He's on a mission so secret, even he doesn't know about it.
Wallace Ritchie (BILL MURRAY) is getting a big surprise for his birthday.
The na�ve video store clerk from Iowa has flown to London to celebrate his birthday with his wealthy younger brother, James (PETER GALLAGHER) on the very night of James' high-profile client dinner party that may net him millions from a German investment firm.
Hoping to keep Wallace occupied for the evening, James springs for a ticket for Wallace to the "Theater of Life," a participatory theater experience, where his older brother will assume a character and join a group of actors portraying real people in dramatic situations. James ushers Wallace out of his house (and his hair) for an evening of innocent fun, accompanying him down to the corner phone box where the birthday boy will receive the initial call kicking off his theatrical adventure.
Just as expected, the phone rings. Wallace answers, takes down his "instructions" and sets off, hoping he gets it all right. But the call that Wallace has mistakenly accepted was intended for a government-hired assassin bent on toppling the current regime in the United Kingdom and reviving the Cold War with Russia. And the phone call from the "Theater of Life," intended for Wallace? A cold-blooded gun-for-hire is about to make his stage debut.
Blissfully unaware, Wallace heads into a world of shadowy cat-and-mouse dealings involving defense ministers, call girls, Russian hitmen and more intrigue than Bond ever had to face. All along, Wallace can't believe how believable this make-believe appears. That beautiful and mysterious woman (JOANNE WHALLEY) knows her lines so well. And that dead hit man in her sitting room - Wallace - has never seen such a convincing presentation of death from an actor in any of the videos he rents back home. Likewise, Wallace's pursuers are confounded by their adversary's fearlessness in the face of threats, torture and bullets.
But Wallace forges ahead, believing that, for tonight anyway, all the world is indeed a stage.
Now, the balance of power between two of the most powerful nations in the world rests in the hands of one man who doesn't even know the difference between Queen Victoria and Victoria's Secret.
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