Black Bag (2025)

Steven Soderbergh’s Black Bag is a sleek and satisfying espionage thriller, complete with polished London interiors, double agents, and a gourmet dinner laced with truth serum. But beneath its cool surface, the film wrestles with moral and spiritual questions that are anything but superficial. This is by no means a Christian film. There is harsh language, harsh behavior, and deceit at every level. There is sex and violence, even if it is all restrained and artful in its presentation. What follows is merely a contemplation of where the film’s themes overlap with a Biblical view in contrast to today’s values. And: warning, even though this is not a recommendation to go out and view this film, for those who choose to do so, there are spoilers that follow…

For Christians attentive to the ethical tensions of our time, Black Bag presents a familiar and dangerous dilemma: Do the ends ever justify the means?

The film answers with a firm no—and so does Scripture.

The Lie of the Greater Good

At the center of the plot is Severus, a cyberweapon capable of destabilizing nuclear systems. George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender), a British intelligence officer, is tasked with discovering who stole it. The trail eventually leads to Colonel Stokes and agency head Arthur Stieglitz—men not driven by greed, but by ideology. They want to use Severus to end the war in Ukraine and permanently neuter Russia’s threat to the West. In their view, it's a preemptive act of peace. A necessary evil. Collateral damage for the sake of stability.

It’s utilitarian ethics in its purest form.

But Christians are never called to pursue what is “necessary.” We are called to pursue what is right. Scripture teaches again and again that sin cannot be justified by potential outcomes. When King Saul offers an unlawful sacrifice to secure God’s favor in battle, the prophet Samuel rebukes him: “To obey is better than sacrifice” (1 Samuel 15:22). The apostle Paul anticipates the twisted logic of consequentialism in Romans 3:8—“Why not say, ‘Let us do evil that good may result’? Their condemnation is deserved!”

George and Kathryn, despite working in an amoral world of intelligence and subterfuge, ultimately refuse to cross this line. They are not innocent, but they choose integrity over ideology. In doing so, they remind us that Christian ethics are not rooted in calculation, but in covenant.

Ambition and the Idol of Success

The film’s second moral current runs quieter but deeper: the question of ambition. Colonel Stokes doesn't just want to win a secret war—he wants to be remembered for it. His betrayal of principle is not just tactical; it’s egotistical. He seeks glory disguised as service. His ambition is unchecked by conscience.

But ambition itself is not condemned in Black Bag, nor in Scripture. Kathryn and George are both competent, driven, and rising within the ranks. What sets them apart is not the absence of ambition, but the presence of restraint. They remain committed to truth even when it costs them their influence. They fight to preserve their marriage even when their careers might benefit from quiet detachment. They refuse to exploit others to secure their position.

In the Bible, we see similar patterns. Joseph rises in Pharaoh’s court, Daniel becomes a trusted advisor in Babylon, Paul appeals to Roman law with sharp political acumen. But none of them serve power for its own sake. Their success is always a byproduct of faithfulness, not an idol to be grasped. Jesus himself redefines greatness not by visibility or promotion, but by servanthood: “Whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve” (Matthew 20:27–28).

In Black Bag, George and Kathryn live this out in quiet, resolute ways. They do not abandon their ambition—they subordinate it to something higher.