Dan Freeman, the titular protagonist, is enlisted by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in its elitist espionage program, becoming its token Black person.

Freeman becomes the first Black man in the agency and is given a desk job as Top Secret Reproduction Center Sections Chief (which means he is in charge of the copy machine).

Upon his return, Freeman immediately begins recruiting young African Americans living in inner-city Chicago to become "Freedom Fighters", teaching them all the tactics that he had learned from the CIA.

The "Freedom Fighters" set out to ensure that Black people truly live freely within the United States by partaking in both violent and non-violent actions throughout Chicago.

The Freedom Fighters of Chicago begin spreading the word about their guerrilla warfare tactics across the United States; as Freeman says, "What we got now is a colony, what we want is a new nation."

The film provides discussions about black militancy and the violent reactions that took place by White Americans in response to the progress of the Civil Rights Movement.

"[13] Soon after its release, with the facilitation of FBI suppression, as author Sam Greenlee believed, the film was removed from theaters[14] as a result of its politically controversial message.

"[19] In a 2004 review for Philadelphia City Paper, Sam Adams recognizes the importance of Spook's questioning of politics and race in America, despite some other technical weaknesses.

It is such a mixture of passion, humor, hindsight, prophecy, prejudice and reaction that the fact that it's not a very well-made movie, and is seldom convincing as melodrama, is almost beside the point.

It's a vivid picture of the language of race politics whose complexity and inherent contradictions go to the heart of the African-American experience, encouraging the viewer to transcend class and consider their collective plight.

Without this critique of individual complicity in oppression, The Spook Who Sat by the Door could be accused of being a rabble-rousing exercise in fuelling blind resentment, but as Freeman tells a fellow gang member, 'This is not about hating white folks… this is about loving freedom enough to fight and die for it.

'"[1] Richard Brody, writing in The New Yorker in 2018, describes the film as "a distinctive and accomplished work of art, no mere artifact of the times".

"[28] Sam Greenlee also claimed another layer of meaning for the sardonic wordplay in his novel's title: "that an armed revolution by Black people haunts White America, and has for centuries.