The film stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as a bored upper middle class married couple, who are surprised to learn that they are assassins belonging to competing agencies and that they have been assigned to kill each other.

In 2024, a television series of the same name loosely inspired by the film premiered on Amazon Prime Video, starring Donald Glover and Maya Erskine as two strangers paired up as spies and posing as a married couple; producer Arnon Milchan is the only cast or crew member returning from the original film.

The Smiths live in a large Colonial Revival house in the New York City suburbs, keeping up appearances by reluctantly socializing with their "conventionally" wealthy neighbors.

Underneath their cover stories, John and Jane balance their marriage, which is apparently mundane—after a few years, both agree it is becoming dull and suffocating—with their secretive careers.

Discarding each of their contingency plans, the Smiths make a last stand together, fending off an assault inside a home decorating store by heavily armed operatives.

In July 2000, it was announced Summit Entertainment had purchased screenwriter Simon Kinberg's spec script Mr. and Mrs. Smith with Weed Road Pictures slated to produce.

[4] Producers had managed to secure Brad Pitt for one of the leads, but the original choice of Nicole Kidman dropped out due to scheduling conflicts with The Stepford Wives leaving the film without a co-lead.

The directorial team considered Will Smith and Catherine Zeta-Jones as well as Johnny Depp, Cate Blanchett, Gwyneth Paltrow and Gwen Stefani[6][7] before they were finally able to sign Jolie.

He thought it sounded "aggressive and mercenary" and felt "it would make an interesting template for a relationship inside of an action film."

The site's critics consensus reads, "Although this action-romance suffers from weak writing and one too many explosions, the chemistry generated by onscreen couple Pitt and Jolie is palpable enough to make this a thoroughly enjoyable summer action flick.

[20] Simon Braund of Empire gave the film a positive review, describing it as "a full-on action flick, subversive rom-com and weapons-grade star vehicle that's drenched in Tinseltown glitz, from a director who knows how to put the money on the screen while his tongue's firmly in his cheek".

[21] Daniel Saney of Digital Spy gave 4/5 stars, saying "Its ideas are often borrowed, and it's hardly deep and meaningful, but it's a fantastically fun film".

[22] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave 3/4 stars and praised the chemistry between the lead actors, saying "What makes the movie work is that Pitt and Jolie have fun together on the screen and they're able to find a rhythm that allows them to be understated and amused even during the most alarming developments".

[23] In a negative review, Mick LaSalle of San Francisco Chronicle described the film as "awful" and stated that "The tiny smidgen of cleverness on display here is contained entirely in the premise.

[25][26] The government of Colombia criticized the film in particular for showing the capital Bogotá as a small village in the middle of the jungle with a hot and humid climate.

[27] President Alvaro Uribe Vélez and Mayor Luis Eduardo Garzón invited Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, and the producers to get to know the city and realize the mistakes they made.

During director Doug Liman's audio commentary which is on the single-disc DVD release, he says that the film was edited for sexual and violent content to get a PG-13 rating.

[34] Due to creative differences Waller-Bridge exited the project in early September 2021[35] and in April 2022, it was reported that Maya Erskine had replaced her in the main role.