Year: 2010 | Director: Phillip Noyce | Genre: Action, spy thriller
Starring: Angelina Jolie (Evelyn Salt), Liev Schreiber (Ted Winter), Chiwetel Ejiofor (Peabody), Daniel Olbrychski (Orlov)
Country: USA | Runtime: ~100 minutes
Tagline idea: Who is Salt?
Plot and main characters
Evelyn Salt is a highly skilled CIA officer. The film opens with her surviving brutal captivity in North Korea, then returning to duty in the U.S. Two years later, a Russian defector named Orlov walks into the CIA and claims Evelyn is a Russian sleeper agent sent to destroy America. When her own agency begins to doubt her, she runs — partly to protect her husband, Mike, and partly to learn who is setting her up.
- Evelyn Salt: A brilliant operative with a hidden past. She moves like a ghost, improvises fast, and keeps her true motives private.
- Ted Winter: Salt’s colleague and friend at the agency. He seems protective of her — maybe too protective.
- Peabody: A by-the-book counterintelligence officer. He insists on proof, but he also listens.
- Orlov: A hardline spymaster who trained children to be deep-cover agents for a future “Day X.”
- Mike: Salt’s husband, a kind arachnologist whose love pulled Salt toward a normal life.
As the chase unfolds, Salt appears to carry out a bold attempt on the visiting Russian President during a funeral in Washington, D.C. This makes the world think she has switched sides. Then she tracks Orlov to a hidden network of sleepers. Orlov reveals he groomed her since childhood for a master plan to spark war between superpowers. He murders Mike to force her “loyalty.” Salt kills Orlov and goes after the planners behind “Day X.”
The trail leads to the White House, where a crisis locks key leaders in a secure bunker. There, the truth surfaces: Winter is the real architect of Day X. He wants to launch U.S. nuclear missiles to trigger a global disaster. Salt must stop him and also prove what really happened to the Russian President.
Meaning explained simply
The movie asks a basic question: who are you — your past, or your choices right now? Salt was trained as a weapon, but her present-day actions define her. She loves Mike, values innocent lives, and refuses to let madmen start a war. In simple terms, the film says: even if someone pushed you one way for years, you can still turn and choose another path.
It also plays with trust. Governments, agencies, and labels (“traitor” or “patriot”) can be wrong. What matters is evidence and behavior. Peabody is a good example: he suspects Salt, but he watches closely, adapts, and finally sees the truth. The message is clear: don’t trust names and headlines; trust what people actually do.
Finally, the film updates Cold War paranoia for the 21st century. Instead of open war, hidden networks and disinformation blow up trust. The antidote is human judgment — and one person willing to step up when systems fail.
Ending explained
Here’s the end, step by step:
- The “assassination” reveal: We learn Salt didn’t truly kill the Russian President. She used a rare spider venom to make his heartbeat and breathing nearly undetectable, simulating death. Later, he revives and tells officials the truth. So Salt staged the death to stop the plan without causing real war.
- Inside the bunker: Winter exposes himself as the top “Day X” operative. He kills and manipulates people in the secure room and tries to launch U.S. nuclear missiles, aiming to trigger a catastrophic conflict. Salt fights her way inside, outsmarts security, and stops the countdown. She confronts Winter and kills him, ending his chain of command.
- Clearing Salt’s name: The revived Russian President confirms Salt saved him. That flips the story: she wasn’t a foreign attacker — she was working to prevent world war, even if her methods looked guilty in the moment.
- Peabody’s choice: Peabody arrests Salt, but he listens. In the helicopter, he hears that she will hunt the remaining sleeper agents and that she won’t stop. He realizes she has already prevented a nuclear strike and that she is the best chance to dismantle the rest of “Day X.” He secretly frees her handcuffs and lets her escape.
- Open road ending: Salt runs into the night, now an outlaw to the system but a protector in practice. She is no longer anyone’s asset. She chooses her own mission: take down every sleeper behind Day X. 🕵️♀️
Common questions cleared up:
- Is Salt good or bad? She was trained as a sleeper, but her choices prove she’s trying to save lives. In the end, she’s not a villain — she’s a rogue hero.
- Why pretend to kill the Russian President? If she openly protected him, the real conspirators would scatter. The fake death flushed them out and pushed Winter to reveal himself in the bunker.
- Why does she kill Orlov and Winter? They murdered Mike and were about to start nuclear war. Eliminating them dismantles the core of Day X.
- Why does Peabody let her go? He finally has the full picture: she stopped a launch, the Russian leader is alive, and there are more sleepers to find. Letting her go is the fastest way to prevent the next strike.
Think of the finale as a triangle of truths:
1) Salt’s apparent crimes were misdirection,
2) Winter was the inside threat,
3) Peabody’s judgment bridges system and reality. Together, they explain why Salt runs free at the end — to finish the job the system can’t.