Agent Cody Banks is a 2003 film that follows the adventures of the 15-year-old title character (played by Frankie Muniz) who has to finish his chores, avoid getting grounded, and save the world by going undercover for the CIA. Hilary Duff, Angie Harmon, Keith David, Ian McShane, and Arnold Vosloo co-star. The film is directed by the Norwegian director Harald Zwart. The film was released in the U.S. on March 14, 2003
This film was the first major motion picture project for Duff apart from the film spinoff of her Lizzie McGuire TV series. The same can be said for Harmon, who had just come off a three-year stint as Assistant D.A. Abbie Carmichael on NBC's Law & Order.
A sequel, Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London, was released the following year.
Plot
Cody Banks (Frankie Muniz), a 15-year-old high school student, applies for a junior position for the Central Intelligence Agency, answering to agent Ronica Myles (Harmon). Cody is called upon a mission to find information about a scientist named Dr. Connors (Martin Donovan) who ends up working for ERIS led by an evil mastermind named Dr. Brinkman (Ian McShane) and his henchmen Francois Molay (Arnold Vosloo). Cody does this by going to his daughter, Natalie Connors' (Hilary Duff) school. Cody accepts but soon finds he has no social skill with girls and has no time to do this while balancing his chores and homework. The CIA decides to help by doing his chores and homework, trying to build his status, and going into the school to set him up with Natalie. Natalie finally decides to invite Cody to her 16th birthday party, where he goes undercover to her father's lab. Cody finds that Dr. Brinkman is planning to use nanobots — which can destroy any carbon or silicon-based substance — to destroy the world's defense systems so he can threaten anyone who opposes him. Since the nanobots are inactive in the cold, he plans to use ice cubes to distribute them.
Cody soon falls in love and almost ruins the whole operation by telling Natalie everything causing the CIA to revoke his status after a fight with some students at the party. After finding out, Dr. Brinkman sends Francois and some men to kidnap Natalie and bring her into his base in the mountains.
Cody and Natalie are eating ice cream at a restaurant, when Dr. Brinkman's men come over to their table and fight with Cody, finally knocking Cody unconscious. Cody wakes up later, regaining his consciousness and is relieved from the mission as a result of getting too close to the subject. Cody then returns to his house and his parents punish him for staying out past his curfew. But Cody is set on rescuing Natalie. Cody gets his brother Alex (Connor Widdows) to make sure his parents do not find out that he is gone by giving him the 5,000 dollars the CIA gave him. When Cody's mother checks on him, Alex hides under Cody's covers and uses a little machine that says "I guess" in Cody's voice when a button is pressed. Cody manages to sneak into the CIA weapons hold and steals a rocket powered snowboard and other devices. Cody gets a ride to the top of the mountain and snowboards to the factory where Natalie is held. On the way, he gets caught in a grove of trees as Ronica finds him using a SoloTrek XFV (see below). He convinces her that he needs to save Natalie and they go in. Cody manages to rescue Natalie but Ronica and Natalie are caught going out. Natalie is held hostage by Dr. Brinkman, who puts an ice cube, with a nanobot inside, on her forehead to make her father program the system. Cody plants an explosive charge and Natalie places the partly melted cube in Dr. Brinkman's mouth. After Dr. Brinkman's death, Francois and Cody is the final confrontation, and Cody was finally defeated Francois. Cody, Mr. Connors, Natalie and Ronica manage to escape the exploding facility. The film ends with Cody and Natalie having their first kiss.
Cast
Response
The film received mixed reviews from critics; it currently holds a 38% on Rotten Tomatoes
TV airings
The original Agent Cody Banks has aired on U.S. networks such as The WB (now The CW as the result of a merger between The WB and UPN), ABC Family and Disney XD (the former Toon Disney). Since the latter two's sister station, Disney Channel, has already aired the sequel, Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London, Disney Channel and also aired the original as well.
See also
External links
