Night Agent on Netflix: Does This Secret Agent Program Exist?

In Netflix’s latest hit series, Night Agent, the opening pitch revolves around an undercover operation taking place in a White House basement room. This operation is codenamed Operation Night. The hero of the series, Peter Sutherland, played by Gabriel Basso, works as a receptionist there.

His job is to take incoming calls and assist the person on the other end of the line by referring them to the appropriate authorities. But who calls Peter and what is this secret operation that serves as the basis of the series? Who has a number for him to call and why?

So many questions that require checking whether the action of the night exists or is just a fictional creation taken from a novel. night agent By Matthew Quirk.

Is Night Action a real agency?

If the series is to be believed, Night Action is a top secret agency for members of agencies like the CIA, NSA, DEA, and FBI as a last resort when something goes wrong.

And while it’s impossible to prove with certainty that there is a Night Action Agency as such – as it would be a secret program – it’s highly likely that there is some sort of unofficial conduit for secret agents in distress, as happens with Rose Larkin’s aunt and uncle (Lucian Buchanan). .

In the series, Peter tells Diane Farr (Hong Chow), the president’s chief of staff, that he has never heard of the Secret Service, to which he replies that he shouldn’t, and that it is still more secret than CIA operations.

Keep in mind, however, that series creator Sean Ryan makes it all look pretty believable by giving the show the same vibe found in more traditional spy dramas.

Finding a nighttime agency

The series is adapted from Matthew Quirk’s novel of the same name, which follows Jack Ryan a la Tom Clancy’s. The author recently explained in an interview A real bookworm How he recorded a nighttime operation:

“For my research, I talked to a friend of mine and his work turned out to be much more interesting and mysterious than I suspected, which is one of the many factors that led me to look for an action novel in the White House Situation Room.

I also talked to members of the FBI and CIA about what goes on in the night watches and situation room and how a counterintelligence scenario like the one in the book might play out.“.

So it looks like someone is playing a very similar role in the real-life White House, just maybe not in the basement as seen on the show.

Is Peter Sutherland’s Night Shift Real?

The answer is no. It is not possible to verify any substantial evidence that there is a post known as Night Officer. But Matthew Quirk again used a friend who works for the FBI as a model to represent Peter Sutherland’s work. He states:

“The story was inspired by a friend of mine in Washington who worked the night shift at the FBI. He didn’t talk much about his job at the time, but I heard he was on the night shift, responsible for monitoring seizures and waking up the manager when needed.

This idea popped into my head: a young man sat by the phone all night, every night, biding his time. What happens when the phone rings and he suddenly finds himself in the middle of an emergency, in front of the most powerful people in Washington?“

Finally, while we may question the credibility of the original script, we can now assume that Night Agent is indeed based on a similar government agency, but it doesn’t go much further than that. But if the action of the night was real, we still wouldn’t know!