Safe House

In Cape Town, South Africa, junior CIA officer Matt Weston is serving as a "housekeeper", an operative in charge of securing and maintaining a local CIA safe house in case of an operation. He calls his mentor and immediate superior David Barlow, enquiring about a station in Paris. He hopes to move there with his live-in girlfriend Ana, a young French physician about to start her residency. Barlow tells him he is likely underqualified for the position, which frustrates Matt as he has not had a "houseguest" during his year-long tenure and thus has been unable to gain field experience. Barlow promises to revisit the issue in a few months. Elsewhere in Cape Town, ex-CIA NOC operative turned international criminal Tobin Frost acquires a data storage device from rogue MI6 officer Alec Wade. A team of mercenaries attacks them and kills Wade. Frost flees and, out of options, surrenders to the American consulate. A team led by veteran Daniel Kiefer transfers Frost to Weston's safe house in order to interrogate him for intelligence before he returns to the US. Weston watches uneasily as Kiefer's team waterboards Frost. The mercenaries, led by Vargas, attack the safe house and kill Kiefer and his team. Weston escapes with Frost and heads to the U.S. Consulate. En route, Weston contacts Barlow at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, along with Catherine Linklater, the operative in charge of Frost's interrogation and Kiefer's superior, and CIA Deputy Director Harlan Whitford, who is overseeing the operation. Linklater, under advisement from Barlow, orders Weston to lie low and await further instructions. Weston contacts Ana, giving her a cover story that his office has been threatened and suggesting she stay with friends when it appears their apartment is under surveillance. Barlow tells him to go to the Metrorail station at Green Point Stadium, where he retrieves a GPS device containing the location of another safe house, but Frost creates a diversion and escapes. Weston, detained by the police, escapes and is forced to return fire at them. Frost's escape is reported. After hearing that Weston fired at the police, Linklater orders him to visit the nearest American embassy for debriefing. When Whitford tells him, "We'll take it from here", Weston decides to pursue Frost himself, as Frost had warned him hearing such phrasing would indicate when Weston should begin to fear for his own safety. While traveling together to South Africa to handle the situation directly, Linklater suggests that Weston has joined with Frost, a notion which Barlow refutes. Weston tracks Frost to a township in Langa, where Frost meets Carlos Villar, an old friend and document forger, who provides him with travel documents but suggests that he leave his life of crime behind. Vargas' team attacks again, killing Carlos and his wife, but Weston helps Frost escape. Weston brutally interrogates one of Vargas' wounded mercenaries, who reveals that Vargas is working for the CIA, which is seeking to retrieve the storage device from Frost. As they bandage their wounds, Frost urges Weston not to kill innocent people, telling the story of how he was forced to kill an air traffic controller while on a mission. He later learned that he was simply part of a plot to assassinate a whistle-blower who would expose wetwork committed by the CIA. Weston takes Frost to the new safe house, where Weston keeps the housekeeper, Keller, at gunpoint. Keller attacks and severely wounds Weston before Weston kills him. Frost reveals the device contains evidence of corruption and bribery involving the CIA, MI6, and other intelligence agencies, put together from a Mossad intelligence report. Frost leaves Weston, who passes out from blood loss. Barlow kills Linklater and travels to the safe house where he reveals that he is Vargas' employer. He confirms that the file contains incriminating evidence against him, and encourages Weston to aide in the coverup by implicating Frost in the deaths of Keller and Linklater. Frost returns and kills Vargas' team and Vargas himself but is fatally wounded by Barlow; Weston then shoots and kills Barlow. As he dies, Frost gives Weston the file, saying he is a better man than Frost. Back in the United States, Weston meets with Director Whitford, who informs him that unflattering facts about the CIA must be removed from his report, but that he will be promoted. When asked about the file's location, Weston denies knowing about it. Whitford states that whoever has those files will have many enemies. Weston assures him that he will "take it from here" before leaving, visibly shaking Whitford. Weston leaks the files to the media, incriminating personnel from many intelligence agencies, including Whitford. He then travels to Paris and covertly observes Ana while she sits with friends in a cafe. She notices him across the street and smiles before he walks away, content that she is safe.

Plot from Safe House (2012 film)CC BY-SA 4.0