How James know Layla hid the flash drive in the bottom of a bottle?

In The Recruit (2003), after a Car chase between James & Layla, Layla hits the tree and was saved by the airbag.

But James entered into Layla's car and demands that she give him her flashdrive:

Unscrew the bottom. Do it!

How did James know Layla had hidden the flash drive in the bottom of the bottle?

Best Answer

He figured it out

He knows that Layla is taking the code out in pieces and that somehow she must be getting it past physical security. The logical way of doing that is by using a flashdrive.

Since the flashdrive contains metal it must be in something that does not pass through the metal detectors.

Since all hand luggage is inspected...and the only other thing that doesn't go through is her insulated travel coffee mug...it must be in there.

There's a realisation effect montage thingy at 1:54:10 - 25 in the movie where you can see him figuring it out at the same time Layla is transferring the (final) code to the flash drive.