An undercover MI6 agent tries to locate a list of double agents in cold war Berlin in Atomic Blonde. In 1989 Berlin, MI6 operative James Gasciogne is killed by the KGB, who steal a watch containing a microfilm list of every field agent in the Soviet Union. Top agent Lorraine Broughton (Charlize Theron) is assigned by her superior Eric Gray (Toby Jones) to go into Berlin and work with contact David Percival (James McAvoy) recover the list and eliminate an enemy double agent known as Satchel. However, Lorraine quickly realizes that the only one she can truly trust on this mission is herself.
Atomic Blonde is the first solo directorial effort by David Leitch, a former stuntman and uncredited co-director of John Wick. In many ways, it seems like Atomic Blonde was being positioned as a female counterpart of sorts for John Wick, even though this Cold War set spy action-thriller is ultimately a very different type of film.