Imagine doing a job for decades, only to find out you’ve been living a lie, doing the dirty work for someone you didn’t even know existed. This is the core of Bob DeRosa’s movie— about clearing this confusion and conspiracy that’s turned his life upside down. “Classified” stars Aaron Eckhart as Evan Shaw, Tim Roth as Kevin Angler, Abigail Breslin as Kacey Walker, Matt Hookings as Antonio Griffin, and more.
Classified (2024) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
Who Is Shaw?
What is a government assassin? Think of it as someone who works for top-tier intelligence or investigation agencies, like the CIA or MI6, whose job is to take out threats for the sake of national security. That’s where the protagonist, Evan, comes in. He’s a government assassin, doing missions for the Central Intelligence Agency. Evan has a résumé teeming with high-stakes, off-the-books assignments, taking out criminals, drug lords, and other assassins to keep the nation safe and sound. Evan’s work is very secretive, and his name is not even mentioned anywhere in official records.
The CIA keeps him off the radar to avoid any heat. So, how does he get his hit list? This is not done by passing on briefcases or encrypted emails here. Instead, Evan’s orders are always hidden in plain sight in the classified section of the daily newspaper. Every once in a while, he turns to that section and finds the name of his next target hiding between lost pet ads and job listings.
On the surface, it looks like just another ad, something as harmless as a new coffee machine or some latest health policy update. But once Evan cracks the code hidden in that seemingly innocent text, it reveals the name of his next target. Every mission, without fail, comes with a fresh identity—a new name, a new background, and the works. Once he’s done with the hit, all the paper and IDs are burnt and destroyed. Evan’s agency also plays by some ironclad rules. One of the biggest ones is that If you’re in, you’re in for the long haul. You cannot quit, and you cannot walk away.
Who is Kasey?
While on one of his missions, Evan notices a young girl, Kasey, eyeing him at a restaurant and tells the bartender to send her a drink on his tab. Then, he exits, clueless about who she really is. Later, while Evan’s in Italy, Kasey breaks into his room and reveals that she has been following Shaw for years and knows all his tricks. After a skirmish, Evan manages to take her down. When Kasey wakes up, she reveals that she’s MI6 and the US Tourism Division, the fake CIA branch Evan has been working with, doesn’t exist.
Kevin Angler, Evan’s boss who recruited him, has been dead for a decade. Someone else has been calling the shots, and Evan’s been playing along for ten years without a clue. Kasey also reveals that Monika Walker, Evan’s love interest who died years ago, was MI6, too. She was investigating who’s behind the US Tourism Division. It is said that Monika was close to cracking it. But she died in a so-called “accident” before she could release her findings.
How Does Evan Himself Become a Target?
Evan’s world is turned upside down. For a decade, he believed every assassination order came from his trusted friend and boss, Kevin Angler. Now, Evan starts to doubt everything. He teams up with Kasey to uncover the identity of the real puppet master and figure out if Monika’s death was truly an accident or if it was a planned assassination. What Evan doesn’t know is that he’s been tagged. The agency fitted him with a GPS tracker, and if he tries to leave the country or state while on a mission, the GPS instantly notifies those in control.
Right on cue, his phone buzzes, and one of his handlers asks Evan to return to Rome and complete his mission, or else the results will be dire. The handler makes it clear that if Evan doesn’t return, his name will be in the classified section of tomorrow’s paper. When Evan refuses to play along, the Division, aka Corporate, puts a bounty on his head and sends assassins after him and Kasey. The two of them head to an abandoned building that used to be a front for the US Tourism Division. Inside, they find an old cassette tape hidden beneath a seat cushion, probably left by Kevin himself. But soon after, the assassins close in. Fortunately, Evan and Kesey are able to flee unscathed.
How is Evan related to Kasey?
Evan starts noticing things about Kasey that don’t add up—like her complete lack of skills. Kasey has no situational awareness and no training. That’s when Kasey reveals that she is Monica Walker’s daughter and Evan is her father. At first, Evan doesn’t believe it, but Kasey proves it by showing him a birthmark that’s identical to his. She also starts listing off things Evan hates, details only Monica Walker could’ve known. Evan admits he had no idea Monica was pregnant. She never told him. Evan even once flew to London to find her, only to arrive too late—Monica had died in a car accident.
Classified (2024) Movie Ending Explained:
Who is Antonio Griffin?
After discovering the cassette in the rundown building, Evan and Kasey start piecing things together, going over the list of people Evan has taken out over the past few years. It turns out that ever since the division was shut down, Evan’s targets have shifted. Originally, he was eliminating criminals, but then it turned into politicians and businessmen. Their deaths upended the stock market. However, one company remained untouched—the Griffin Group. This hedge fund, based in Malta, manages the wealth of the world’s richest and most powerful. Evan and Kasey pay a visit to Antonio Griffin, and that’s when Antonio admits he’s been deceiving Evan for years.
Griffin tries to strike a deal with Evan, offering the location of Kevin Angler, who’s actually alive, if Evan agrees to a partnership. When they meet, Evan wastes no time and punches Angler for lying to him for years. Angler owns up to his mistakes and promises to reveal the truth behind every hit Evan’s ever carried out. But before they can get into it, Griffin’s mercenaries storm the mansion. Angler is killed in the chaos, but Evan and Kasey manage to escape—again. Griffin has orchestrated the whole attack to take out Angler and seize control of the Division himself.
As the movie nears its end, Evan and Kasey visit Monica’s grave. This kind of shows Evan’s decision to stay in Kasey’s life and take on the role of a father. After years of being a lone wolf, Evan is finally choosing to retire. But before fully walking away from his life as an assassin, Evan has one last mission to complete. Evan tracks Antonio Griffin down to his mansion and eliminates him.
