The billionaire CEO of one of the world’s most successful companies is drawn into an affair with an alluring, jet-setting businesswoman. He becomes closer and shares more—only to discover that she’s secretly a Chinese spy. It sounds like the plot of a Hollywood blockbuster. But a version of that plotline is allegedly unfolding for real inside NVIDIA, the world’s second most valuable company.
CEO Jensen Huang has admitted to an affair, reportedly with Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed who is accused of working with the Chinese government. NVIDIA’s board says it’s still investigating the allegations, and that it has no reason to believe trade secrets were compromised.
Hollywood, meanwhile, has been exploring the “honey trap” plot for nearly a century. Here are ten notable examples.
1. The Americans (2013-2018)
FX’s critically acclaimed spy drama offers a multi-layered portrayal of the long-term honey trap. Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys star as Elizabeth and Philip Jennings, Soviet spies infiltrating America during the Cold War. Most honey trap plots portray a female spy as the seducer. The Americans flips the script–with devastating results.
2. Red Sparrow (2018)
Jennifer Lawrence plays Dominika Egorova, a Russian ballerina recruited into a secret intelligence program. Pursuing a CIA operative and carefully controlled by her Russian handlers, Egorova discovers that the manipulation of a honey trap agent can go both ways.
3. Lust, Caution (2007)
The honey trap is a staple of Western spy films. But the same basic plotline cuts across cultures. In this film from Ang Lee, Tang Wei portrays a young woman who is recruited by a resistance organization during the Japanese occupation of China.Her mission is to arrange for her target’s assassination, but feelings begin to get in the way.
4. Notorious (1946)
Alfred Hitchcock’s 1946 film is proof that the honey trap has fascinated screenwriters and directors for generations. With a legendary cast, including Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant, Notorious explores what happens when a honey trap becomes a love triangle.
5. The Little Drummer Girl (2018)
Although Hollywood has provided especially fertile ground to depict honey traps on the screen, the idea of a honey trap is a staple of the spy novel, too. Case in point: John le Carre’s espionage thriller, which was adapted for the screen as The Little Drummer Girl. The miniseries depicts a young recruit of the Israeli intelligence forces tasked with infiltrating a Palestinian militant organization, blurring the lines between fake and real identities.
6. Black Book (2006)
This Paul Verhoeven film is set in the Nazi occupied Netherlands during World War 2. Tasked with infiltrating German intelligence circles, Jewish operative Rachel Stein (Carice van Houten) begins to question the real loyalties of those around her.
7. The Handmaiden (2016)
Most honey traps involve spies and the clandestine world of espionage. But some explore the same general idea in less secretive places. South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-Wook’s 2016 film depicts a young pickpocket who is recruited to help a con artist seduce a wealthy heiress. It quickly becomes unclear, though, who is manipulating whom.
8. M. Butterfly (1993)
Much of what happens in the top secret world of espionage remains exactly that: top secret. But occasionally real-life spy dramas are declassified. When that happens, they often make great material for a Hollywood story. That’s the case with this film about a diplomat who is seduced by a Chinese opera singer. Inspired by real events, the film shows how even a high-level figure can be drawn into a honey trap.
9. From Russia With Love (1963)
James Bond may be able to skydive into a falling airplane or windsurf a tsunami, but even he can fall prey to the honey trap. The classic Bond film From Russia With Love centers around Soviet clerk Tatiana Romanova, who appears willing to defect–and draws bond into a romantic entanglement. But as is so often the case in Bond’s world, things get “shaken” up, as the truth about Romanova comes out.
10. Ex Machina (2014)
Not every honey trap operative needs to be human. In Alex Garland’s classic sci fi film, a young programmer, Caleb, is tasked with evaluating an advanced artificial intelligence system named Ava. As man and machine become closer, the film questions whether their attraction is real–or whether Ava is secretly manipulating Caleb to achieve her own aim. Given NVIDIA’s role as the shovel seller of the AI gold rush, the idea of a honey-trapping AI feels especially apt.
