why does this movie exist
Alt text: The movie Bricklayer. Overview: Someone is blackmailing the CIA by assassinating foreign journalists and making it look like the agency is responsible. As the world begins to unite against the U.S., the CIA must lure its most brilliant - and rebellious - operative out of retirement, forcing him to confront his checkered past while unraveling an international conspiracy.
In reality, the CIA would be the ones funding the assassination of foreign journalists 🤦♀️
This has so many problems. Like, starting with the fact that the CIA never admits anything unless the entire rest of the US government puts a gun to their head, and sometimes not even then, so why would they be able to be blackmailed? It comes down to "Your fabricated evidence vs. CIA fabricated evidence", and the CIA is probably better at fabricating evidence, tbh.
Another being that, historically, the CIA has assassinated foreign journalists and... the world didn't unite against us. Like, it was a blip on the international relations radar. Which, while fucked up, suggests that it's a terrible fucking choice to try to blackmail the CIA with.
Hey, managing public opinion has never been easier than the mass-served entertainment. CIA has been battling the frigging aliens in the shadows for decades, why not put in a few blackmails into the list?