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The Recruit

The Recruit

Action · Thriller · 2003

A brilliant CIA trainee must prove his worth at the Farm, the agency's secret training grounds, where he learns to watch his back and trust no one.

Movie details

The Recruit

“Trust. Betrayal. Deception. In the C.I.A. nothing is what it seems.”

2003 Action · Thriller 1h 55m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

6.6 / 10

146K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

43 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

56 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.4 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

A brilliant CIA trainee must prove his worth at the Farm, the agency's secret training grounds, where he learns to watch his back and trust no one.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The Recruit?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

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The Sum of All Fears

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Roger Donaldson

Written by

Roger Towne · Kurt Wimmer · Mitch Glazer

Colin Farrell

Colin Farrell

James Clayton

Al Pacino

Al Pacino

Walter Burke

Bridget Moynahan

Bridget Moynahan

Layla Moore

Gabriel Macht

Gabriel Macht

Zack

Karl Pruner

Karl Pruner

Dennis Slayne

Eugene Lipinski

Eugene Lipinski

Husky Man

Mike Realba

Mike Realba

Ronnie Gibson

Court is in session

Put The Recruit on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Adrenaline Seeker

“Momentum is a formal choice.”

The velocity sharpens instinct and tension, making every beat land before self-importance can settle in.

The prosecution The Auteur Devotee

“Speed as an alibi.”

The film races past its weak spots and hopes acceleration will keep the audience from inspecting the evidence.