“The Catcher Was a Spy,” tells the true story of Morris “Moe” Berg (Paul Rudd), the Major League Baseball player, Ivy League graduate, attorney and top-secret spy who helped the U.S. defeat Nazi Germany in the race to build the atomic bomb.
With fifteen seasons of Major League Baseball under his belt, Moe Berg walks away from his catcher’s career and the love of his life to dedicate his supreme intellect, linguistic skills and athletic prowess to U.S. intelligence’s wartime efforts. After excelling at the rigorous training mandatory for intelligence officers in America’s pre-CIA agency, Moe convinces O.S.S. Chief Bill Donovan (Jeff Daniels) that his unique capabilities will serve the nation singularly well in espionage matters abroad. Soon Donovan tasks Moe with a deadly overseas mission: to head to war-torn Europe and infiltrate the inner sanctum of the Nazi atomic program’s gifted lead physicist, Werner Heisenberg (Mark Strong). Backed by U.S. military specialist Robert Furman (Guy Pearce) and renowned Dutch-American physicist Samuel Goudsmit (Paul Giamatti), Moe traverses the embattled villages of Italy and the upper echelons of Swiss academia on the hunt for the elusive Heisenberg. But once Moe ascertains exactly how close Heisenberg is to building an atomic bomb for the Nazi enemy, he is to make a life-or-death decision that will impact the very future of humanity.
Starring Paul Rudd, Jeff Daniels, Mark Strong, Sienna Miller, Guy Pearce, Paul Giamatti, and Hiroyuki Sanada.
Written by Robert Rodat (Academy Award Nominee, “Saving Private Ryan”).
Directed by Ben Lewin (“The Sessions”).
In theaters June 22nd
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