Trailer
Plot summary
Dominika Egorova, a prima ballerina at the Bolshoi, supports her infirm mother until an injury during a performance ends her career. Her uncle Ivan, who holds a senior post in the SVR, tells her that her former partner and a rival dancer caused the fall. To avoid prosecution and keep her mother's medical care, she agrees to work for him, and after witnessing a killing she is offered a choice between serving the SVR and execution. At State School 4 she trains as a Sparrow and takes the alias Katya. In Moscow, CIA officer Nate Nash meets a mole code-named Marble in Gorky Park, and is later posted to Budapest to restore contact. Dominika is sent there to win Nash's trust and expose the mole's identity. Nash recognizes her as a Russian operative and urges her to defect.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Red Sparrow (2018)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Jennifer Lawrence, whose private nude photos were stolen in the 2014 iCloud leaks, drew a distinction between the film and the leak based on her consent, saying: "The insecurity and fear of being judged for getting nude, what I went through, should that dictate decisions I make for the rest of my life?"
- The role required Jennifer Lawrence to study ballet for four months, with Kurt Froman of the New York City Ballet brought in to coach her for a minimum of four hours each day, five days per week.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin, who appears in the novel, was cut from the adaptation because of Francis Lawrence's belief that it would be a distraction to have an actor play the highly public figure.
- Jason Matthews, who said he based his book on his experiences in the CIA, was hired as technical advisor to supervise the accuracy of the espionage, and had the Gorky Park scene rewritten to depict espionage methods more accurately.
- The film was edited for its United Kingdom release to remove a garroting and secure a 15 certificate from the British Board of Film Classification.
- Espionage historian Nigel West, whose Historical Dictionary of Sexspionage was originally written as a handbook for the intelligence community, questions the existence of such training schools.
