My Spy (2020)

My Spy (2020) Full Recap

The film starts in Pripyat, Ukraine. Inside the abandoned Chernobyl power plant. In the middle of the night, a crowd of armed men gathers around a case. Inside is a glowing plutonium core, enough to build a nuclear bomb. Standing among the buyers is a huge man in a suit. His name is JJ, and he's an undercover CIA agent.

He used to be a soldier in the special forces, and this is one of his first missions as a spy. It doesn't take long for things to go wrong. One of the dealers gets suspicious and says JJ is a government agent. He makes fun of JJ's fake Russian accent and tells him to take an acting class.

At CIA headquarters, a room full of agents watches on the big screens, holding their breath. JJ tries to talk his way out and then he just gives up. This spy stuff is new to him, he admits. But there is one thing he's good at. In the next minute, JJ takes on the whole room. He fights his way through the soldiers with his bare hands.

Cars explode around him and he walks out with the case of plutonium. Then he drives away from the burning factory, singing along to the radio. Back at the CIA, a cheerful tech worker runs up to meet him. She's read every page of his file, and she's his biggest fan. But JJ's boss, Kim, isn't impressed at all.

The mission wasn't just to stop the sale. The CIA wanted to learn who was behind it and JJ took out everyone they could have questioned. Worse, there were two plutonium cores, and one buyer got away with the second one. Now he has half of what he needs to blow up a major city. Kim tells JJ he isn't cut out for spy work and sends him home.

JJ goes home to an apartment with almost nothing in it. The only one waiting for him is his goldfish. He tells the fish good night. Then he asks the speaker on his shelf for something soothing. In Chicago, a 9-year-old named Sophie stands in front of her mirror talking to herself.

She just moved here, so she's practicing what she'll say to the kids at school. Her only audience is her little dog. At breakfast, her mom, Kate, tells her that if she's just herself, she'll make good friends. Sophie isn't so sure. On the school bus, she gets pushed out of a seat.

Another girl points out the jelly on her face and posts a photo of it online. Sophie explains that she isn't allowed to have pictures of herself on the internet because her mom is afraid of cyber bullies. Then she hears about a big ice skating party that everyone is going to. At the CIA, Kim briefs his team on a new lead.

A French arms dealer has gotten his hands on Soviet plans for a small nuclear bomb. He used to work with his own brother, but his brother didn't want him to have the plans, so he hid them, and the dealer killed him. If he finds the plans and sells them to the buyer who has the plutonium, it will be a disaster. Kim gives the exciting jobs in Berlin and Paris to other agents.

JJ gets the boring one. His brother's widow has moved back to America, and someone has to keep an eye on her. JJ will be on surveillance along with the tech worker who idolizes him. It's his last chance. In Chicago, JJ and his new partner, Bobby, move into an empty apartment across the hall from the family.

She's thrilled to finally be in the field with her hero. JJ tells her that babysitting a civilian isn't a mission. The apartment is grim, and JJ ends up sleeping on a tiny cot. Bobby reads him the file. Kate works as a nurse in the emergency room at the county hospital. Her daughter Sophie just started fourth grade.

While Kate is out, JJ slips into her apartment to plant hidden cameras. Then Kate comes back for her wallet. JJ hides in a closet while Bobby watches on the screens and guides him from room to room. He gets out the front door just in time. Then the waiting begins. Bobby loves every second of it.

JJ is bored out of his mind. Bobby keeps asking him to teach her his moves just in case she ever needs to save him. JJ tells her she will never save him. At home, Kate has bad news. The hospital needs her for an extra shift, so she can't take Sophie skating tomorrow. Everyone else is going.

Sophie tells her mom that she hates it here. The next morning, Sophie's dog finds one of the hidden cameras. Sophie takes a close look at it, types the serial number into her laptop, and finds out exactly what it is. Then she walks across the hall and into the apartment where JJ and Bobby are watching her family on a wall of screens.

She holds up her phone and starts recording. Sophie asks if they're CIA. JJ tells her she stumbled into a very sensitive situation and asks for the phone. Sophie says the video is already streaming to the cloud. With one click, she can send it to everyone. JJ and Bobby step aside to whisper.

If Kim finds out a 9-year-old blew their cover, JJ's career is over. JJ jokes that they could make it look like an accident, and then he realizes she's still recording. Sophie offers them a deal. She won't show the video to her mom, but JJ has to take her ice skating. At the rink, Sophie gets her skates, but JJ says he isn't skating.

Sophie realizes he doesn't know how. When she asks what he sees out there, JJ describes 90 civilians and no cover. Sophie sees people having fun. Smiling people having fun. She dares him to try it. JJ ends up flat on the ice. Sophie skates over to some girls from school and asks to join them, but they skate off to play their own game.

By the end of the afternoon, a rink worker kicks them out. On the way home, Sophie talks JJ into buying ice cream. He says ice cream wasn't part of the deal, so she asks if he'd like to explain that to her mom. They both feel a little better. JJ makes her promise to keep his secret and leave them alone.

Sophie holds out her pinky. That's when Kate gets home. She sees a giant stranger with her daughter and attacks him before anyone can explain. Sophie quickly makes up a story. Some boys pushed her down at the park and JJ, who lives upstairs, stopped them, bought her ice cream, and walked her home.

Kate is mortified. JJ walks away, still in pain. A few days later, Sophie calls JJ over. The kitchen sink is spraying water everywhere. JJ crawls under it and fixes it. Even the dog, who usually hates strangers, loves him. Then Sophie asks if JJ can stay for dinner. JJ says he couldn't possibly.

Sophie says he could. JJ excuses himself to take a phone call in the bathroom. It's Bobby. She put a camera in there and she wants to know why he's having dinner with the target. JJ says the kid ambushed him. Bobby tells him to be polite, eat, and get out. Dinner is awkward. The chicken is dry, so JJ tries to make Kate feel better with the story from Afghanistan.

His unit was cut off for a month, and all they had to eat were lizards. Kate and Sophie stare at him in silence. He admits he hasn't had dinner with civilians in a long time. Then Sophie brings up parents and special friends day at school. Her mom has to work and she'll be the only kid with nobody.

Maybe JJ could take her. So JJ walks her to school. He tells her this is the last time. No more skating and no tea parties. Sophie tells him she knows he busted the sink. JJ says he doesn't know what she's talking about. Then she reminds him what she's holding over him. At the door, JJ admits he never liked school very much.

Sophie says nobody does. In the classroom, the parents take turns. One helps people save money, one schedules flights for an airline, and one fixes hearts with a tiny robot. When it's JJ's turn, he says that in his old job, he took out the garbage all over the world. Actually, the kids laugh at Sophie for bringing him.

So JJ sets the record straight. He tells them he's a former army ranger who works in secret operations for an agency that may or may not be the CIA. And if any of this leaves the room, he will find them. He's kidding. Sort of. The kids go wild. They want to know if he's ever been shot.

One of the dads doesn't think they should be celebrating this, and JJ tells him to sit down. At recess, Sophie's classmates suddenly want to play with her. Even the teacher stops by to tell JJ how impressed she is. When Kate shows up after work, she can see that her daughter is happy for the first time in a long time.

She thanks JJ. A week later, Sophie finds JJ in the park. She wants to know his real story. Under the tough guy act, he seems nice but damaged and alone. JJ tells her that it's hard being deployed and even harder on the people at home. On his mission before last, he got shot. When he came home, his fianceé left him with his job.

He says it's better to be alone. Then Sophie tells him she wants to be a spy when she grows up. JJ tells her she's just not the spy type. Sophie says that's fine. She'll ask Bobby instead since Bobby is clearly the brains of the operation. That does it. JJ isn't letting anyone else train her.

So, the lessons begin. JJ hooks her up to a lie detector, and she passes every test. Then he dares her to talk her way into a stranger's apartment and get out onto the balcony in 10 minutes. She says she only needs five and she makes it. In a fighting lesson, she gets past him with a distraction.

JJ admits that was cold. At a museum, Sophie complains that she could have learned all of this on YouTube. She wants the fun stuff, like walking away from an explosion without looking back. JJ tells her she needs to stop getting her spy lessons from the movies. Then fireworks go off behind them, and the two of them walk away without looking back.

Bobby isn't happy. JJ taught a 9-year-old how to beat a lie detector, but he never taught her anything. She says they're partners. JJ tells her she is not his partner. In Paris, a lawyer is alone in his office when a bearded man steps out of the shadows. It's the arms dealer, Victor Marquez.

The CIA will be there in 2 minutes, so he has 1 minute to talk. Victor wants to know where his brother put the plans. The lawyer says his brother didn't trust anyone. All he ever said was that the plans were with his best friend. The lawyer doesn't know who that is. Victor says he does.

In Chicago, JJ gets an emergency text from Sophie and races to her school. It turns out the emergency is an art show, and Sophie has invited her mom, too. She's trying to set them up. JJ praises Sophie's painting of a bird. Then, he loudly insults the painting next to it, and the parents nearby don't look happy.

JJ and Kate walk home together. Kate says Sophie's dad passed away about a year ago. Sophie keeps pretending she's okay, but Kate can tell she's struggling. She says parenting is about being there and showing up. Then she tells JJ a secret. She has no idea what she's doing. At the door, Kate asks if he'd like to grab dinner on Thursday.

She promises not to cook. JJ says yes. Sophie has heard everything. She asks JJ to show her his dance moves. One look is enough. She'll let him take her mom to dinner, but he has to promise one thing. No dancing. Bobby is furious. JJ took the Target's kids skating, went to show and tell, and now he's going on a date with the woman they're supposed to be watching.

JJ says there's no secret in that apartment, just a broken family. Then Bobby tells him she knows what's in his classified file. On his last deployment, he lost his entire team. JJ says he works alone. Bobby tells him to take Kate to dinner and find out if he still has a heart under all those tattoos.

At dinner, Kate opens up about Paris. After her husband died, the police raided their house, froze their accounts, and took everything. Her husband had been involved in some very bad things, and she never knew. Across town, Sophie and Bobby are watching together on the screens. JJ takes a breath.

He has something to tell her. But before he can say it, Kate asks him to dance. JJ says no. Kate says yes. Then JJ lets loose on the dance floor and the whole restaurant watches. This looks like the wedding at the end of Shrek. Sophie and Bobby can't look away. Kate has a great time.

Anyway, a few days later, JJ is helping Sophie with her math homework. Out of nowhere, she asks if her dad was a bad guy. JJ thinks about it. He says her dad made some bad decisions, especially getting involved with her uncle. Sophie decides that if her dad helped make her, he couldn't have been all bad.

That night, Kate has to stay late at the hospital, so she asks JJ to check on Sophie. When she gets home, JJ and Sophie have finished the homework and made dinner, protein shakes, and grilled cheese. Kate pulls JJ aside, and he thinks he's in trouble. Instead, she thanks him. He's been a breath of fresh air.

In Berlin, Victor meets the buyer who has the plutonium. He tells him he's found the plans, but needs one more day. Then the CIA moves in and the building explodes. Kim calls JJ and Bobby back to headquarters. Victor blew himself up rather than be captured, so the mission is over.

Then Kim shows them a video that's all over the internet. It's JJ dancing in the restaurant and it has a million views. JJ compromised the mission and broke the rules. And now they're both fired. JJ apologizes to Bobby. He didn't listen to her. Bobby isn't even mad. She tells him he's her hero and she liked watching him become a normal person.

JJ goes to see Kate. First the good news. He really likes her. Kate says the feeling is mutual. Then the bad news. He walks her across the hall and shows her the wall of screens. He's CIA. He was watching her family the whole time. Kate is crushed when Sophie walks in. Kate realizes her daughter knew.

JJ tells her it was his job. JJ is miserable. He tells Bobby he let it get personal and that made him weak. Bobby tells him having people in your life isn't a weakness. Then Sophie sneaks over, using her dog as an excuse. She gives him a drawing of the two of them. It's not a fish, she says, so it won't die on him.

JJ walks her back down the hall. Sophie asks if they'll ever see each other again. JJ promises he'll check on her from time to time. Sophie hugs him and tells him she'll never forget him. Moments later, JJ sees something on the screen. Victor is alive and he's sitting in Kate's living room.

The explosion in Berlin was a trick to throw off the CIA. JJ rushes in, but Victor's bodyguard knocks him to the floor. Then Victor picks up the family's little dog. He would never hurt him," he says. The dog was his brother's best friend. Victor takes the dog's collar and pulls out a tiny drive.

He plugs it into a laptop and the nuclear plans appear on the screen. They were hidden on the dog the whole time. JJ fights back, but the trouble isn't over. Two other criminals who were also after the plans show up with guns and try to take the drive. Then Bobby comes charging in and takes them on herself.

In the chaos, Victor grabs the drive and Sophie and drives off with her in a black car. JJ and Kate jump into Kate's tiny car and chase him through the streets. JJ drives like a maniac, following the directions on his phone while Kate holds on. Bobby tracks Victor by satellite. He's headed for a small airfield.

JJ smashes right through the gate. Victor already has Sophie on a plane and it's rolling down the runway. JJ jumps into a fuel truck and parks it right in the plane's path. The plane stops just in time. Victor climbs out and points his gun at JJ. The two men fight on the runway.

My Spy (2020) Ending Explained

While they're fighting, the plane starts rolling again with Sophie inside. It runs off the end of the runway and tips over the edge of a cliff. The plane is hanging off the cliff. JJ climbs inside to get Sophie. Every time one of them moves, the plane tips a little more. JJ tells Sophie to go out the front while he goes out the back so the plane stays balanced.

He tells her not to look down. They both make it out, but Victor is waiting with his gun. He tells Sophie to throw him the drive and he promises to let them live. Sophie decides she doesn't care about some stupid plans. Victor says she's a good girl, then admits that he lied. Lying runs in the family, he says.

Not on her side, Sophie answers. Then Kate comes running and slams into Victor. He slides down to the hanging plane and Sophie wishes him a nice flight. A second later, the plane drops off the cliff. Kate runs to her daughter. Then Sophie opens her hand. She still has the drive and she gives it to JJ.

Not bad, kid. The fuel on the runway is burning, but the truck doesn't blow up. So JJ pulls a detonator out of his pocket and asks her not to tell anyone. The truck explodes behind them and the two of them walk away without looking back. Back at the CIA, the whole office gives JJ a round of applause.

Kim admits the family went to bat for him and he wants JJ back. He can have his pick of assignments anywhere he wants. JJ picks Chicago as long as it's okay with his partner. Bobby wants to stay in the van, no more guns, and equal pay with JJ. Later, they're all back at the ice rink.

This time JJ is skating, holding Kate's hands. Sophie is laughing with a whole group of new friends who want her to play tag. Being popular takes up a lot of time, she says, and she skates off to join them. JJ thought being alone kept people safe, and Sophie just wanted one real friend.

In the end, a lonely spy and a lonely kid gave each other a family.