Warning: this article contains spoilers for The Amateur.
Rami Malek’s spy movie,The Amateur, follows a CIA cryptographer who decides to leave behind his desk job in order to seek violent revenge. Malek plays Charlie Heller, an introverted, intelligent code analyst whose wife,Sarah, is tragically killed inThe Amateur’s terrorist attackin London. Unable to move on from her death, Charlie takes matters into his own hands and decides to hunt down the killers, coercing the CIA to give him some training in the process.
While Charlie is easily able to outsmart the CIA, his corrupt bosses within the agency send out their own assassin to ensure that Charlie does not get to the truth. InThe Amateur’s ending, Charlie learns that the CIA has ties to the man who killed Sarah, but after previous revenge, Charlie instead opts for justice.The Amateurhas earned positive reviews, thanks to the emotional depth that Malek gives the role. Though some of the character’s traits and the plot are borrowed from the 1981 source material,The Amateuralso made some changes to the original book and previous adaptation.
The Book Detail Did Not Make The Cut For The 2025 Movie
Image via 20th Century Studios
In Robert Littell’s 1981 book, aside from his job at the CIA and his relationship with his fiancée (in the book they are not yet married when she is killed), one of the main things that readers learn about Charlie is that he likes to use his considerable code-breaking and analysis skills to attempt to decipher secret messages in Shakespeare’s writings.Charlie believes that Shakespeare did not write his own playsand that hidden codes in his works will point to someone else being the author. This detail also comes up briefly in the 1981 movie.
Charlie’s interest in the authorship of Shakespeare’s works could have distracted too much from the main plot of the movie.
While this detail adds something to Charlie as a character, giving him a little more depth beyond simply being out for revenge, it is not hard to understand why it didn’t make it into the 2025 movie. Charlie’s interest in the authorship of Shakespeare’s works could have distracted too much from the main plot of the movie.The Amateuris already on the slow side for a spy movie becauseit focuses more deeply on Charlie’s emotions than action, so adding Shakespeare to the mix was simply not necessary.
7The CIA Conspiracy Is Bigger In 2025
There Is More Time Devoted To The CIA Director’s Search For Rogue Agents
Charlie’s work with the CIA (and against them) plays a massive role in every version ofThe Amateur, but the 2025 movie updates and expands the backstory of how the agency is involved in the death of Charlie’s wife. All versions include Charlie as a cryptographer who set out to avenge the death of his wife and later has the CIA turn on him, but what he finds out is changed. InThe Amateurbook and 1981 movie, Charlie eventually tracks down his wife’s killer,who is revealed to be a double agent, working both for the CIA and KGB.
In the 1981 version, Charlie’s final target was asked to kill an American to prove that he was truly loyal to the KGB, though it is unclear exactly which side he is actually on. Beyond this, the double agent is not truly embroiled in a larger scheme in the same way that Horst Schiller is in the 2025 version, thoughCharlie does still use other information on the agency to leverage his training. While it is still devastating for Charlie to know that his fiancée’s life was taken simply because she was there, it does not lead to wider change.
In contrast, in the 2025 film, Malek’s Charlie uncovers a massive conspiracy where theCIA has been changing the news bulletinsput out to the press in order to cover up their involvement in various violent events. This allows the CIA to have secret political intervention and control across the world. Charlie hunts down and eventually discovers that Schiller is also tied to the CIA, and, in the meantime, the CIA’s new director, Samantha O’Brien, is trying to root out potential rogue agents. This allows the new film to end with the culprits being brought to justice.
6The Technology Has Changed For The Times
Charlie Is Using The Latest Technology Available For His Kills
One change that really benefits 2025’sThe Amateuris the updated technology Charlie can use in his quest for revenge. The book and original movie were both released in 1981, and the technology that Charlie has access to is in keeping with the time period. Charlie is still able to track down and eliminate his targets, but has to rely on now-outdated methods to do so. Quite simply,it would not have made sense for the new movie to have Charlie still using weapons and technology from the 1980s, so this change was entirely necessary.
The necessity of the change is especially true when considering that Charlie’s methods for killing his targets are some of the more creative kills that have appeared in any spy movie in recent years. The technology that Charlie used to createThe Amateur’s pool explosion scenewas very cool and felt very modern. Likewise, his ability to use technology to hack into traffic and street cameras to superimpose his face on someone else in a different location is a fun detail that would not have made sense in the 1980s.
The Book Charlie Is Largely In Czechoslovakia
In the 2025 movie, Charlie seems to have no problems moving around from place to place to find his targets, but in previous versions of the story, he is somewhat more stationary. In each version, Charlie starts out in the US, both in his usual job for the CIA and when attending training at “the Farm.“After leaving America, Charlie then heads to Czechoslovakia, which was still part of the Soviet Union, and is then stuck behind the Iron Curtain after the CIA cuts ties with him.
2025’sThe Amateuradds a little more excitement for modern audiences by having Malek’s Charlie in various locationsacross Europe. After his training in the US, Charlie visits London, Paris, Istanbul, Madrid, Primorsk, and other locations. His ability to move around more in the new movie reflects the modern updates to the film and Charlie’s prowess at getting around undetected.
The 1981 Book Is Very Focused On The Cold War
The 1981 version ofThe Amateuris very much a product of its time.The book and movie both put a lot of emphasis on the Cold Warand the divisions in Europe associated with it. Originally, Sarah was murdered in West Germany by terrorists connected to the KGB as that reflected prominent concerns in America at the time. Charlie was more confined by his location, and the CIA had less ability to intervene once he was in Soviet-controlled territory. The agency’s concern about their double agent was likewise connected to what could be learned from the enemy.
The Amateurdeals with concerns about surveillance, misinformation, and government intervention much more than past versions.
Now, instead of looking outward toward a potential foreign enemy, Rami Malek’s new version ofThe Amateuris much more focused on the mistrust of government agencies. Yes, Charlie’s main focus is on taking down the men who killed his wife, butthose men are framed as largely being without national allegiance. They are mercenaries, hired to do jobs, and it is later revealed that those jobs are sometimes provided by the CIA itself.The Amateurdeals with concerns about surveillance, misinformation, and government intervention much more than past versions.
The Movie Leaves Potential For The Character To Return
One change fromThe Amateur’s book that was completely intentional was ensuring that Laurence Fishburne’s Henderson survives the events of the film. In the 1981 movie,Charlie’s trainer, Anderson, is killed during Charlie’s confrontation with his wife’s murderer. However, the 2025 film changed Henderson’s story slightly to allow him to live. Instead of being killed in a shoot-out with Horst, Henderson is attacked and shot by another CIA agent who was sent after Charlie, and the movie seems to leave his fate unclear.
The Amateurholds a 61% critics' approval and 89% audience approval rating onRotten Tomatoes.
Charlie continues on his mission, safer now that Henderson is not trying to kill him, and completes what he set out to accomplish. Eventually, Charlie returns to the United States and is welcomed back into the CIA, having rooted out the individuals who were operating outside the agency’s bounds. While this gives Charlie a bittersweet ending, one scene shortly before the credits roll proves that Henderson survived,setting upThe Amateurfor a possible sequel.Charlie has one final moment with Henderson where the two make peaceand acknowledge that they will see each other again, setting up a potential return.
2Charlie Doesn’t Find Second Love
The Movie Keeps Its Focus On Charlie’s Grief
The Amateur’s premise is undeniably quite sad to begin with. The loss of Charlie’s wife is devastating, and the 2025 movie does a great job of getting that across thanks to Rami Malek’s melancholic performance. In the few scenes where audiences do see Charlie’s wife Sarah, the couple is portrayed as very happy together, andhis whole mission after her death is to use revenge as a way to make sense of the loss he feels. While this is a departure from the original story, I actually think it was the right move for the character.
In both the novel and the 1981 movie,Charlie eventually develops a new relationship after the death of his wife. When Charlie reaches Czechoslovakia, he works with Elizabeth, a former CIA agent. After Charlie eventually completes his goal of killing Sarah’s killers, the two find a happy ending together. The character Elizabeth is replaced by the informant Inquiline in the new movie, and her story is altered quite a bit.
The closest that Charlie and Inquiline get in the 2025 movie is briefly sleeping in the same bed so that they feel less alone, if only for a little while.
InThe Amateur, Inquiline is Charlie’s contact of many years, whom he has never seen face to face. However, after going on the run from the CIA, he turns to her to help and the two work together briefly in Istanbul. The closest that Charlie and Inquiline get in the 2025 movie is briefly sleeping in the same bed so that they feel less alone, if only for a little while. They are both characters who have experienced a massive loss, and the movie makes it clear thatCharlie is nowhere near ready to truly move on from his wife.
1Charlie Doesn’t Kill The Man Who Murdered His Wife
The 2025 Movie Gives Charlie A Different Ending
Perhaps the biggest change fromThe Amateurbook and the new movie is that Charlie decides not to kill Horst Schiller in the 2025 movie’s ending. Their confrontation occurs on Schiller’s boat in Russian waters after he knocks Charlie out and transports him there. The two men talk for a bit and Schiller even offers Charlie a gun, but he cannot pull the trigger. In both other versions ofThe Amateur,Charlie takes his final revenge by killing the man who pulled the trigger on his wife, but the new movie opted to go a different way.
The older versions seem to come to the conclusion that revenge is cathartic for Charlie and helps heal, but the 2025 movie sees Charlie bring Schiller to justice legally. By steering his boat into Finnish waters, Charlie lets Schiller and his CIA superiors get arrested for their involvement. This ending feels more fitting for the tone of the 2025 movie, as Charlie’s journey is about grief more than anything else. Instead of ending with a bang,The Amateurcreates a moment that sits with audiences and lets them know that Charlie is overcoming his sadness on his own time.
