Dying of the Light (2014)

Evan Lake (Nicolas Cage) is a highly-decorated veteran CIA agent and Intelligence Star recipient reduced to a desk job at Langley with his protege and close friend Milton "Milt" Schultz (Anton Yelchin). Twenty-two years ago during an op in Africa, Lake was captured by terrorist Muhammad Banir (Alexander Karim) and tortured by having his head repeatedly bashed and having his ear mutilated. During the extraction and ensuing explosion, Banir went missing and was presumed dead, although Lake never bought it and has obsessively tried to find Banir ever since. As a result of the trauma he sustained under torture, Lake is now suffering from early stage frontal temporal dementia, and his boss considers him a liability to the agency.

In Bucharest, police tail a Kenyan national, Abdi, carrying a mysterious USB drive. A car chase ensues, and rather than giving himself up, the courier throws himself and the drive off a bridge. The Romanian Intelligence Serviceretrieve the drive and the body, but the data is corrupted, so it is subsequently sent to the CIA. Milt gets a hit on large quantities of an experimental drug treating thalassemia, information corroborated in the USB data. The drugs are for an anonymous Kenyan client, and are coming from a University of Bucharest clinic run by Professor Dr. Iulius Cornell. Since thalassemia is hereditary, Milt concludes that Banir is ordering shipments of the drug through a middleman, Dr. Wangari. He tells Lake, who asks his superiors to go after Banir. However, they still believe he's dead, and refuse. Later, Lake has a violent outburst during a search and resigns on the spot. During this time, in Kenya, Banir sends his man Aasim to Bucharest to find out why Abdi has not delivered the medicine.

Lake tells Milt about his mental deterioration, which becomes increasingly apparent as the film progresses. When Lake decides to go to Romania, Milt goes along. In Bucharest, the men meet Michelle Zubarain (Irène Jacob), a former journalist, possible agent, and Lake's one-time love, who has information about Cornell providing the drug Banir needs. The trio meet with the professor, compelling him to acknowledge his role and to admit that Banir is forcing him to travel to Kenya. As Lake, Milt, and Michelle leave the professor's office building, Aasim sees them. The next day, the three return to the professor's office in hopes of following whomever the professor meets. They watch until the professor comes outside to meet Aasim, but Aasim spots them and runs. While Lake takes the money, drugs, and passport from the professor in order to impersonate him in Kenya, Milt catches Aasim and slits his throat, effectively preventing him from contacting Banir.

Michelle finds a make-up specialist to help Lake transform into the professor, then Lake and Milt fly to Mombasa. The disguise works, and Lake is driven out of the city to Banir's hideout, and through a ruse and some small hand-to-hand combat, is finally alone with Banir. Lake reveals himself to the terrorist, but at that moment has an attack of dementia-fueled flashbacks, during which the disparity between the young terrorist who maimed Lake twenty-two years earlier and the now aging, fragile, and terminally-ill man is very clear. Without taking any further action, Lake abruptly leaves Banir. The next day, Lake and Milt are strolling through a Mombasan park full of people when a shot rings out and a young Kenyan passing Lake suddenly drops. Lake sees that Milt has been hit, too (not fatally), and returns fire to the gunmen, ultimately killing both and being shot twice himself. Understanding that Banir has sent them, he takes their vehicle, driving into the night back to Banir's hideout, where he engages in a short (and prone) knife fight with Banir before killing him. But as he returns to Mombasa, he is still losing blood, and the flashbacks and voices return. Lake appears to drive head-on into a truck. The closing moments of the film move (with a voice-over by Lake) to Arlington National Cemetery, to Langley, to Lake giving a speech (from early in the film), and to Milt giving Michelle a memento of Lake's that is important to her.