WARNING: SPOILERS ahead for The Amateur.

The death of Rachel Brosnahan’s character, Sarah, in the 2025 spy thriller The Amateur ignites Rami Malek’s Charlie Heller on a globe-trotting course of vengeance. Without the help of his CIA superiors, Danny Sapani’s Caleb and Holt McCallany’s Deputy Director Moore, data analyst Heller leaves his post at the CIA headquarters in Langley to kill the four people who were involved in Sarah’s death, uncovering a shadowy CIA conspiracy in the process. Throughout The Amateur, which is a remake of a 1982 film of the same name, Heller must identify and locate the four ᴀssailants involved, who were organized by a rouge mercenary named Sean Schiller (Michael Stuhlberg).

Despite his value to the CIA, Heller doesn’t have many friends at Langley, who would rather keep him locked up in their top-secret basement (level -5 on the elevator) than reward him for his brilliance. Incoming CIA Director O’Brien (Julianna Nicholson) grows suspicious of Moore’s activities and eventually discovers he’s been running off-the-books black ops missions without the necessary authorization. By the end of The Amateur, Moore is rightfully put behind bars along with his best ᴀsset, Schiller, after Heller decides he’s had enough vengeance, sparing him only to face the rest of his life incarcerated.

Sarah Was Killed By The Mercenary Group Behind London’s Terrorist Attack

The Group Was Led By Schiller, Who Pulled The Trigger

Heller wastes no time in identifying the four people involved in the London terrorist attack where Sarah was held hostage and killed to send a message. Moore hired the black ops mercenary group, which consisted of their leader, Schiller, as well as Gretchen Frank, Mishka Blazhic, and Ellish. Those four started the London terrorist attack, which was, in truth, a false flag operation conducted by Moore. Sarah happened to be in London when the attack took place and had coincidentally wanted Heller to come along. Sarah was never a target of the mercenary group but was inadvertently held hostage after trying to save another person.

Sarah died because her compᴀssionate efforts to save another innocent life made her a target in a life-or-death situation. Schiller, who pulled the trigger on Sarah before getting into a pre-designated escape van, explains to Heller in the final moments of The Amateur that he had to kill her after taking her hostage to discourage the police from following them. Schiller rationalizes his decision to take Sarah’s life, one of many lives he has presumably taken, as part of the job Moore hired him to do. If Schiller hadn’t killed Sarah, Heller never would have been inspired to find him, and he and Moore would still be at large.

Why The CIA Doesn’t Want To Help Charlie Avenge Sarah’s Death

Sarah’s Killer Was Hired By Moore For The London Terrorist Attack

The CIA, particularly Director Moore and Caleb, try to suppress Heller’s efforts to avenge Sarah’s death. Because Heller was already onto Moore and Caleb’s black operations thanks to intel from Inquline (Caitíona Balfe), Heller knew he could not trust either of them, even if they seemed like they wanted to help (which they didn’t). They agree to toss Heller over to CIA field agent trainer Henderson (Laurence Fishburne) as they investigate whether Heller actually extracted proof of their black ops missions outside of Langley. When they realize Heller is bluffing, it’s too late, and Heller takes his newfound training and weapons abroad.

Eventually, certain members of the CIA do want to help Heller avenge Sarah since his work will also uncover Moore’s decades of corruption. When Jon Bernthal’s secret agent character, aptly named The Bear, shows up in Russia, he is willing to help Heller because of a time in the past when Heller’s computer expertise saved his life. The Bear, who was sent by Director O’Brien, seems to return the favor by setting up Heller to get on the Russian ship to confront Schiller. Even though Henderson chases down Heller in France, he ends up thanking him for exposing Moore and doing what should have been done years ago.

Did The CIA Play A Role In Sarah’s Death?

Sarah’s Blood Is Mostly On Moore’s Hands

Although Schiller pulled the trigger on Sarah in The Amateur, the true villain with her blood on his hands is Moore. Sure, Schiller did not need to kill Sarah based on his “part of the job” rationalizations and could have shown mercy in what became a senseless and cruel killing. There is some validity, however, to Schiller’s excuse since he was hired to do a job and killing Sarah was how he ensured that the mission would be completed. That said, the man pulling the strings and ordering the missions in the first place is the most responsible, so Moore deserves more of the blame for Sarah’s death and those of other innocent people.

Blaming the entire CIA for Sarah’s death would appear to be letting Moore, and Caleb for that matter, somewhat off the hook. However, as Moore explains to O’Brien over lunch, he’s been given virtually free rein over off-the-books missions like the London terrorist attack that led to Sarah’s death by previous CIA Directors. The extent of those former directors’ knowledge remains unclear. They might have simply looked the other way or failed to address their suspicions if it resulted in a net positive outcome for the CIA. Regardless, it was Moore’s plan, Moore’s mercenaries, and mostly Moore’s fault.

How Sarah’s Death In The Amateur Is Different In The 2025 Movie

Sarah Is Actually Shown Being Executed By Terrorists In The Original

Although both The Amateur novel by Robert Littell and the 1981 original film directed by Charles Jarrott take place during the Cold War era, Sarah is still killed by terrorists in the earlier installments. The original version of The Amateur film, which is currently streaming on Hulu, shows Sarah (played by Lynne Griffin) visiting the nation formerly known as Czechoslovakia. She is in a government building, presumably a U.S. Embᴀssy, looking to acquire a visa, which is where the terrorist attack (by unmaksed ᴀssailants) takes place.

The armed ᴀssailants hold a group of people hostage with Sarah. One of them is killed by a guard before holding a U.S. chancellor hostage and making demands to the U.S. ambᴀssador via telecom. The terrorists threaten to kill one hostage every 15 minutes. One of the ᴀssailants, named Gretchen, randomly pulls Sarah’s pᴀssport from a stack. She is chosen to be executed to make a statement to the U.S. ambᴀssador. Again, it appears to be a “part of the job” reasoning for Sarah’s death in the earlier version of The Amateur, which was drenched in Cold War-era tensions.