The Amateur may look like your run-of-the-mill spy movie, but it’s surprisingly silly and often surprising. The set-up is suitably outrageous. Charlie Heller (Rami Malek) is a brilliant technical mind working for the CIA as a cryptographer. But when his darling wife is murdered in London, he goes rogue, using his vast knowledge and intricate technical know-how to…blackmail the CIA into training him as an agent so he can get revenge for his wife. It’s a lot.
(Warning: Spoilers for The Amateur ahead!)
When Heller escapes (!) from CIA training undetected (!!) he heads off to Europe to find the group of four assailants that killed his wife. And his methods are unlike any you’ve seen in a spy movie before. Heller may not have it in him to shoot people, but he uses his intelligence (and a 170 IQ, one character is keen to point out) to kill people in ways that you’d think unimaginable. And that includes using literal flower pollen as a murder weapon.
Yes, pollen. The substance flowers and various other seed plants use to sexually reproduce—that’s exactly what Heller employs to take out his first victim. While reviewing the security footage from London, he was able to make positive IDs on all four criminals but was only able to track one, Gretchen Frank (Barbara Probst) to a specific cafe she frequents in Paris. The hunt is on.
In Paris, Heller sneaks into Frank’s apartment building. He’s unable to pull the trigger and take her out when he has the chance. He’ll have to get her some other way. In his research, he makes an interesting discovery: She has severe asthma and attends an asthma clinic to try and aid her symptoms. You know this is a big deal because the camera slyly closes in on Heller’s computer screen showing the clinic’s webpage. Things are about to get crazy.
Admittedly, at this point, it still didn’t click for me that Heller was about to let hell rain down—or rather, let pollen rain—on his enemy. But how could I? There is no shortage of absurd murder weapons in movies, including basketballs (Deadly Friend), guitars (Slumber Party Massacre II), and even cotton candy (Killer Klowns From Outer Space). Using pollen to kill (especially when its scientific purpose is the opposite) is so thoroughly ridiculous I couldn’t have dreamed it.
The Amateur knows it’s outrageous too. There’s a goofy moment when Heller approaches a flower seller and asks to buy all her flowers. Surprised, she says “You must have done something bad,” thinking that he’s pissed off a lover. “Not yet,” he responds with a smirk that reminds you of John Krasinski on The Office. It’s like he can’t believe what he’s about to do next, and neither can we. The film even dedicates time to let you see Heller distill the pollen from the flowers, so you know he’s serious.
Heller has sewn the seeds of his plan, and now it’s time to let it bloom. He trails Frank to the clinic, and waits for her to begin her appointment. It’s an ideal scenario for his first torture—she’s already in a glass container where the doctor pumps air through a vent as she uses a rotary bike. When the doctor leaves the room, Heller slips in, locks the door, and gets to work.
Despite his wearing a lab coat, Frank immediately knows something’s up. She tries to get out of her glass cage, but before she can, Heller locks it. He then pulls a bag full of eerie orange-yellow powder from his bag.
“It’s pollen,” Heller says with the prowess of someone who’s just unveiled a catastrophic nuclear bomb. Frank stares at him in surprise: What the hell is this nerdy-looking guy going to do with a bag of pollen? She soon gets her answer, though she’ll wish she hadn’t. Heller pours the pollen in a funnel that sends it shooting violently out of the vent in Frank’s glass cell. Suddenly, her breath shortens, and her life is in serious danger.
Heller demands that Frank reveal the location of Schiller, the man who pulled the trigger on his wife. Panicked and wheezing, Frank begs him to let her out. She’s not answering his question, and the pollen continues pouring down. There’s not much time left. In a moment of weakness, he opens the door, which sends her flying at him.
The two fight and she eventually escapes, running for her life out of the clinic, with Heller in hot pursuit. She manages to get free—but only for a moment, as she winds up on the road. A car drives into her at full speed, and she flies through the air, landing with a thud and dying instantly. Heller ruthlessly approaches, steals her phone, and runs off.
Heller has done something he never thought he’d be capable of: being responsible for another human being’s death. He’s now a killer, and he’s not going to stop there—he’s got a wife to avenge. And none of it would have happened without the most ridiculous murder weapon imaginable—a bouquet of flowers.
