It seems far-fetched, but former spy Brandwin says it’s fairly common for spies to travel under a false name. The secret agent, his cover blown, visits his secure lock up to retrieve a pile of passports in order to make a hasty escape. Spies are issued with false passports – True He added though that it had never been used during his 38-year career in the secret services.

In 2008 Sir Richard Billing Dearlove, former head of the UK Secret Intelligence Service MI6, testified in court that the Foreign Secretary can give a “Class Seven authorisation” for the use of lethal force in the field. There is some truth to the myth though in the U.K. “That’s a big no-no at the Agency,” insists Brandwin, “they don’t do that.” With a background in improv theatre and comedy, Brandwin was soon recruited as a theatrical effects specialist designing disguises for field agents, Mission: Impossible-style, before becoming an operations officer (that’s ‘a spy’ in CIA lingo) herself.

In The Spy Who Dumped Me (new to Blu-ray, 4K, and DVD on Boxing Day), Justin Theroux plays a CIA operative who jilts his unenlightened girlfriend Audrey (Mila Kunis) by text, before reappearing on the scene when his covert mission goes terribly wrong.Īll the classic spy movie tropes are present and correct in this comedy, but not all of them stand up to scrutiny when examined by a real life spy.įormer CIA agent Emily Brandwin joined the American secret service after her mum spotted a job advert on the CIA website. With the Mission: Impossible franchise flying high, another James Bond movie on the way in 2020, and spy spoofs like Johnny English Strikes Again still pulling in punters, it seems cinema’s espionage obsession shows no sign of abating. Sometimes the movies get espionage right, but often they get it wrong.

Misconceptions by Blu Daniels