Question: What exactly does Tom Bishop do in the prison in Suzhou, China in the first act of Spy Game? I mean, what are each of his and his partner's steps? So what was their plan step by step? Why is the chewing gum important?
Spy Game (2001)
1 answered question since 19 Nov '25, 06:20
Directed by: Tony Scott
Starring: Brad Pitt, Robert Redford, Stephen Dillane, Catherine McCormack
Factual error: In Suzhou Prison, presumably the Suzhou near Shanghai, all the prison guards are speaking Cantonese, which is a southern dialect. They should be speaking either Mandarin (Putonghua) or their regional dialect.
Tom Bishop: Happy?
Nathan Muir: Seventy-four casualties, an apartment block leveled, one dead terrorist? Yeah, happy.
Tom Bishop: We have some fucked up barometer for success, don't we?
Question: At the beginning, Brad Pitt takes two tablets then somehow survives a massive electric shock. Are the tablets some form of stimulant to help his system recover (or some other form of genuine treatment), or is it just a fictional cinematic device?
Chosen answer: He might have taken a medical equivalent to a regulated dose of Curare, which can suspend the body temporarily in a coma-like state, while keeping the mind active and perceptive. It could also have been tetrodotoxin, which has remarkably similar effects, but lasts longer. In either case, they were specifically engineered for his physiology, indicating a pharmacologist's aid in their endeavor.
Answer: Bishop's plan to rescue Hadley was to enter the prison posing as doctors inoculating the prisoners and guards for a cholera outbreak, faking his death by electrocution (taking a capsule to stop his heart), which also disabled the cameras, then being revived by an injection. The wrapper of the chewing gum was a map of the cells. Once he located and freed Hadley, she was placed under the gurney where his "dead" body was supposed to be, which would leave in the ambulance they arrived in. Unfortunately, the gum he gave the prisoner tipped off the warden and they were captured.
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