WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS ahead for Black Bag.

Those who are seeing Black Bag in theaters will not want to miss a single second of Steven Soderbergh and David Koepp’s whip-smart and sharply paced espionage thriller. At a sleek 93-minute runtime, Black Bag moves at a rollercoaster’s speed through various plot exposition and twists. Without even realizing it, you’re in the final act of the film, mostly due to the immersive performances of Michael Fᴀssbender, Cate Blanchett, and Black Bag’s stellar ensemble cast.

Keeping up with Black Bag’s pace is more of a mental workout than a pᴀssive form of entertainment. Hardly anything in the film is revisited other than the stakes – if George fails to find the Severus mole in one week, tens of thousands of innocent people could die. Because nearly everyone in Black Bag is a professional liar, it’s impossible to decipher between truth and fiction throughout most of the film, even as it is seen through the eyes of the “human lie detector” George Woodhouse.

Black Bag’s Ending Is Rushed & Becomes Information Overload

There’s Not A Second Of Black Bag You Can Miss To Absorb The Entire Plot

The ending of Black Bag is a powerhouse of dialogue that can make for a tantalizing watch, especially without the at-home luxuries of closed captions and a pause ʙuттon. The rapid-fire speed at which the truth about the Severus leak unfolds can make one’s head spin and made me wish I’d brought a pen and paper to capture the full extent of the plot. This information overload makes for an engaging, if not overwhelming, conclusion that will surely leave those who left the theater for a refill or bathroom break scratching their heads upon their return.

It took me a while to piece all the plot elements of Black Bag together even after I left that theater. Because the film is so structurally lean, it can be unforgiving to those who aren’t entirely immersed in the story.

Even those who were engaged throughout, like myself, will still find it a brain challenge akin to an academic lecture to absorb every detail of Severus, the Russian criminals, the various relationships and cheating scandals, etc. However, when the final trigger is pulled, there’s no question about who the mole was. What’s more unclear is the why and how.

I’m Confident Multiple Viewings Of Black Bag Will Help Clear Up Any Confusion

At Just 93 Minutes, Black Bag Is Absolutely Worth A Second Watch

I’m thrilled to be able to see a star-studded yet low-budget thriller like Black Bag on the big screen in this day and age. Parts of Black Bag are surely meant to be confusing to match the mind state of Fᴀssbender’s George. That said, I truly need another run-through to capture all the plot and character elements stuffed into Black Bag’s unusually short runtime. Typically, when films are right around 90 minutes, I suspect they don’t have enough narrative content. The opposite is true of Black Bag, which – similar to Fᴀssbender’s CIA drama series The Agency – is filled to the brim with narrative leads and misleads.