Warning! SPOILERS for The 355 ahead.One of the earliest theatrical releases of 2022, The 355, is now available to the public, but some may need a recap on what exactly happened at the end of the movie. The Simon Kinberg-directed secret agent film takes a few plot twists in the process of getting the story to its endpoint. Twists are generally expected in a movie about secret agents but The 355 throws them at the audience very quickly and with little explanation.
The 355 follows a team of female agents played by an all-star cast, including Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, and Penélope Cruz. Each female international super-spy character in The 355 has a different set of skills that they use to retrieve a piece of technology that could bring the world to total chaos in the wrong hands. Although each of the women works for a different national intelligence agency, they learn to trust one another in their efforts to obtain the device.
The movie contains many of the hallmarks of spy/secret agent movies, such as fake deaths and double agents. The film has largely received negative reviews prior to and since its release that point out these story points and twists as clichés, along with a lack of development for the main characters. While there was hope that The 355's female Bond approach would both stir and shake the formula, its confusing plot leaves it far behind the excellence of 007. Here’s a guide to potential audience questions after viewing The 355:
What Was So Special About the Drive?
Even with the multiple twists that come throughout The 355, the plot threads continue to weave themselves around a mysterious hard drive. Simply called “the drive” by the film’s characters, the device is introduced in the first scene of the film and switched hands many times between intelligence agents and master criminals. Agents attempt both to buy or steal the drive for their respective agencies but ultimately the man behind the curtain attempting to possess the drive is a powerful man named Elijah Clarke (Jason Flemyng). But what is the draw to the seemingly innocuous device?
As The 355 vaguely explains the tech, the drive contains a special decryption program that can access any system, making it a fair rival to any of Bond's gadgets. At one point in the movie when the device is in enemy hands, it is used to cause city-wide power outages and plane crashes. Loose gun CIA agent Mace (Chastain) and company are terrified by what the use of this device might mean, describing a world falling apart.
Little reasoning is given as to why the drive was created or how it actually provides access and control over-complicated systems, such as city electricity which is run through power grids and not computer-based systems. Even with a lack of knowledge about how the drive works, it is in high demand. The CIA first offers a lot of money to Luis Rojas (Edgar Ramirez, recognizable for his role in David Ayer's social commentary Bright), a rogue agent of Colombia’s DNI, for the drive before it is stolen, and it is later auctioned for an exorbitant amount of money on the darknet.
Nick & Mark’s Betrayal Twist Explained
The allure of the drive brings about the biggest twist of The 355 in the form of Nick Fowler’s (Sebastian Stan) betrayal of Mace. The drive is itself a textbook McGuffin — meaning an object in a movie that really exists as a narrative device to drive the plot (think the briefcase in Pulp Fiction). As colleagues, Fowler and Mace began their pursuit of the drive together supposedly on behalf of the CIA. The two start up a romance before being separated in an intense chase for the drive. Although Mace is told that Nick died in the chase, she is shocked to come face-to-face with him once again (mirroring the history of the MCUs Bucky Barnes, another Stan character) after her CIA superior, Larry Marks (John Douglas Thompson) encourages her to go rogue to retrieve the drive in his honor.
Nick reveals to Mace that he has been working for Clarke the whole time and that he's been sent to the art auction in Shanghai to bid on a piece of art in which the drive is hidden. It is only a little later revealed that Marks was also on Clarke’s payroll and that Mace was duped by both men. Nick and Marks were using Mace’s skills and rebellious streak to their advantage to obtain the drive for Clarke. Mace is understandably upset by the betrayal but is conflicted by her attachment to Nick, providing emotional stakes for The 355s central character.
How Agent Sheng’s Art Auction Sting Worked
Nick’s betrayal is revealed in The 355s most glamorous set-piece, a lucrative art auction at a gallery in Shanghai (where Mission Impossible III's Ethan Hunt sought the Rabbit’s Foot). After turning the drive into Marks, it is quickly stolen again by an agent of the Chinese MSS (Bingbing Fan). Former MI6 agent Khadijah Adiyeme (Nyong’o) tracks the drive to Shanghai and informs Mace, German agent Marie Schmidt (Diane Kruger), and Colombian psychologist for the DNI Graciela Rivera (Cruz).
With the drive hidden inside an antique art piece, participants placed bids on the vase while simultaneously bidding on the drive over the darknet. The agents make a plan to infiltrate the auction and get the drive back but are thwarted. They are then taken to a safe space by the Chinese agent, who reveals herself as Lin Mi Sheng, and tells the group that the auction was an elaborate set-up.
The late-coming The 355 twist reveals that Sheng and her father (making secret agent life a family affair, like the Spy Kids movies) were part of an MSS plan to see who would show up to bid on the drive. The MSS would use this information to attempt to bring down those who were involved in illegal activity. The drive placed in the art piece was a fake; Sheng had the drive the whole time. This plan works for a short time, until Clarke learns that Nick bid an enormous amount of his money on a fake drive.
How The 355 Sets Up a Potential Sequel
Nick tries to make amends by locating Sheng’s safe space, threatening the agents' loved ones until Sheng gives up the drive. Khadijah destroys the drive, but the women are implicated in the crimes and go on the run. A couple of months later, Mace and the other women seek revenge on Nick, who has been promoted by the CIA. Mace begins reminiscing to Nick about the story they were told in training of agent 355, an unnamed woman who served as a spy for the colonies during the American Revolution. After poisoning Nick and leaving him to be arrested for his crimes, the women part ways but seem to have an understanding that they’ll probably work together again. The 355 doesn’t overtly announce a sequel as Marvel films do with a post-credits scene but the ending leaves the story open for one.
Despite the film’s title, the group of women is never formally referred to as the 355. This leaves potential for the story to continue; perhaps Mace could start a new agency, along with her international teammates. Or maybe a sequel could stick to the core five women as the 355 as they seek to investigate the corruption of their own intelligence agencies. As Craig’s Bond movies have shown, it can be difficult to create a satisfying follow-up to a secret agent movie, particularly with the disappointing Quantum of Solace.
Why The 355 Shouldn't Get A Sequel
Even though The 355's team being alive at the end left a narrative door open for a sequel and a chance at possible redemption, the cast (which is still a phenomenal lineup) would probably be better off regrouping for an entirely new project. Conceptually, The 355 showed a lot of promise, and forebears like the 2000 Charlie's Angels remake proved there's a market for female-led ensemble action films. Sadly, The 355 was received poorly by both critics and audiences, and while second chances can yield results (like the soft Fast Saga reboot around the 4th installment), forcing a franchise helps no one, especially if it starts with a shaky reception.
The 355 is a twisty spy thriller, and these types of movies can spiral out into long-lived franchises through reveals and assignments. A taskmaster like Bond's "M" or Austin Power's Basil could potentially assign limitless missions, meaning there's always an option for a sequel (which is partly why Kingsman: The Golden Circle flipped the script by killing off Arthur). There have been multiple points in Bond's decade-long history when contemporary critics felt he'd outstayed his welcome, but 007 has so far always managed to bring it back with a franchise-reinvigorating entry like 1991's Goldeneye or 2006's Casino Royale. Conversely, The 355 started off on a damp note and doesn't have Bond's nostalgia power. Any sequel would run a serious risk of feeling forced and manufactured through genre contrivances, as The 355 just doesn't have franchise-scale pull. The 2000 Charlie's Angels movie was a turning point for female-led actioners, but it came out over two decades ago, and the 2019 reboot failed to live up to its high watermark. The 355 could have filled the gap in the market but didn't quite live up to the hype.