Nicolas Winding Refn’s New Spy Movie ‘The Avenging Silence’ Just Got a Crazy Full Synopsis

For those Nicolas Winding Refn faithfuls on the lookout for news of his next project in the works, we’ve got some exciting news for you. Fresh off his ambitious and strange The Neon Demon, the director is already hard at work on The Avenging Silence, which just got its first detailed synopsis and boy, it’s quite something.

The industry hub Crouching Tigers on the Macao International Film Festival & Awards website has both the film’s logline and official full synopsis on display. According to the webpage, Crouching Tigers was developed as “a new destination for industry professionals looking for original opportunities for co-production and co-financing of their feature length film projects” based in and around the countries in Asia. Since Refn’s new movie is set in Japan and deals with the Yakuza (I know, right??), he has a prominent spot on their list.

Here’s the logline:

A former European spy, accepts a confidential mission from a Japanese businessman exiled to France to take down the head of the most treacherous Yakuza boss in Japan.

And here’s the bonkers synopsis:

The spy was one of the leading spies in Europe. An injury inflicted to his vocal cords during a failed mission six years ago left him mute, forcing him to leave his profession. Now, six years later, he is sought out and put on confidential assignment by a former Yakuza, now a retired Japanese businessman in exile in France, to track down and kill the head of the most dangerous Yakuza family in Japan.

Afraid of flying, our spy anonymously boards a cargo ship headed for Tokyo. An onboard explosion sinks the ship and our spy finds himself washed ashore on a life raft in southern Japan. As a mute, our spy must silently journey through Japan seeking 4 clues – symbolizing conquest, war, famine, and death – which will guide him to the unknown location of the Yakuza boss. Meanwhile, the Yakuza boss, known for his 2004 mass slaughter of Yakuza members who had turned against him, is believed to be plotting to reenter the Japanese underworld after living in his own surreptitious world in the mountains, void of all technology. This way of life becomes an obsession for the Yakuza boss. Rumors spread that he had committed suicide years ago but escaped prisoners from his hidden camp told stories of his plan for a comeback. Now rival Yakuza families suspect he is forming a master plan to return, a plan that unburies the most infamous story of Yakuza betrayal.

Our spy finds himself on an existential journey through Japan in search of pieces to the puzzle that will lead him to a confrontation with the ultimate Yakuza boss in a terrifying conclusion.

Regardless of your opinions on Refn’s past projects, this sounds pretty terrific. It’s a familiar blend of spy vs. spy (or spy vs. international gang boss) and Refn’s particular love of the esoteric. And he’ll be working with Robert Wade and Neal Purvis, who have co-written five of the most recent James Bond films from The World Is Not Enough to Skyfall. He’s basically got the spy movie genre in the bag with those two. All in all, his next movie is shaping up to be quite a project.