Hitman: Agent 47 wants to be a sleek, modern reboot of a beloved video game franchise. Instead, it is a mess of a movie that confuses spectacle with storytelling and expects audiences to care about characters they barely understand. The film premiered in New York City on August 13, 2015, and reached theaters across the United States on August 21, 2015. It was directed by Aleksander Bach, marking his directorial debut, and written by Skip Woods and Michael Finch, who also penned the 2007 film that this reboot replaces. The cast includes Rupert Friend as Agent 47, Zachary Quinto as John Smith, Hannah Ware as Katia, and Ciarán Hinds as Piotr Litvenko.
The movie runs 96 minutes and leans heavily on action set-pieces. Those moments are where the film occasionally clicks, but they are not enough to save a script that treats its central mystery as a curiosity rather than a reason to watch. Critics panned the film, and it grossed $82.3 million worldwide against a budget of $35 million.
Trailer, via 20th Century Studios.
Agent 47 and His Project
Agent 47 is a genetically-enhanced super soldier created by Dr. Piotr Litvenko, a Ukrainian geneticist. Litvenko abandoned the Agent project after being unable to bear the guilt of his creation. 47 works for the ICA, the International Contracts Agency, and has spent years tracking down Katia, Litvenko’s daughter. He gets a lead from mercenaries led by Dr. Albert Delriego, who want to recreate the Agent program for their own gain.
Katia lives in Berlin under the assumed surname of Van Dees. She has enhanced senses and suffers from overwhelming anxiety. She is on the run, desperate to find the man she calls her father. She is approached at a subway station by a man named John Smith, who claims to be protecting her from 47. Smith is an operative for Syndicate International, a corporation that operates outside normal channels. He tells Katia that her father is the man she has been searching for.
The Cast Carries What the Script Cannot
Rupert Friend plays Agent 47 with a cool, controlled menace. Zachary Quinto brings a strange intensity to John Smith, a surgically enhanced operative who seems designed to resist Agents like 47. Hannah Ware carries the emotional weight of Katia, a woman whose enhanced senses make every moment a struggle. Ciarán Hinds plays Piotr Litvenko as a man haunted by his own creation.
The supporting cast fills out the world without giving it much depth. Thomas Kretschmann plays Antoine Le Clerq, the chairman of Syndicate International, described as an international corporation building an army of unstoppable assassins to destroy the ICA. Dan Bakkedahl appears as Sanders, an American diplomatic official in Berlin who interrogates Agent 47. Angelababy plays Diana Burnwood, the handler of Agent 47. Jerry Hoffmann plays Franco, another of the film’s mercenaries.
The Plot Is a Maze Without a Map
The film’s central mystery is Katia’s ancestry. She deduces where her father must be living based on the languages he knows, his age, his love of orchids, and his medical condition of lung cancer. Before she can share that information with Smith, 47 enters the room, leaving Smith for dead and capturing Katia.
Once Katia wakes up, 47 explains that she is an Agent herself, designed by her father to be better than even 47. He reveals that her name “Katia van Dees” is a homophone for her real name, “Quatre-vingt-dix,” which is French for “90.” The reveal is meant to be shocking, but the film spends so little time establishing why Katia matters that the twist lands with a thud rather than a punch.
The Technical Weaknesses Are Everywhere
The film is panned by critics, even further than the original 2007 film. Critics took issue with the screenplay, visual effects, and a lack of faithfulness to the source material. Some action scenes, the score, and a few performances were praised. But the praise is thin compared to the criticism.
The film’s action scenes are the one bright spot. They are well-choreographed and often tense, even when the logic behind them falls apart. The score adds a sense of dread that the visuals sometimes lack. These moments are few, however, and they are not enough to carry a movie that fails to earn its runtime.
The Numbers Tell the Story
| Metric | 2015 Film | 2007 Film |
|---|---|---|
| Director | Aleksander Bach (debut) | Brett Mottola |
| Writer | Skip Woods, Michael Finch | Skip Woods |
| Budget | $35 million | Not stated |
| Box office | $82.3 million | Not stated |
| Critical reception | Panned | Mixed |
The comparison is stark. The 2007 film had a writer with a clear vision for the material. This reboot has neither. The result is a film that feels like a pale imitation of a property it clearly does not understand.
Why the Reboot Failed
The problem with Hitman: Agent 47 is structural. The film introduces too many characters, too many organizations, and too many mysteries without giving the audience enough time to care. Katia’s search for her father should be the emotional core of the story. Instead, it becomes a footnote in a larger plot about mercenaries and corporations.
The film also fails to establish why 47 cares about Katia. He tracks her for years, risks capture, and fights off Syndicate International to find her. But the movie never explains what he gains from finding her beyond the vague promise that she is somehow better than him. That lack of motivation makes the final act feel hollow.
The visual effects are uneven. Some sequences look polished, while others feel cheap and unfinished. The film’s attempt to recreate the video game’s assassination mechanics as a set-piece is a major part of the story, but the source does not describe how well it works.
A Short Review
Hitman: Agent 47 is a failure on nearly every level. Its script is thin, its direction is clumsy, and its characters are ciphers. The action is occasionally thrilling, but it is not enough to overcome the film’s fundamental problems. The movie is a reboot that should have been a reset, and instead it became a cash grab that insulted the intelligence of the people who showed up to see it.
The film’s tagline promises that “Your Number Is Up.” For Katia, for Smith, and for anyone who walked out of the theater disappointed, that number was a failure.
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