They start a shootout in the middle of a traffic jam which causes Emily Blunt’s character to freak out as she realizes they’re CIA doing stuff they shouldn’t be. The scene I think you’re talking about is where del Toro’ character, Alejandro the lawyer turned hitman (a.k.a. sicario), puts a gun to her head and makes her sign a paper vouching they followed protocol.
Josh Brolin’s character is the one who is actually CIA who is using Alejandro by turning him loose on people by saying they were involved in Alejandro’s family getting murdered. Blunt realizes he lied to her about the people found murdered in the house at the beginning of the film and they haven’t been looking for the people responsible at all. He’s just using her as cover to operate on US soil. This casts doubt on whether or not he’s done the same thing to Alejandro, who massacres an entire family who may or may not be the people responsible for his own family.
The film paints the “making tough decisions to protect democracy” shtick as an excuse for sadism and torture. Brolin’s character doesn’t give a shit about any of that and gets off on the power he wields over others. When Blunt tries to call him out, he points out he has the backing of the rest of the government. By the end of it, it’s obvious the War on Drugs is a failure and all it’s done has created a cycle of violence that continues to escalate because it benefits US interests.
But again, it paints the FBI as good people in a bad situation where they try to take the moral high ground. We know that’s bullshit because IRL the FBI does evil shit all the time ranging from MK Ultra to wiretapping MLK to Iran-Contra.
Edit: oh I also just remembered The Ghost Writer, although the CIA isn’t named until the end of the film.
They start a shootout in the middle of a traffic jam which causes Emily Blunt’s character to freak out as she realizes they’re CIA doing stuff they shouldn’t be. The scene I think you’re talking about is where del Toro’ character, Alejandro the lawyer turned hitman (a.k.a. sicario), puts a gun to her head and makes her sign a paper vouching they followed protocol.
Josh Brolin’s character is the one who is actually CIA who is using Alejandro by turning him loose on people by saying they were involved in Alejandro’s family getting murdered. Blunt realizes he lied to her about the people found murdered in the house at the beginning of the film and they haven’t been looking for the people responsible at all. He’s just using her as cover to operate on US soil. This casts doubt on whether or not he’s done the same thing to Alejandro, who massacres an entire family who may or may not be the people responsible for his own family.
The film paints the “making tough decisions to protect democracy” shtick as an excuse for sadism and torture. Brolin’s character doesn’t give a shit about any of that and gets off on the power he wields over others. When Blunt tries to call him out, he points out he has the backing of the rest of the government. By the end of it, it’s obvious the War on Drugs is a failure and all it’s done has created a cycle of violence that continues to escalate because it benefits US interests.
But again, it paints the FBI as good people in a bad situation where they try to take the moral high ground. We know that’s bullshit because IRL the FBI does evil shit all the time ranging from MK Ultra to wiretapping MLK to Iran-Contra.
Edit: oh I also just remembered The Ghost Writer, although the CIA isn’t named until the end of the film.