"Black Bag" is one of my favorite movies of 2025 so far.
This spy thriller stars Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett as a husband and wife who work in different arenas in the world of British spycraft. Their worlds collide once a weapon goes missing. Suddenly everyone is a suspect.
It's a taut, well-paced masterclass in dialogue from director Steven Soderbergh. It feels like "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" meets "Ocean's Eleven."
Now, you can stream it on one of the best streaming services — Peacock.
So if you were waiting to watch this movie, or just missed it in theaters, now is the perfect time to go check it out. It's one of the best spy thrillers in years and you definitely won't want to miss it.
How to stream 'Black Bag' on Peacock
If you want to stream "Black Bag" at home, you're going to need Peacock.
This streaming video-on-demand service has a deep catalogue of shows and movies, including those from Universal Studios, NBC, Focus Features and more. It even has live sports, including the English Premier League.
If you're not feeling up for getting Peacock just yet, you can still buy or rent Black Bag digitally from Amazon or Apple. However, at $9.99 to rent it, it'd be cheaper to sign up for Peacock and watch it there.
What is 'Black Bag' about?
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14 - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/maxresdefault.jpg)
'Black Bag' stars Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett as spy couple George Woodhouse and Kathryn St. Jean.
They both work for the U.K. National Cyber Security Centre, but their roles are different. George is a polygraph expert who is a bit of a legend for catching his spymaster father in a lie years earlier.
Kathryn, meanwhile, is the James Bond of the duo, often going into the field as the head of psychological operations. But at the beginning of the movie, her work suddenly comes across George's desk.
That's because a piece of covert tech has been stolen and it's clear that someone is a traitor. Unfortunately, when a fellow agent (Gustaf Skarsgård) gives George a shortlist of the potential moles, Kathryn's name is on the list.
So to suss out the traitor, George invites all five people on the list — agents Freddie Smalls (Tom Burke) and James Stokes (Rege-Jean Page), data scrapper Clarissa (Marisa Abela), in-house therapist Dr Zoe Vaughn (Naomie Harris) and Kathryn — to a dinner at their house to see who might reveal a deadly secret. What follows is a game of cat and mouse, and everyone playing thinks they're the cat.
'Black Bag' reviews
I loved this movie when I saw it in theaters. In fact, I went ahead and rented "Black Bag" when it came out on premium video-on-demand (PVOD) a few weeks ago.
I'm not the only one who loved this either. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 96% fresh rating from critics.
Audiences, however, are a bit more muted, though still plenty positive at 70% fresh. The main complaints seem to be about the story, which is often described as a "slow burn" without a ton of action.
For the record, do not go into this expecting a high-octane action movie. There are basically three pops of action throughout the movie — all fantastic when they happen.
This movie is about the other side of spycraft. It's about the chess game, it's about outmaneuvering your opponent. Yes, "Black Bag" is perhaps more about the journey than the destination, but if you pay attention, this movie pays off almost everything it lays out by the time it's over.
Malcolm has been with Tom's Guide since 2022, and has been covering the latest in streaming shows and movies since 2023. He's not one to shy away from a hot take, including that "John Wick" is one of the four greatest films ever made.
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