By Jake Wilson

Published: Thursday, 06 January 2022 at 12:00 am


3.0 out of 5 star rating

Most people will never see the inside of a fish market freezer room, let alone be rugby-tackled into one by a CIA agent. Most people will never be tossed into a mound of frozen haddock, nor have to smash an assailant on the head with an oyster, but then again, most people aren’t in Universal’s new spy heist action thriller.

It’s a perilous situation Jessica Chastain has put herself in. As the lead focus of The 355, she’s in danger at every turn. Standing on the balcony? Here comes an enemy throwing his fists toward you. Chilling by the docks? Watch out for the JCB about to smash through that wall of crates. Settling down with a nice herbal tea? There’s only one way that’s going to end. 

The threat that pulls all this chaos together is that of an all-powerful digital masterkey. In the film’s opening beats, a shady deal is taking place with said cyber weapon on offer. In showing off the goods’ potential, a city is sent into blackout and a passenger aircraft is taken out of the air, making it clear that this device is capable of starting – and ending – World War III, all in the space of a few keyboard strokes.

Inevitably this device cannot fall into, quote-unquote, the wrong hands. It is the CIA who take an early lead in the hunt, with agent Mason “Mace” Browne (Chastain) pairing with her close friend Nick (Sebastian Stan) to retrieve the key from an elusive contact. The mission, inevitably, goes awry, as German operative Marie (Diane Kruger) muddies the water. 

Reluctant MI6 agent Khadijah (Lupita Nyong’o) is quickly drawn into the fold, while Colombian therapist Graciela (Penelope Cruz) soon also gets caught up in the melee. These women – along with Bingbing Fan’s Lin who joins the group quite far down the line – are swept into a perfect storm of international interests, a cyclone of mistrust first pitting the agents at odds, before uniting them against the greater threat.