A Spy’s Guide to Spy Movies: Three Days of the Condor
Somebody is always telling you something.
A tip. A warning. A story about why the deal fell through.
Most people hear it and ask one question: is it true?
Which is a good question for later.
But first, a spy asks two questions: Why are they telling me this? And what do they want?
That’s Source Analysis. Information never arrives alone. It almost always arrives attached to a person. And people have interests.
The truth of the information can be checked later.
The interests of the source of the information are where you start.
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In Three Days of the Condor, Robert Redford plays Joe Turner. Code name: Condor.
Turner reads for the CIA. That’s the whole job. He sits in a New York brownstone with a small team and reads everything published in the world. Novels. Journals. Mysteries.
He’s looking for patterns. Because at that time, spies sometimes communicated in hidden ways through published works.
One day, Turner slips out the back door to pick up lunch. When he comes back, everyone in the office is dead.
He does what he was trained to do. He calls the Agency’s emergency line.
The voice on the phone is calm. Official. It tells him where to go and who will meet him. Turner trusts it, because it’s the channel you’re supposed to trust.
At the meeting, the man sent to bring him in pulls a gun. Turner’s friend dies. Turner runs.
Somewhere between his report and that alley, Turner’s call reached someone who wanted him dead. Turner doesn’t know who. Which means every voice that says “come in, you’re safe” now should be assessed with the same two questions.
Why are they telling me this?
And what do they want?
He stops trusting titles.
He starts weighing interests.
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The man hunting Turner is a contract killer named Joubert. Polite. Precise. Paid. For most of the film, he’s the most dangerous man in Turner’s world.
At the end, Joubert’s contract changes. And Joubert, with nothing to gain from Turner’s death, gives him advice. Honest advice. He tells him how the next attempt on his life will come. It will come from a friendly voice. There will be an offer. And a car that slows.
The most trustworthy man in the movie is the killer.
You can trust a source for their character. But, in most cases, it’s better to trust them for their interests.
Joubert’s interests are visible: he does what he’s paid to do, nothing more. Turner can trust him exactly as far as those interests run.
The dangerous sources were the ones whose interests Turner couldn’t see. The calm voice on the official line. The friendly faces with hidden employers.
A source with a visible interest can be measured. A source with a hidden interest can’t be trusted at all.
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Your week is full of people sharing information with you.
The broker with an opportunity. The coworker with a warning about another coworker. The vendor’s hand-picked references.
Two things to check this week:
First, take the most important piece of information you received and run Turner’s questions before the truth question. Why did they tell me this? What do they want? If you can’t name their interest, you don’t know what you’re holding yet.
Second, find your Joubert. The source whose interest is visible. The inspector you pay. The auditor. The advisor whose fee doesn’t change with their answer. They beat the friendly voice with the hidden interest every time.
There are people in your life you should trust. Your spouse. Your family members. Your long-time friends. People who have earned your trust. You can trust them for their character.
For everyone else, trust shouldn’t be a feeling.
It should be a measurement of interests.
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Joe Turner survived because he asked “why are they telling me this?” before “is this true?”
Source Analysis is how you do it. Naming the source. Finding the interest. Weighing the information by who it arrived with.
The Spy’s Guide Briefing takes a framework like this one and applies it to what’s happening right now. Recently, it ran Source Analysis on a warning two presidents made about Russia. Another one ran the DADA chain to show how creating lots of new events can be a strategy.
To build your intelligence, get the Spy’s Guide Briefing here.
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Source Analysis is one of six frameworks on the Spy’s Guide frameworks page, and it’s from A Spy’s Guide to Thinking.
-John Braddock