The film features an ensemble cast, starring Jessica Chastain, Penélope Cruz, Fan Bingbing, Diane Kruger, and Lupita Nyong'o as a group of international spies who must work together to stop a terrorist organization from starting World War III.

[6][7][8] At a location 150 miles (240 km) south of Bogotá, Colombia, a drug lord presents criminal mastermind Elijah Clarke with a special decryption program drive that can access any digital system on Earth.

The deal goes south when German undercover BND agent Marie Schmidt swipes the bag holding the money.

While celebrating over drinks, news breaks of planes crashing, and cities hit by massive power outages—indicating the drive is in terrorists' hands.

Under interrogation, the thief reveals that the recent incidents are all part of a "demonstration" for prospective buyers at an illegal black-market auction in Shanghai.

Two months later, Nick, now promoted to a senior rank in the CIA for killing Clarke, returns home to find Mace and the group waiting for him after escaping from custody.

The concept was built upon and in May 2018, it was announced that Kinberg would direct the film with Chastain producing, in addition to her starring alongside Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, Fan Bingbing, and Lupita Nyong'o.

Chastain defended the decision, saying she wanted to evaluate "the international common thread that connects us all" and emphasize the importance of characters that "all come together to form an alliance beyond borders".

[30] The film's marketing across YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter made around 120 million impressions online before The 355 opened in theaters.

RelishMix said reactions to its promotional content were "mixed-negative as fans feel like they're being served a bit of a cliché cookie-cutter action package in the spirit of Charlie's Angels or 'James Bond's daughters' with a diverse mix of kick-ass supercharged women.

Fans of Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong'o and Penelopé Cruz are super supportively cheering for success, but amidst the COVID resurge, moviegoers are tapping their finger for Peacock or another streaming service drop date.

Variety and Boxoffice Pro both said the film would underperform at the box office, in part due to its 45-day theatrical timeframe, the ongoing success of Spider-Man: No Way Home, and the rising spread of the Omicron variant.

The website's consensus reads: "It has a stellar cast and it's conceptually progressive, but The 355 squanders it all on a forgettable story, unremarkably told.

[41] Mark Olson of the Los Angeles Times praised the performances of the cast and the "attempt to acknowledge that these women have, need to have, lives outside their jobs, even with an occupation like international intelligence" but concluded the film "feels familiar and a bit tired.

[45] Clarissa Loughrey in The Independent compared The 355 negatively to other female-led action thrillers Atomic Blonde and Wonder Woman and argued that despite the film's premise of reversing stereotypical portrayals of women in spy movies, it's "a mark of progress only in how wholly unremarkable it feels".

[46] David Rooney writing for The Hollywood Reporter summarized the film as "not without suspense", praising the score and editing, but found the characters underdeveloped and opined "the impulse to put kickass women in charge for a change is commendable, but the journeyman result suggests the pitfalls of starting with the packaging instead of the storytelling inspiration.

[47] In a more positive review, Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly said the film was "starry, silly escapism with pop-feminist flare and a passport".

[48] Variety's Owen Gleiberman wrote, "As action storytelling, The 355 is generic, over-the-top, and 20 minutes too long, kind of like a Netflix movie.

"[49] Kate Erbland of IndieWire wrote "'The 355 might not be the boundary-busting breakthrough it was sold as, it's something better: a solid spy flick that adds something new to the genre without totally upending it.