“All spies need to be untraceable,” says Anthony Russo, half of the Russo Brothers directing team alongside sibling Joe for The Gray Man. “Gentry needs to be that to the 10th degree.”

No wonder: Furloughed from prison in exchange for performing mercenary CIA missions, Gentry unearths dark agency secrets that suddenly put him in the crosshairs of a wildly unhinged former colleague (a mustachioed Chris Evans, playing beautifully against type). In order to stay alive, says Russo, “Gentry can’t hide in the gray any longer,” and the chase moves from Prague to Bangkok to Paris in what is touted as Netflix’s most expensive film to date.

Also in the dark no longer: a sinister counter to Evans’ Captain America role, whom the Russos directed in four Avengers-series films. Evans was quite game. “We started thinking, ‘Well, what’s the furthest we can take Chris away from that character?’” Russo says, adding, “The mustache was his idea.”

The Gray Man, Friday, July 22, Netflix