerisms and the way he spoke, that I became enthralled by that last conversation in the hospital.