Salt

In a prison in North Korea, CIA agent Evelyn Salt  is being hurt to try to make her confess her spy   activity and they won't believe them when she  says she's just here for business. Sometime later,   her fellow agent Ted comes to rescue her by  accepting to do a prisoner exchange. Salt is   confused by this because the rules say one life  isn't worth saving if it will ruin the cover of   hundreds, and Ted agrees it's true, but the CIA  was forced into doing this by Salt's friend Mike.   When he found out what happened to her, Mike  petitioned the Senate and the State Department,   so the CIA gave in to avoid bad publicity.  Two years later, Salt and Mike are married   and living together with a dog and Mike's spiders,  since he's an arachnologist. Salt is sticking to   paperwork at the CIA for now, but one afternoon,  agent Peabody asks her for help interrogating a   Russian defector that just walked in because she  can speak the language. The guy's name's Orlov,   and he immediately notices Salt's wedding ring,  commenting a husband must be a distraction for an   agent. He explains he has cancer and that he used  to work for the FSB, both things get confirmed on   the system and so he's allowed to share his story.  In 1975, a Russian patriot came up with a plan to   destroy America: he started stealing babies and  training them from a young age to become the best   spies in the world, drilled with idiosyncrasy  and ideology. When they became old enough,   these warriors were sent to the USA as sleeper  agents to patiently await the day to attack   from within. That day will come soon: during  the funeral of the American vice-president,   agent KA12 is supposed to kill the Russian  president. The "KA program" is a Cold War legend,   and the CIA agents think this Orlov is selling  smoke, so they cut the interrogation short. When   Salt's about to leave, Orlov says that the name of  KA12 is Evelyn Salt. This makes Salt believe she's   being set up and asks Ted permission to call Mike  because of Orlov's comment about her wedding ring,   but Mike won't pick up. Peabody still needs to  cover all possible options and locks Salt in   an office while he argues over what to do next.  Meanwhile a couple of agents try to move Orlov   to a different room by taking the elevator, but  Orlov takes them by surprise with a knife hidden   in his shoe and kills them both. Orlov escapes  the building and the CIA is so distracted with   starting a tracking plan that it's easy for  Salt to leave the office saying she has to   pee. She manages to take the emergency stairs,  but the agents finally notice and begin locking   all the doors. Salt grabs a fire extinguisher to  blur out all the security cameras, and Ted calls   her directly to her phone to point out this  makes her look guilty, but Salt doesn't care:   her priority is finding her husband. She makes it  to the closet with the cleaning supplies and mixes   them inside a table leg, thus when the tactical  team comes after her, she makes this makeshift   bomb explode on their faces. Then she takes a  gun from one of the agents and uses it to smash   a window through which she finally escapes. After  running for a couple of blocks, Salt takes a taxi   and tries calling Mike again, but he still doesn't  pick up. Then Salt destroys her SIM card in case   she's being tracked and thinks back to when Ted  told her years ago to befriend Mike. Since he was   an important scientist with unrestricted access  to the borders of North Korea, he could be the   perfect cover to get her inside. When Salt returns  to her apartment, Mike is nowhere to be seen,   and there's evidence of him having been kidnapped.  Salt immediately packs a bag, including a gun and   a spider, and leaves through the window with her  dog at the same time the CIA arrives at her place.   Peabody becomes frustrated when they find the  apartment empty, and Ted points out that maybe   Salt is telling the truth and she's being set up.  Meanwhile Salt is climbing around the building and   visits her young neighbor to ask her to take care  of her dog while she's gone. Salt takes the chance   to change into new clothes too and begins thinking  of Mike again. In the old days, Salt would show up   at the museum a lot just to befriend him for the  mission, but she became legitimately interested   in him. Afterward, Salt leaves the building with  a hat on her head, but Ted recognizes her anyway   and they begin to chase her through the city.  Eventually they manage to surround her on the   highway, and Salt tries to explain she's innocent  - someone is setting her up to distract the CIA   from the real person that will be killing  the Russian president. Nobody believes her,   so Salt decides to jump off the highway, landing  on a truck that helps her get away. The CIA and   the police immediately begin chasing her in their  cars, prompting Salt to begin jumping from truck   to truck. When they get close enough, Peabody  tries to shoot her and ends up wounding Salt   on her hip, causing her to fall and continue on  foot. At that moment, a biker appears on the road,   and Salt gets the chance to push him away and  steal his bike. This allows her to drive among the   cars, leaving the CIA behind because they don't  have room to follow. As Salt gets away, Peabody   gets a message from his research team explaining  that Salt lost her parents as a kid and was sent   to Russia, which matches Orlov's story. Moments  later, Salt goes to a biker bar to cover her wound   with a pad and change into new clothes as she  keeps thinking about Mike and the happiness they   had together. Next she takes a bus to New York,  and she remembers the day she was freed from the   Korean prison. She confessed to Mike that she was  actually CIA and their thing couldn't be, but Mike   didn't care and asked her to be his anyway. When  Salt arrives in New York, she stays at a luxury   hotel under a fake name and steals a coat from a  hanger. In her room, she takes off her contacts   and her fake teeth, revealing the truth: she is  indeed a Russian sleeper agent, and Orlov showing   up had been part of the plan to let her know her  next objective. Salt has brought a huge amount   of weapons with her, and she takes the venom from  the spider to poison her bullets. She also uses a   computer to download the maps of the subway system  tunnels to start planning the assassination of the   Russian president. While she dyes her hair black,  she remembers the day she was accepted into the   CIA and how easily she convinced everyone that  she wanted to protect the USA. The next day,   the streets are crowded with all the people that  came to say goodbye to the vice-president, and   the CIA is there on the lookout for Salt so she  takes the subway. The station that should stop at   the church is closed because of the funeral, but  Salt's prepared: she releases a smoke bomb in the   wagon and while everyone is distracted, she jumps  out of the subway, using the map she downloaded   to find her way through the tunnels. This allows  her to enter the church undetected, and she begins   fighting every guard she comes across to make her  way to the room that is exactly under the church   podium, where the Russian president is currently  giving a speech. Ted and Peabody receive a message   that they're losing guards and go to investigate,  but Salt is many steps ahead of them already:   she puts a bomb on the roof of the room, and  when it explodes, the floor crumbles under   the Russian president, making him fall into the  room underneath. Salt wastes no time and shoots   him with the poisoned bullet, the noise she makes  allows Peabody to find her. To Peabody's surprise,   Salt actually drops her gun and lets the cops  arrest her. As she's taken out of the building,   Ted yells at her, hurt by her betrayal. The  Russian president is declared dead on his way   to the hospital, and while Salt is taken away in  the police car, she remembers her childhood in the   training facility. When she was still a kid, she  was given full plastic surgery to change her face   plus the new name Evelyn Salt with an American  backstory. The kid in the bed next to her wondered   if Salt would ever miss them, but Salt didn't  reply. When the police car reaches the bridge,   Salt begins beating up the officers and causes the  vehicle to crash against other cops. After hitting   as many police cars as possible, Salt guides her  car off the bridge and manages to land safely   thanks to the airbags. A curious crowd begins  forming around the crash and Salt uses the chance   to escape without being noticed, stealing a hat  from a shop nearby on her way out. Sometime later,   Salt takes a boat and can't help thinking  about the day she was brought back to America   to be taken by a new family with whom she would  patiently until she got new orders. When Salt   makes it to the harbor, she sees on tv that there  are anti-American protests across Russia because   of what they see as an act of terrorism  against their president. In a bar nearby,   Salt reunites with Orlov, who calls her his  "perfect creation" because he's always been the   guy behind the KA project and the one who trained  her. He also scolds her again for getting married,   but Salt explains it was part of looking normal.  To make sure Salt is still loyal to the Russian   cause, Orlov takes her to his hideout and reveals  Mika is being held hostage in the water. Instead   of shooting him, which would be easy to endure,  they begin to slowly drown him to see if Salt will   react. Salt keeps a poker face, but it's clear  in her eyes how much it hurts her to be unable   to do anything. Now they know they can trust Salt,  everyone welcomes her warmly, and Salt recognizes   these men as other kids that were trained with  her. Afterward Orlov takes to her in private,   explaining the next step is to seize control  of this country's atomic weapons. Salt will   meet an agent in NATO uniform at a plane here,  and he'll give her the final instructions. This   means Salt has all the information she  needed and in a sudden turn of events,   she grabs a bottle and uses it to quickly kill  Orlov for ruining her life. Then she grabs a bunch   of grenades and guns in order to kill everyone  in the base without hesitation. Unfortunately   her revenge doesn't taste sweet because when she  checks on Mike he's obviously dead. Salt grieves   as she remembers how happy she had been on the  day of her wedding. Moments later, Salt goes to   take the assigned plane and is delighted to see  Shnaider, the boy that said he would miss her.   He's become a powerful colonel and he'll be taking  Salt as his attaché to the White House, where   they have to kill the American president. Shnaider  also points out there must be other sleeper agents   inside already. A few hours later, they arrive in  Washington and Salt puts on a man custom to match   the fake ID that Shnaider got him. They go through  White House security with no issues, and they   notice the CIA is attending the meeting with the  president as well. As part of the plan, Shnaider   suddenly begins pretending he's going crazy and  pushes Salt away before shooting at everyone in   his path. The guards take the president away right  before Shnaider activates an explosive, and Ted   tells his coworkers he thinks Salt may be around.  Salt is using the distraction created by Shnaider   to steal a card key and get rid of her costume.  She sees the agents taking the president to a   bunker by using the elevator, so after they're  gone, she knocks out the guard to then force open   the doors and climb down the elevator shaft. The  president and the agents make it to the bunker,   thus Salt rushes to sneak inside the corridor  right before the doors close, knocking out any   guard she finds in the way. While Salt destroys  the panel that controls the doors and the cameras,   the team informs the president that intel has  confirmed Russia is getting its missiles ready.   The president asks to start looking at their  nuclear options while some agents go out to   check what happened to the doors, but Salt easily  beats them up. The president gets in contact   with some army leaders to get the authorization  code for their nuclear weapons. The White House   security team discovers Salt is approaching them  and Ted asks for a weapon, but the guard refuses   because of protocol related to the president's  presence. Ted suddenly shows his true colors and   takes the weapons from the guard by force to then  kill everyone in the room. Ted reveals he's also   a Russian sleeper agent and asks the president to  collaborate, when the president refuses, Ted kills   him too. When Salt finally makes it inside, she  finds the final door locked and must talk to Ted   through the intercoms. Ted explains he never told  her the truth because making friends is dangerous,   and she didn't recognize him because he was in  a class ahead of hers. A new security team is   already outside trying to bring down the door  while Salt pays attention to what Ted is doing,   learning that he'll launch nuclear missiles into  the Middle East to incite those countries to   attack the USA. Salt tells Ted she wants to help  him and be with him, but when Ted is about to open   the door, he sees something shocking on the news:  the Russian president is just fine and his death   had been attributed to temporary paralysis, which  had been Salt's plan with the spider poison all   along. Ted realizes Salt stopped being loyal to  Russia when she fell in love with Mike and to get   her back, he starts explaining he was the one  that had to convince Orlov to use Salt as the   agent for the assassination. Orlov hadn't wanted  to at first because he knew she wouldn't come out   of it alive and he was fond of her. Ted is also  the one that asked Orlov to take Mike hostage,   hearing this makes Salt so furious that she starts  shooting at the glass to get him, but the window's   bulletproof. While Ted uses the president's hand  to authorize the missiles, Salt changes tactics   and shoots at the wall to reveal the system that  keeps the locks up. By destroying it she finally   gains access to the office and begins fighting  Ted hand-to-hand. At first Ted seems to easily   overpower her, but soon Salt manages to push him  away and rushes to the desk to stop the launch.   At that moment, the security team makes its way  inside and knocks Salt to the floor with a shot,   which she survives because she's wearing a vest.  Salt gets arrested, but since the security cameras   were off, Ted is still seen as CIA and innocent.  Peabody arrives to inspect the scene and hears   about what happened with Orlov and his gang, which  makes him confused about Salt's intentions. As the   guards begin escorting Salt out, she notices  Ted taking a pair of scissors from the doctor   tending his wounds, so she doesn't hesitate  to act first. The chains of her handcuffs are   thrown against Ted's neck and Salt jumps over the  railing, quickly killing him. Moments later, Salt   is put in a helicopter with Peabody, who demands  some answers. Salt tells him about Ted, and when   Peabody doesn't believe her, she points out she  could've killed him and the president back in the   church but she didn't. She knows there are more  sleeper agents and she swears she wants to kill   them all for revenge. Seeing her determination and  getting a message that confirms Salt killed Orlov,   Peabody realizes she's the only defense they have  against moles, but nobody will believe her story.   They'll have to do this the illegal way, so  Peabody releases her handcuffs when nobody is   watching, and when the helicopter flies above  the river, Salt jumps out as Peabody pretends   she took him by surprise. Peabody also asks the  helicopter to look around, but Salt is already   swimming out of the river and running through  the forest. Sometime later, the media reports   that the new president of the USA has traveled to  Russia for a peacekeeping visit. During the speech   he gave there, he announced all sleeper agents  including Salt are dead. It is also revealed he   was orphaned as a kid during an accident here in  Russia, implying he's a sleeper agent as well.