Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre Movie Review

Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre is a 2023 movie about a group of spies who have to go undercover to retrieve a dangerous unknown object by the name of ‘The Handle’.

💡 This post is both a summary and review of Operation Fortune. That is to say, it may contain spoilers.

Nathan

The British Intelligence Services get wind of a dangerous object that was stolen from a facility. The object is unknown but is so valuable that they feel it has to be retrieved before it falls into the wrong hands. Nathan, played by Cary Elwes, a super-agent is tasked with assembling the team by his boss, Knighton, played by Eddie Marsan, who says that he needs the operation to be conducted ‘ruse de guerre’ meaning that it needs to be done using unconventional methods of warfare.

Orson

When asked to assemble a team, Nathan says that he’ll enlist agent Orson Fortune to head the team for the job. Agent Orson, played by Jason Statham, is a very untoward agent who spends fortunes from the intelligence services on expensive wine and vacations. Knighton is shocked to hear that Nathan thinks Orson’s the man for the job but on deliberation, Orson is tasked with finding the unknown object and retrieving it.

The Team

For his team, Nathan picks JJ Davies, and a new face, Sarah Fields, played by Aubrey Plaza, to be Orson’s ‘footmen’. JJ, played by Bugzy Malone, is an all-around fixer agent who can do almost anything while Sarah is hired to replace John, a former member of the team who was poached by a competing team headed by Mike.

Mike

Mike, played by Peter Ferdinando, is Nathan’s biggest competition and sometimes the intelligence services will enlist two teams to do one job and compete while at it. Mike and his team are touted as really good and arguably the best but he and Nathan dislike one another, to say the least. The mutual dislike between the two was further fueled when Mike stole Nathan’s tech guy, John. Therefore, Sarah, who was previously on Mike’s team, was hired to replace him in Nathan’s team and she’s now the team’s techie.

Bagman

The first task for Orson and his team is to intercept a carrier or ‘bagman’ in Madrid, carrying a hard drive that the intelligence services think contains information on the Handle. While there, a few members of the team are tasered and when Orson realizes this, quickly deduces that Mike’s team may also be after the same bagman.

Orson quickly intervenes and he and his team manage to kidnap the bagman and retrieve the drive from him. While cloning it, they are roadblocked by Mike’s team who threaten them and demand that they give him the drive. By the time Mike’s men drill through Orson and the team’s van, they have already cloned the drive and they just hand it over. Turns out the drive was impenetrable as it required a key.

Ben

The bagman, a retired professor, was supposed to deliver the drive at a hotel. The bad guys who’d enlisted him as a courier had kidnapped his wife and threatened her life. Unfortunately, in the tension of Orson locking horns with Mike, he’d died due to a heart condition but had revealed to Orson’s team that the men to whom he was delivering the drive did not know him by face. As such, he’d asked Nathan to go in his place and save his wife.

When Nathan gets to the hotel, to deliver what was a cloned drive pretending that it was the original drive, he is met by Ben Harris, played by Max Beesley. Ben, Orson reveals, is Greg’s right-hand man.

Greg Simmonds

Greg Simmonds is a billionaire arms dealer, who it seems, is involved with the Handle. He has an obsession, however, with movie stars and one of his favorite actors is Danny Francesco. Orson and his team come up with the ingenious idea to use Danny as a way into Greg’s charity event on his yacht.

Danny Francesco

Danny Francesco, played by Josh Hartnett, is an interesting character and a famous movie star. He does his own stunts and through one of his director friends, Orson manages to have him cornered in his plane. The team had used dirt on the director to convince him to help them acquire an audience with Danny.

When Orson gets on the plane and Danny is confused, the director tells him to listen and leaves. Orson tells Danny that he has evidence of his love affair with his sister-in-law. Orson shows him the pictures and Danny calms down and listens.

Orson then reveals the plan is to have Danny go to Cannes at the same time Greg’s charity event is happening and pretend it’s a coincidence. Danny had previously refused $10 million to jump out of a cake on Greg’s birthday so the team knew that if Greg got wind that Danny was in town, they’d get an invitation to the charity ball.

Cannes

When they get to Cannes, they are invited to the ‘Orphans of War’ charity event where Danny, Orson, and Sarah turn up. Sarah goes undercover as Danny’s girlfriend Michaela, with Orson pretending to be his business manager.

When there, Greg is stunned to see his favorite actor Danny, and introduces him to the financiers of the event, two biotech billionaires, Arnold and Trent. Sarah, through her slyness, also manages to pique the interest of Greg who hits on her. She and Danny get an invitation to Turkey for a weekend, and they accept. Their plan is to go there and find out more about where the Handle is and how to retrieve it.

Turkiye

In Turkey, Sarah manages to loop the footage in Greg’s office and steals some files from his computer when they visit his villa in Antalya. Greg also generously gifts Danny a vehicle from one of his movies, a classic car with a bulletproof rear. While the team analyzes the files from Danny’s computer, they realize they are the key to what they’d cloned from the bagman’s drive.

Deadly AI

The team realizes that the Handle is actually an AI program that can penetrate any system in the world, i.e., it can hack into nuclear arsenals and deploy nukes, hack banks, critical infrastructure, and anything and everything that runs on a computer.

The team also gathers that the Handle was being sold by two Ukrainians, whom they had come across at the charity ball, and that it was being sold to the two biotech billionaires. Greg, on his part, was the one negotiating the $10 billion deal and would get a commission.

In Pursuit

While the sale is underway, Orson and JJ go after Ben, who is set to meet the buyers and give them a 15-digit code that he would call Greg to ask. The buyers don’t know his face and when Orson’s cover is blown while in pursuit and Ben recognizes him from the charity event, he starts running, and Orson goes after him. When Ben climbs a watchtower, Orson goes after him, and after someone drops from the very top, JJ tells Orson that it’s not Ben.

Ben then pops up from behind, and Orson quickly gets out of his way, pushing him over the edge of the watchtower. Ben falls to his death and the two retrieve his phone and go meet the buyers.

The Sale

When they get there, the buyers do not know that Orson is actually not Ben and the team, via Sarah, had by this time already found a way to (deep)fake Ben’s voice to allow Orson to call Greg and pretend to be Ben, in order be given the 15-digit code to unlock the necessary funds for the sale.

What happens is that the money first appears to have gone through to the two Ukrainians and the Handle is handed to the buyers. A few seconds later, the money disappears. Mike and his men interfere and a gunfight breaks out. Mike and his team start shooting the place up while JJ is Orson’s cover, armed with a rifle on the sidelines.

Before long, Greg realizes that he’s been played and that it was not actually Ben he was talking to over the phone. Sarah and Danny had, by this time, taken the classic movie car and started escaping from Greg’s villa in Turkey. Greg is furious and sends his men after them.

Escape

Back at the sale, Orson and JJ manage to escape from Mike’s attempt at their lives, with Mike taking the Handle with him, i.e. stealing it. Instead of going after him, the two decide to go and rescue Sarah and Danny and use the chopper to stop the men who are after them.

The Two Billionaires

The two billionaires, Arnold and Trent, played by Oliver Maltman and Tom Rosenthal respectively, now get hold of the Handle and it turns out that they were planning to use it, through their network of satellites, to topple the global banking system. They had acquired billions worth of gold beforehand, and were set to make a killing as when the banking system failed, people would turn to gold.

Duping as Duped

The team goes after them but this time, decides to have Danny work together with Greg. Danny says that he would very much like to see Greg in action and the plan seems plausible. Orson and the team, on rescuing Sarah and Danny head back to Greg’s house to enlist him for the retrieval of the Handle. Orson knew Greg would be down as he was also expecting a commission from the sale of the AI but didn’t get it so he’d want to claim his due.

The Act

Danny and Greg head to meet the two billionaires and they’ve already practiced their act. Greg asks Danny to turn off the lights and begins his speech. He says that there is a reason why no one has ever refused to pay him, not Hussein, not Gaddafi, and not Escobar, and that is without even dropping names. He goes on to say it is,, 1,,2,,3.. but nothing happens. He then goes again and after counting down, the billionaire’s satellites blow up one after the other.

The billionaires are shocked and tense and decide to wire the money to Greg. Mike is in the room and says that Greg is just bluffing but the billionaires are shaken. Danny and Greg leave the room and get into the elevator. The admired becomes the admirer and Danny is so mind blown by Greg’s performance.

Rogue

Orson then goes after Mike and takes him out and he and the team manage to retrieve the Handle. Turns out that Mike had gone rogue and had not been enlisted on the job by the British Intelligence Services. He’d now become a mercenary for hire.

Our Rating

Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre is such a breathtakingly entertaining movie. It is super hilarious and that makes the whole thing just so entertaining. We loved the movie for its beautifully well-thought-out script and how it has such thrilling twists and turns. Even more, Operation Fortune did not feel like one of those serious Jason Statham action movies; but more of a fun, really well-done, and super entertaining movie. Enjoy!

FAQ

Who Directed Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre?

Operation Fortune was directed by Guy Ritchie.

What does Ruse de Guerre mean?

Ruse de Guerre, which translates to ‘ruse of war’, means the use of unconventional means to conduct welfare in the movie. The term can also be understood as a trick in war or a stratagem.