Rogue Agent's arrival on Netflix called into question how much of the thriller is true.
The spy drama stars James Norton (recently seen in Bob Marley: One Love) as Robert Freegard, a conman who tricked several people into believing he was an undercover MI5 agent.
The movie flew under the radar when it was released in 2022 but earned a 72% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Is Rogue Agent a True Story?
Rogue Agent is based on a chilling true story featuring a real man named Robert Freegard. Given how wild some of Freegard's actions were in the film, it was called into question how accurate they are.
It may shock some, but many of the crimes Freegard committed were real.
The majority of facts regarding Freegard's crimes are based on an unpublished article by Michael Bronner. Star James Norton said Bronner's work was "incredibly thorough" and helped to inform his portrayal of Freegard (via Newsweek):
"You need to be educated, you need to be informed. So by the end of it, I knew so much about Freegard. We also had Michael Bronner's original article, which is like this 11,000-word piece but actually never published. [It's] incredibly thorough and all backed up and verified by the original victims. So, we had a wealth of information."
Bronner ended up helping to write the script for the movie which grounded its events in reality.
Freegard did pretend to be an MI5 agent to swindle people out of their money. He also falsely offered his victims jobs at the intelligence agency, playing on their willingness to help make a difference (his emotional manipulation bears some similarities to Belle Gibson's con in Netflix's Apple Cider Vinegar).
In the opening of the movie, Freegard is seen asking three victims for their help in capturing members of the IRA, before telling them a few months later they would have to leave their lives behind due to their cover being compromised and he manages to strip them of their money in return for his "protection".
The characters Sophie, Mae, and Phil had their names changed in Rogue Agent, but they are based on real-life people, John Atkinson, Sarah Smith, and Maria Hendy.
Smith and Hendy's storylines are prominent in Rogue Agent. Freegard is often seen contacting Sophie (based on Smith), who he pretends is an employee of his at MI5. In reality, Smith ended up believing Freegard's lies for 10 years and was on the run with him until his capture in 2002.
Similarly, Hendy's storyline is depicted accurately in Rogue Agent, with the woman giving birth to two children while with Freegard. Gemma Arterton's character, Alice Archer, is pivotal in capturing Freegard after she is also seduced by his lies and has her money stolen.
While Archer is not a real person but is inspired by the real woman who brought him to justice. Archer and Freegard's cat-and-mouse dynamic in Rogue Agent is based on the couple's real relationship, Bronner told Newsweek:
"The woman that inspired Alice Archer's character was, for me, the most fascinating, because she was so smart. So it was hardest to imagine that she would fall into this, but then she had this weakness. And she had this need for a thrill, and she saw it as a challenge and I think he saw it as a challenge. It really was a cat and mouse.
She kind of fought, in the end, she fought the fight for all of them [the victims]. She's the one who decided, she told me straight up. She said, 'It was hard for me because I was deeply involved with him. But I was gonna f****** nail him.' It's those two things that she went back and forth, and back and forth."
The events of Freegard's capture in Rogue Agent played out similarly to those in reality, with Alice, Sophie, and Special Agent Sandy Harland helping to track down and capture the conman. In real life, it was Freegard's American girlfriend, Kim Adams, who assisted with the arrest which occurred at Heathrow Airport after months of FBI surveillance.
Unfortunately, as depicted in the movie, Freegard was released from prison, despite receiving a life sentence. Freegard was able to appeal on the basis that his victims were not kidnapped and willingly agreed to go with him. He was released in 2009 and was not seen for years.
At the time of Rogue Agent's release in 2022, Freegard's whereabouts were still unknown. Norton said he hoped the movie's exposure of his crimes would make Freegard's life "a little less peaceful:"
"So I think it's the sad fact that he's still out there. And, you know, like a lot of these shows about con men, I hope [Rogue Agent] makes their life a little less peaceful."
However, an update came on Freegard earlier in 2025 when the criminal was sentenced to six years in prison in France for driving his car into two police officers while avoiding questioning (via BBC).
Rogue Agent is available to watch on Netflix.
