He plays is Charlie Heller, a brilliant CIA decoder whose wife dies in a London terrorist attack. When his supervisors refuse to take action, Charlie seeks his own revenge.
"This is an underdog story," Malek says. "He's a very unexpected hero in this genre, doing some pretty extraordinary things that are out of his element."
Charlie's greatest weapon? His mind.
"He's unique," Malek says. "He's definitely out of his realm."
As a producer on this film, Malek called a "few friends" to assemble what he calls "a dynamite cast."
That includes Laurence Fishburne, a CIA top dog who is tasked with training the amateur.
"Am I helping him?" Fishburne laughs. "Am I going to kill him? We don't know. It's the element of surprise. This film is full of surprises."
Beyond the edge-of-your-seat action, is hardcore emotion.
Intense grief and loss drive Charlie's relentless search for justice. "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" star Rachel Brosnahan plays his wife, Sarah.
"We got to spend a lot of time talking about these two and what their love story looked like in a way where you would feel the weight of that loss as he moves through the rest of the film," Brosnahan says.
Caitríona Balfe's character provides another element of surprise, as she urges Charlie to consider his conscience.
"Whether or not, you know, revenge is something that will actually give you solace," Balfe explains.
Malek says he's drawn to "profoundly alienated" characters and "outsiders" like Charlie.
"He discovers something in himself that forces him to do things he may not think he's capable of," he says. "The world definitely doesn't think he's capable. He is the greatest underdog."
"The Amateur" is in theaters April 11th.