If you’re searching for an under-the-radar gem in the spy genre, look no further than Relay (2024), a cleverly crafted thriller bolstered by exceptional visual storytelling. When whistleblower Sarah Grant (Lily James) uncovers gross malfeasance on the part of her employer, she makes off with top-secret documents in the hopes of bringing the corrupt company to justice. She can’t get traction with the major law firms, unfortunately; instead, she is referred to a mysterious fixer (Riz Ahmed) who specializes in brokering arrangements between whistleblowers and their powerful enemies. Crafty, inscrutable, and highly competent, the fixer only communicates via a telephone relay service for the hearing impaired, and through this confidential channel makes contact with Sarah to advise her through the crisis. Staying one step ahead of the mercenary operatives that have been hired to recover Sarah’s evidence, the fixer methodically executes an intricate operation to ensure Sarah’s safety. Along the way, though, he develops an unexpected connection with her that threatens to derail her chances and expose his carefully guarded identity.
Relay is strongest in its early slow-build, as a series of calculated, low-dialogue scenes set the stage, visually situating the viewer in tantalizing intrigue. Ahmed is perfect casting for the fixer, with just the right mix of presence and mystique to give his silent hero accessibility. The spy genre is a popular destination for “competence porn” and Relay has this in spades, not just in the fixer’s elaborate tradecraft but in that of the ruthless operatives (Jared Abrahamson, Pun Bandhu, Willa Fitzgerald, and Sam Worthington) pitted against him. Even the more expected tropes that develop later — the “romance under fire” subplot, the inevitable breakdown of clockwork planning into desperate violence — are slickly integrated. Like the best spy fiction, the story exposes the rot at the core of our deeply flawed systems, through the eyes of a flawed but admirable hero fighting against them. First rate.
