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The November Man is a 2014 spy thriller film based on the novel There Are No Spies by Bill Granger, which is canonically the seventh installment in "The November Man" series of books, published in 1987. It stars Pierce Brosnan, Luke Bracey, and Olga Kurylenko with the screenplay written by Michael Finch and Karl Gajdusek. The film is directed by Roger Donaldson, known for his most notable works Species, The Recruit and The Bank Job. He previously worked with Brosnan in Dante's Peak. Beau St. Clair once again teams up with Brosnan to co-produce the film.
Code Named "The November Man" veteran CIA agent Peter Devereaux (Pierce Brosnan) retires from the agency in 2008 after his partner and protege David Mason (Luke Bracey) disobeys orders from Devereaux to not fire on an assassin due to the lack of a good foreground and background, accidentally killing a child during a mission to protect a US Ambassador in Montenegro. Devereaux retires to Switzerland and opens up a coffee shop and lives a quiet life until the present day.
Peter's former boss, John Hanley (Bill Smitrovich), seeks out Devereaux in Switzerland and recruits him to extract a deep cover CIA operative from Russia, Natalia Ulanova (Mediha Musilovic). Ms. Ulanova has been posing as the aide of presidential candidate and former Russian Army General Arkady Fedorov (Lazar Ristovski) and knows the name of a witness that can tie Fedorov to war crimes. Natalia will not turn over the name unless she is brought in and is directly asking for Peter's help in getting her out of Russia. Hanley raises the stakes for Peter by also telling him that some of Peter's fellow agents were killed by Arkady Fedorov's personal assassin Alexa (Amila Terzimehic), who is also assigned to murder all of Fedorov's former associates who have knowledge of his past crimes.
Unknowingly to Devereaux, Mason's own team is dispatched to extract Natalia as well, with CIA station chief Perry Weinstein (Will Patton) in charge of the operation. Mason's team is unaware that Hanley (who is in the operations center with them) has dispatched Devereaux to pick up Natalia as well.
Natalia manages to break into Fedorov's personal safe, and takes photographs of Fedorov's photos - all depicting a disheveled young girl and a younger Fedorov in a Russian Army uniform. Natalia manages to escape and contacts Mason's team to ready her for extraction. However, Fedorov notices that his personal key is still in the safe and alerts the FSB, who chase her down in the streets of Moscow until Peter arrives and kills the pursuing FSB agents and rescues Natalia. Natalia is surprised to see Peter and asks about their daughter, Lucy, and Peter says she is well. Natalia gives a name to Peter - Mila Filipova - and Peter promptly calls Hanley with the name.
Mason's team doesn't realize that Devereaux has Natalia and think she may have been captured by the Russians. Perry gives the order to kill Natalia despite Hanley's objections. David kills Natalia with a sniper rifle while she is riding with Devereaux. Natalia hands Peter her cell phone containing the incriminating photos before she dies. Peter notices the CIA drone that had been following his car heading towards the parking garage where David fired from. He goes to the garage and quickly kills all of Mason's CIA team until he runs into Mason at gunpoint. Stunned, Mason and Devereaux (silently) refuse to kill each other.
Hanley goes home to look up files on Mila Filipova, but a CIA strike team breaks into his house and subdues him before he manages to effectively destroy his hard drive. Hanley is later unsuccessfully interrogated by the analyst Celia (Caterina Scorsone) at a CIA black site, and repeatedly tells her that the CIA does not collect information, it "collects" people - IE blackmail. Weinstein debriefs Mason on his encounter with his former mentor, and shows him pictures of Devereaux and Natalia in a relationship, something that infuriates Mason because Devereaux has told him (now hypocritically) repeatedly in the past that spies should not have relationships because the significant other can be used as leverage against them. The orders have come from Langley to kill Devereaux, as not stopping him would mean more field agents being killed out of revenge.
Meanwhile, NY times reporter Edgar Simpson (Patrick Kennedy) tracks down refugee case worker Alice Fournier (Olga Kurylenko) and asks for her assistance in helping him write an expose of Fedorov and his alleged war crimes during the 2nd Chechen War. The assassin Alexa arrives in Belgrade and a hacker contact notifies her that Alice will meet Edgar in a restaurant. Peter also arrives in Belgrade, goes to Hanley's apartment, and knocks out the CIA strike team that secured his apartment. Peter discovers that Alice is Mila's contact and impersonates the CIA strike team to manipulate them into tracking Alice's phone.
Peter manages to rescue Alice from the assassin and Mason's CIA team. Alice says that Mila pretended to be mute around Fedorov, who had sexually abused her during the 2nd Chechen War. Mila is able to understand Russian since her parents are university professors and overheard every single conversation that Fedorov has had - including plans for a false flag conspiracy to bomb a building held by the Russian Army to justify the 2nd Chechen War and the seizure of Chechen oil fields. When Peter confronts one of Fedorov's former associates, Denisov (Dragan Marinkovic), Denisov not only confirms the conspiracy but states the CIA actively helped Fedorov, much to Peter's shock.
Weinstein gives Mason additional motivation to kill Devereaux by showing Mason Devereaux's performance evaluations of Mason - all of them disparaging Mason and recommending he be fired due to his impulsivity. Mason decides to go on a date with his next door neighbor Sarah (Eliza Taylor), and ends up sleeping with her that night. Unbeknownst to him, Devereaux and Alice have broken into the apartment across the street and is observing their departure and arrival. Devereaux notices that Alice speaks fluent Russian as she plays the piano in the occupied apartment - her parents were university professors and taught her the language. He quickly sends off Alice with cash and disposable cell phones before breaking into Mason's apartment. Devereaux holds Sarah hostage and tests Mason's character (since Mason earlier blurted out to Devereaux that he doesn't care about people he killed as a field agent) by cutting her femoral artery before fleeing. Mason chooses to save Sarah and puts pressure on the wound, buying her time until an ambulance arrives.
Fedorov arrives in Belgrade for an energy conference along with Alexa and gives her new orders. Alexa kills Edgar at his home when Alice tries to meet with Edgar, but is tripped up by a dying Edgar, allowing Alice to escape. Peter infiltrates the CIA black site where Hanley is being held and confronts Hanley about the CIA's involvement with aiding Fedorov start a war. Hanley says Weinstein aided Fedorov. Hanley also states that Mila's parent's were university professors that taught her to speak Russian - and thus, the truth comes out - Alice Fournier is actually Mila Filipova. David and Celia come to the same conclusion when they find out that the real Alice Fournier died years ago and Mila took her identity.
Alice/Mila disguises herself has a prostitute and goes to Fedorov's hotel to try and kill him - as he murdered both of her parents before abducting and abusing her. Peter manages to track her down, kills Fedorov's security, and plays Russian Roulette with Fedorov on camera to make him give the name of the CIA agent who conspired with him - and Fedorov states it was John Hanley that aided him. At first, Peter is confused, and shows a photo of the three men - Weinstein, Hanley, and Devereaux to Fedorov - but unfortunately, Alice recognizes Hanley - not Weinstein. Peter and Alice escape the hotel, but not before Peter kills more of Mason's CIA team that has arrived at the hotel and knocking out Mason himself and giving the recorded confession to Mason. Unfortunately, when Mason and Celia try and confront Weinstein with the evidence against Hanley, they find Hanley has replaced Weinstein. Langley has decided that Federov is worth keeping around despite his war crimes and is allowing Hanley to run the show.
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