‘The Gray Man,’ directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, is an action thriller. It is based on Mark Greaney’s 2009 novel of the same name, and it stars Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jessica Henwick, and Regé-Jean Page. As CIA Operative Sierra Six is pursued by his agency, the film introduces audiences to the fascinating world of espionage. As a result, viewers have a better understanding of Six’s history and his link to the Sierra Program.

What is the Sierra Program?

The Sierra Program is a shadowy training programme that trains skilled marksmen for the CIA. The programme provides context for the film’s protagonist, Sierra Six, and explains his unusual clandestine abilities. However, much about the training and its procedures remain unknown. When Donald Fitzroy (Billy Bob Thornton) visits a young Court Gentry in prison, we first learn of Sierra. Fitzroy recruits Gentry for the Sierra Program, and he is given the alias Sierra Six. The Sierra Program is supposed to be highly confidential and overseen by Fitzroy, who recruits ex-convicts for the CIA. As a result, the Sierra Agents are distrusted by the rest of the CIA.

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Apart from Six, the only other Sierra Agent introduced in the film is Callan Mulvey’s Dining Car, called Sierra Four. As a result, it is possible that some Sierra Program alumni are conducting clandestine operations across the world. It is indicated during a conversation between Sierra Six and Fitzroy that the CIA shut down the Sierra Program and that no strategy to remove the operatives from their duties was ever developed. Sierra Programs agents have no public records and are essentially invisible in the public eye. However, viewers also learn all Sierra operatives, except Six have burned out or are back in jail. 

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Is Sierra Program a Real CIA Program?

No, the Sierra Program is not based on a genuine CIA operation. It is a fictitious character in author Mark Greaney’s novel series ‘Gray Man.’ There is no evidence of such a training programme that recruits criminals for the CIA. The CIA, on the other hand, is likely to have multiple covert training programmes for its operatives to refine their talents in the field. As a result, the author was probably inspired by the secrecy of the CIA’s training programmes rather than any specific real-life programme.

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Greaney discussed the creation of the Sierra Six persona and the inspiration behind it in an interview. The author stated that the media was overrun with military characters and that he intended to develop a CIA agent without military experience. As a result, he conducted an extensive study on military individuals in an attempt to position Sierra Six as an outsider within the CIA. Sierra Six is an outcast inside the CIA since he is a member of the widely reviled Sierra Program, which emphasises his anti-military stance. As a result, it is reasonable to infer that Greaney invented the Sierra Program to give his novel’s protagonist a distinct past.

The fact that an ex-CIA official claimed that the agency tried to turn prisoners in Guantanamo into double agents, lends more credibility to the Sierra programme, where inmates were recruited to do the agency’s dirty work.