‘Hitman: Agent 47’ Doesn’t Really Feel Like the Game, but Becomes its Own Thing Despite it

Video-game to movie adaptations are notoriously hard to master, although they can still produce entertaining attempts. I enjoyed the “Resident Evil” films (though I’ve yet to play the games), and despite my initial feelings have even grown to appreciate “Doom” after playing through the whole universe. With that in mind, I tackle 2017’s “Hitman: Agent 47,” starring Rupert Friend as the agent. “Hitman” has been one of my favorite games since my 20s when I played “Hitman 2,” and when the film came out starring Timothy Olyphant, I felt the costuming looked a bit silly. It seemed a concept that couldn’t translate well to cinema. However, “Hitman: Agent 47” instead becomes somewhat enjoyable, if you look at it as it’s own thing. It has its highs and lows. And while I never felt this was truly Agent 47 from the games, it’s enough of an homage to the world created by IO Interactive that it’s fun and enjoyable. 

The film’s opening features too much exposition—but the world they are trying to explain takes a lot of work. In short, a man named Litvenko once created super assassins in a covert program for “The Agency,” and quit and went into hiding once he realized the barbarity of playing god. Throughout the course of the film we’ll come to realize there was a more human reason Litvenko embarked on this. Part of the explanation lies in a frightened, shadowed woman named Katia (Hannah Ware) who 47 is tasked with (finding, killing?) and a evil corporation called ‘The Syndicate’ that wants to use Katia to find Litvenko and restart the Agent program for its own nefarious purposes. 

Rupert Friend Plays 47

It sounds grand scope, but there has to be a plot here. The games themselves from IO put you in control of Agent 47, the hitman, as he accomplishes various contracts for his handler, Diana, and the International Contracts Agency. But as large in scope as that all sounds, the games themselves are extraordinarily intimate. Aside from characters 47 meets on his various assignments—who rarely, if ever know him—we experience the world through his eyes. His voice is deep, calculated. He knows the game and sees all the angles. The idea of a conscience or a motive are inconsequential. We also rarely see any of the other players from ICA—aside Diana—as they plunge us into his solitary world. 

I read one review on IMDb that declared “Hitman” Agent 47” is nothing but an action film… but that’s not really true. It does have action. But as I stated earlier, it’s entertaining, and more an homage. I never really felt, watching this, that this was the 47 I’ve come to know and love from the game series. Rupert Friend does an adequate job, but I think criticisms rests squarely on the fact that no person really looks like 47. He’s a created superhuman, and simply shaving an actor’s head, putting a barcode on the back, and dressing him in a black suit and red tie doesn’t really create the character. He’s a game creation, a genetic augmentation with lifeless eyes and chiseled features. Like Olyphant, Friend often looks like he’s wearing a 47 costume rather than to be 47 himself. The costuming should have taken into account how the assassin would look in real life, but it’s besides the point. 

An International/Travel Journey

Aside from that, however, “Hitman: Agent 47” does many things right which makes it its own, fun thing. By aligning 47 with Katia, he acts as a trainer for the agency. No, she’s not a new recruit, but she’s been augmented just like him and he teaches her how to use her senses and skills. The film, with suitable cinematography by Óttar Guðnason, showcases its venues well and as the pair’s use of a hyper-aware ‘insight,’ where the superhumans can see what will happen next to help protect them. This is doubtless drawn from the 2012 game “Hitman: Absolution,” which introduced the feature. 

“Agent 47” also includes his handler, Diana (played here by Angelababy), which the previous film omitted and who was a huge part of the gameplay. A few scenes she has mirrored the game, while the ending and some decisions she makes made me feel the writers didn’t really get who her character is. 47 also, of course, utilizes changing into others’ clothes to blend in to environments (the hallmark of the games) and I liked that they had him get caught once. Additionally, he utilizes tools he finds along the way, and the rapport he has with Katia shows us a different side to the assassin. Additionally, writers Skip Woods and Michael Finch keep us guessing in terms of 47’s involvement in the proceedings. They introduce a man named John Smith (Zachary Quinto), who appears to help Katia. But when 47 attacks them, we don’t know if he’s the villain, if Smith is, or someone else. 

A Video-game Homage with Some Unique Parts

Adding to this, seeing the mysterious Litvenko (played by the affable Ciarán Hinds) up close—and witnessing his motivations in creating the first agents—adds a level of emotion to a movie about killers and crime. Hinds is great as usual, and his rapport with Friend and Ware is palpable. Meanwhile, the elusive ‘Chairman’ of The Syndicate is played by “The Pianist’s” Thomas Kretschmann and is not utilized that well. The film more or less culminates with the meeting between 47, Katia, and his character, and at that point the film is kind of running out of steam. However, an ending shot with Kretschmann and Hinds in a helicopter acts as a pure homage to the game and comes full circle.

“Hitman: Agent 47” is not a bad film. It’s entertaining. Friend, Ware, and Hinds are all pleasing to watch and the film allows us to feel some of the intrigue and espionage of the game series. Without the deep voice and mysterious demeanor, it was hard to fully enjoy the character as 47, but Friend does a good job with what he has to work with. If nothing else, the movie is entertaining and respectful of the source material. Now that “Hitman: World of Assassination” has finished its trilogy in 2021—with a richer story—maybe a director will see fit to explore the assassin again. If so, I hope next time the wardrobe department revamps things to take some creative license to make 47 truly their own rather than trying so hard to make him look exactly like the IO games which launched his legend.