Film / My Spy

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My Spy is a 2020 action comedy film directed by Peter Segal and written by Jon and Erich Hoeber. It stars Dave Bautista and Chloe Coleman, with Kristen Schaal, Parisa Fitz-Henley, and Ken Jeong in supporting roles.

Following a botched mission to bring down an illegal weapons trade between the Russian mafia and a Middle Eastern terrorist, CIA agent JJ (Bautista) has been partnered with tech specialist Bobbi (Schaal) and reassigned to monitor the in-law family of Victor Marquez (Greg Bryk), a French arms dealer who intended on selling the bomb to the terrorist. Hilarity Ensues as JJ soon finds himself at the mercy of 9-year-old Sophie (Coleman).

The film was originally scheduled to be released in theaters but was shafted several times due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, though it did hit theaters on schedule in Canada. It was finally released on Prime Video on June 26, 2020. A sequel, My Spy: The Eternal City, was released on July 18, 2024 exclusively through Prime Video.

My Spy contains examples of:

• Action Girl: Bobbi is a tech and mostly stays out of action. However, when JJ is in danger, she grabs a gun to help. Though it doesn't work out that well, she does manage to get some bad guys using this and grenades.
• Action Mom: Kate has her moments, kicking JJ in the balls when she believes him to be a child molester after Sophie, her daughter, then driving so dangerously it scares him, a hardened soldier, pursuing Sophie's kidnapper Marquez. After he corners JJ and Sophie, Kate knocks him down with a tire iron too.
• Action Prologue: An undercover mission crumbles in its original plan and turns into a shootout with explosions, bullets, and dead hostiles. This directly reflects that JJ's skill at "kicking ass" outweighing his ability to, in that case, hold a cover makes him unsuited to being a secret agent.
• Adorably Precocious Child: Sophie is quite clever and sophisticated for a nine-year-old girl, quickly making the CIA agents who just moved into her building. She often talks and acts like a little adult, throwing off JJ by her quick wits as she gets one over him repeatedly. JJ finds himself increasingly charmed by her as a result, and by the end they're close.
• Amoral Attorney: It's implied that Kroll, "international scumbag", is such a character.
• Battle Couple: The gay neighbors, who are actually arms dealers and first became a couple while spying on Sophie and her mom. They do a decent job fighting Victor and his bodyguard.
• Big Bad: Victor Marquez, a French arms dealer who lost his brother and is planning on selling a nuclear bomb to a Middle Eastern terrorist.
• Big Damn Heroes: Discussed, set up, but ultimately subverted. When JJ and Bobbi first meet, JJ refuses to let Bobbi into the action side of their work, to which Bobbi proposes that maybe she can become the action, "surprising everyone", and that he might need her to save her ass in a pinch. JJ outright tells her to keep dreaming. When JJ, Kate and Sophie are cornered by Marquez and co. towards the climax, she tries to intervene with the items from JJ's weapon box, and ends up dropping a live rifle down a set of stairs, blowing up the hallway of an apartment complex, and ultimately allowing Marquez to escape with Sophie as his hostage.
• Blackmail: Sophie gets JJ to do a series of things as she blew his cover by finding that he was surveilling her apartment with Bobbi, threatening that she'll expose him if he's not compliant. Every time he tries to get out of it, she finds some new leverage, leaving JJ floored. This is Played for Laughs since she's only nine, and JJ gets impressed by her skills.
• Bond One-Liner: Sophie gets one in after Marquez falls to his death along with his plane: "Have a nice flight, dick!" JJ ribs her for it, and she responds, "Give me a break. I was nervous."
• Bookends:
  • On JJ and Kate's first date, JJ ends up goofily dancing to Cardi B's "I Like It". When they go ice skating with Sophie at the end of the film, the song starts playing again, to which JJ busts out the same moves. To his credit, he gets slightly better.
  • The first time Sophie goes ice skating, a pair of girls who shrug off her attempts at friendliness are called away to a game of tag, and make no effort to bring Sophie along. In the aforementioned last scene at the ice rink, after Sophie's reputation increases thanks to JJ, she is approached first by another kid.
• Brains and Brawn: When Sophie says this word-for-word about JJ and his surveillance-master Bobbi, JJ gets defensive and unwittingly picks up the other side of talking like he's suited to teach her anything.
• Celebrity Paradox:
  • When JJ's cover as a Russian arms dealer is blown, the diplomat mocks his Russian accent as sounding like "Mickey Rourke in Iron Man 2". Dave Bautista plays Drax in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and teamed up with Iron Man in Avengers: Infinity War.
    • Parisa Fitz-Henley who plays Sophie's mom, Kate, was in Jessica Jones and Luke Cage as Reva Connors Luke Cage's wife.
    • Greg Bryk who plays Marquez was in The Incredible Hulk (2008) as Craig Saunders, Jr.
    • Ken Jeong who plays David Kim was in Avengers: Endgame as a Security Guard.
  • Bobbi watches the footage of JJ dancing on his date with Kate and remarks that it looks like the wedding from Shrek 1. Her actress Kristen Schaal had a voice role in Shrek Forever After.
• Chekhov's Gun: Literally in this case: JJ's box of weapons, which he fiercely demands that Bobbi doesn't touch, ends up allowing Bobbi to intervene when he is captured by Marquez in the climax.
• Chekhov's Skill: Sophie telegraphing her lies to JJ by blinking her eyes comes into play when Marquez is ordering her to give him the plans. While JJ tells her not to, Sophie feigns cooperation and asks JJ to let him have it...blinking her eyes shortly after.
• Chick Magnet: Sophie's female teacher and all the moms visiting her class when she brings JJ are soon smitten with him (to their husbands' annoyance).
• Comically Missing the Point: When Kim initially dismisses JJ and Bobbi for diverging from their mission's objective, one of the clips he shows of JJ breaking protocol includes him dancing at his first date — to which Bobbi gets excited about the fact that it has over a million views before Kim's glare brings her back to reality.
• Curse Cut Short: When JJ throws a cooked grenade at the gas truck, Kate starts to run; while we don't hear her, we can see her mouthing "What the f—" before the film cuts away.
• Cyberbullying: During one of her bus rides towards school, two girls sitting in front of Sophie's seat seize the opportunity to take pictures of Sophie's jelly-covered face and post it on "Insta" for giggles.
• Disappeared Dad: Sophie's father was murdered shortly before the events of the film.
• Disney Villain Death: JJ finishes off Marquez by pushing his plane off a cliff, which also sends Marquez falling due to him being caught on a fence, which was tied to the plane.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: JJ doesn't show Bobbi much respect for her contributions and doesn't seem to consider her a real agent.
• Establishing Character Moment: Watching footage of the falling-out between Victor and David Marquez, Bobbi shows concern for the owner of the car who got shoved out of their vehicle, awkwardly asks if they're okay, then confirms from the report that they were.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Sophie's father was a criminal, but his brother had killed him for refusing to sell nuclear arms.
• Evil Uncle: Sophie's uncle Victor Marquez is a ruthless arms trafficker. He has no compunction at threatening or kidnapping her, and even murdered her father, his own brother, for having refused to sell a nuclear weapon.
• Faking the Dead: Marquez makes it appear like he'd died in an explosion to escape the CIA.
• From Camouflage to Criminal: Victor Marquez used to be a French special forces soldier before he started dealing illegal weapons.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Hassan, the Middle Eastern terrorist who Marquez planned on selling the nuclear bomb to.
• Groin Attack: Upon first seeing JJ with Sophie, Kate swiftly knees him in the crotch, which leaves him reeling for quite some time. When talking with her several days later, he remarks that his balls still hurt.
• Hidden Depths: Carlos states that his husband Todd (a classic example of The Quiet One) is a therapist who is great at getting patients to open up to him. This revelation visibly surprises Kate. Subverted with the reveal that Todd and Carlos are undercover mercenaries.
• Hollywood Law: The CIA is not permitted to do domestic surveillance (not that it's never happened, but here this was portrayed as legal). What the film shows is work the FBI does.
• I Can't Dance: When JJ ends up seeing Kate, a major roadblock to his chances of acting smoothly is that he has two left feet. In preparation for his first date, Sophie orders him not to embarrass himself, but of course he ends up on the dancefloor, and while his moves are stiff, they make him the life of the party.
• I Have No Son!: A variation. The villain is Sophie's uncle, who killed his brother (who was also Sophie's father). When Sophie asks why he is doing this, she calls him "Uncle Victor". The latter immediately demands she not call him that, reasoning that he and her father "hated each other", and that he doesn't consider her family.
• Instant Web Hit: When JJ shows off his..unique dance moves at his first date with Kate, a bystander gets it on their phone, uploads it to YouTube (under the title "The Hulk Meets Meghan Markle"), and gets over a million views.
• Just in Time: Kate arrives to hit Marquez with a tire iron right as he's about to shoot JJ and Sophie.
• Knight of Cerebus: Despite the comedic tone of the film, Victor has absolutely no comedic moments and his crimes are portrayed completely seriously.
• Lie Detector: As part of her spy training, JJ hooks Sophie up to one. When it lets her get away with a ridiculous lie unscathed ("I'm a KGB agent posing as a fourth-grader, my brother has three legs and sells crack and my mother is a prostitute"), mainly due to her keeping her composure, JJ immediately claims he didn't need the detector anyway.
• MacGuffin: David Marquez hid plans to build an atomic bomb, and his brother Victor wants to find and sell them to a terrorist.
• Made of Explodium: Averted with the fuel tanker at the airport. JJ throws a grenade at it to get the desired effect.
• Major Injury Underreaction: Bobbi throws a knife accidentally and it sticks into JJ's leg. He doesn't change expression, then merely says "Ow" after a moment (she throws up).
• Mama Bear: Kate is very protective of her daughter. She gives JJ a swift Groin Attack when she thinks that he's kidnapped her and is quick to shield Sophie when JJ admits his profession to her. When Sophie is kidnapped by the villain, she doesn't even hesitate to assist JJ in getting her back and even helps subdue Victor in the end.
• Mirror Monologue: Sophie is introduced talking to herself in the mirror, trying to practice a way to make friends at school.
• The Mountains of Illinois: There are no giant cliffs in Naperville, Illinois...and no airport there, either.
• Mr. Fanservice: In-Universe when JJ visits the school, and several women ogle him, one even giving him her phone number, since they're all impressed by his burly, very muscular build (he shows off by flexing).
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Victor Marquez is French, but his Canadian actor never even tries to put on any accent.
• Off with His Head!: "Hassan's head of finance... Hassan's head..."
• Pass the Popcorn: While watching the video feed of the opening battle, Bobbi has some Doritos and compliments JJ's form.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: After Sophie gives Marquez the plans, seemingly doing his bidding:
  Marquez: Good girl. But I lied. Guess that runs in the family.
  Kate: Not on my side! (whack)
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Discussed by Sophie and JJ, as she wants to learn the art of "what cool line you say before you take someone out". While JJ does tell her that these lines are mainly movie fare, he is well-equipped for certain scenarios.
  Sophie: What if the assassin was disguised as an ice-cream man?
  JJ: I'd say "Chill out," and then I'd stab him with a freezer pop.
  Sophie: A sidewalk Santa?
  JJ: "Jingle all the way... to hell."
  Sophie: A guy dressed up as a dog, selling watches?
  JJ: "Time's up...bitch."
• Quirky Curls: Sophie is quite the precocious, plucky girl with a mane of curly hair.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Kim. He criticizes JJ, but only for understandable reasons, while also offering him another chance and trying to find him duties he's more suited for after he botches the opening mission.
• Refuge in Audacity: When JJ is suspected of being an undercover agent at the arms deal, he drops his cover and openly admits who he is, then proceeds to kill everybody else.
• Right Behind Me:
  • JJ and Bobbi experience this when Sophie first enters their surveillance station right as they sympathize with Kate for having to deal with a bratty kid (referring to Sophie's angry reaction when a schedule change keeps Kate from taking her skating). Their Oh, Crap! moment is twofold, as while it's awkward that Sophie heard them say that, her presence also means that their cover is blown.
    Sophie: I don't think she's bratty.
  • JJ attends a student art show at Sophie's school, and contrasts her painting with that of another student, describing how horrible it is. Turns out the student and her parents are standing behind him.
• Romancing the Widow: JJ starts romancing Kate, Sophie's recently widowed mother, at her urging.
• Shipper on Deck: Sophie pushes JJ to start dating her mom Kate, and even gives him tips (which he only partly follows).
• Shout-Out:
  • "I'm also just a man, standing in front of... another man."
  • When Sophie tells JJ about how she wants to learn how to say cool one-liners before taking down baddies, JJ advises her not to base all her knowledge of spies from Mission: Impossible.
  • The majority of JJ's dance knowledge seems to come from Fortnite emotes.
  • During the climax, Bobbi attempts to use a machine gun. She drops it down the stairs and it fires all over the place.
  • The final fight between JJ and Marquez takes place on an airfield, during which the two fighters come near close to being shredded by the plane's propeller. Bobbi thinks she's seen this all before, only there were Nazis...
• Skewed Priorities: After downing Marquez in the climax, Kate points out that the gas truck JJ parked is about to blow up and tells them to run. When it proves to be a dud, JJ and Sophie see an opportunity to fulfill Sophie's Unflinching Walk fantasy, and JJ blows up the truck himself. Kate is understandably bewildered.
• Stock Scream: The Wilhelm scream makes an appearance when Kim plays JJ footage of Hassan's head flying.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Sophie and her mom resemble each other quite a bit.
• This Is Reality: Sophie asks JJ when she gets to learn about walking away from explosions and saying a cool line before killing someone, to which JJ admonishes her for learning everything about being a spy from watching movies.
• Tracking Device: Kate uses a Find My iPhone app to track Sophie after she's kidnapped.
• Unflinching Walk: Parodied. When Sophie voices her wishes to learn how to do this to JJ, he teaches her using fireworks — although she doesn’t quite get the “unflinching” part down. In the climax, JJ and Sophie try to do this when a gas truck explodes, but it doesn't explode until JJ throws a cooked grenade at it. As they walk, Sophie turns back while JJ continues walking.
• The Voiceless: Todd never speaks in the film, only providing affirmation (as interpreted by his boyfriend) to things using grunts.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: When Bobbi accidentally throws a dagger into JJ's leg, it..er..takes her by surprise. Involuntary, chunky surprise.