“The Recruit”, staring Al Pacino (Walter Burke), Colin Farrel (James Clayton) and Bridget Moynahan (Layla) is a psychological thriller about James Clayton, a bartender by night and a computer hacker by day.

Claton is recruited by a Central Intelligence Agency officer (Walter Burke) who catches his attention with possible information about his dead father who was also involved in the CIA.

Clayton decides not to take a possible job from Dell and calls Burke the next day to confirm that he would like to be in the CIA training program.

After numerous testing, Clayton and others are sent to “The Farm,” where future CIA officers are trained through psychological, physical and mental strengths.

At “The Farm,” Clayton falls for fellow trainee, Layla, when he turns against her after learning that she might be a possible traitor. Then his fellow recruiter, Walter Burke leads him on a mission to find out who she really is.

As the plot unfolds, Clayton starts to realize what his real mission is and that the slogans to the CIA are true: “Trust no one” and “Nothing is what it seems.”

This movie really absorbs the audience into what’s going on. It mentally challenges the person to figure out what’s really happening.

There are some scenes where someone may have to question if it’s really happening or if it was framed?

There’s a scene where Colin Farrel (James Clayton) is walking with Layla (Bridget Moynahan) on a special assignment when a couple men capture and throw them into their van.

When Clayton wakes up, he sees that he is tied up to a chair looking at 3 men all of whom keep asking him questions. After deciding not to answer any of the questions, he is brutally tortured and then tried again a few hours later. Finally Clayton answers the questions to find out it was all a test.

As reported by Chase Brandon, a covert field operation officer for 25 years says, “We understand that dramatic storytelling involves taking poetic license with facts. For example, a CIA recruit would never have to go through the kind of physical abuse that Colin Farrell’s character endures. I must say that I appreciated the producers’ and director’s efforts to ensure that other aspects of tactical training were realistically portrayed. Certainly, ‘The Recruit’ shows Agency life more accurately than many films in the past.”

Many scenes in this movie are “tests”, although it is up to the viewer to determine which one is fake early on, or see what happens in the end.