Snowden is a 2016 biographical thriller film directed by Oliver Stone and written by Stone and Kieran Fitzgerald. Based on the books The Snowden Files (2014) by Luke Harding and Time of the Octopus (2015) by Anatoly Kucherena, the film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Edward Snowden, a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) subcontractor and whistleblower who copied and leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) beginning in 2013. In addition to Gordon-Levitt, the film features an ensemble cast including Shailene Woodley, Melissa Leo, Zachary Quinto, Tom Wilkinson, Scott Eastwood, Logan Marshall-Green, Timothy Olyphant, Ben Schnetzer, LaKeith Lee Stanfield, Rhys Ifans and Nicolas Cage. An international co-production of Germany, France, and the United States, principal photography began on February 16, 2015, in Munich.
Snowden screened at San Diego Comic-Con on July 21, 2016, before premiering at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2016. The film was theatrically released in the United States on September 16, 2016, by Open Road Films and on September 22 in Germany. It received mixed reviews from critics, who praised Gordon-Levitt's performance but criticized Stone's direction. It grossed $37.3 million worldwide against its $40 million budget.
Plot
In 2013, Edward Snowden arranges a clandestine meeting in Hong Kong with documentarian Laura Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald. They discuss releasing the classified information in the former's possession regarding illegal mass surveillance conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA). Poitras later released a documentary about this meeting titled Citizenfour, which was used in a scene within the film.
In 2004, Snowden is undergoing basic training, having enlisted in the U.S. Army with intentions of matriculating to the Special Forces. He eventually fractures his tibia and is informed that he will be receiving an administrative discharge in the process, but is encouraged to serve his country in other ways. Snowden applies for a position at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and subsequently undergoes the screening process. Initially, his answers to the screening questions are insufficient, but Deputy Director Corbin O'Brien decides to take a chance on him, in the wake of extraordinary times. Snowden is then brought to "The Hill" where he is educated and tested on cyberwarfare. He learns about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which circumvents the Fourth Amendment rights of U.S. citizens by allowing warrant requests to be approved by a panel of judges that are appointed by the Chief Justice. Snowden and his peers are each tasked with building a covert communications network in their hometown, deleting it, and then rebuilding it in eight hours or less, with five hours being the average time taken. Snowden impresses O'Brien when he completes the exercise in 38 minutes.
Meanwhile, Snowden meets Lindsay Mills via a dating website. The two bond, despite sharply contrasting political ideologies. Snowden acquires his first post abroad working with diplomatic cover in Geneva in 2007, taking Mills with him. He meets Gabriel Sol, who has ample experience in electronic surveillance. Snowden begins questioning the ethical implications of their assignment. After his superior decides to set up their target on a DUI charge to coerce information from him, Snowden resigns from the CIA. Snowden later takes a position with the NSA in Japan, initially under the pretense of building a program that would allow the government to back up all critical data from the Middle East in an emergency, a program which he names "Epic Shelter". Snowden learns of the practices the NSA and other U.S. government agencies are using not just in Japan, but in most countries with which the U.S. is currently allied. These plans include planting malware in different computers that manage government, infrastructure, and financial sectors so that, if any allies turn against the US, that country can effectively be shut down in retaliation. The stress associated with the job results in the end of his relationship with Mills, who moves back with her family in Maryland.
Three months later, Snowden has left his post with the NSA and returned to Maryland, where he and Mills resume their relationship, and he takes a position consulting for the CIA. During a hunting trip, O'Brien reveals an operation in Oahu that revolves around counterattacking Chinese hackers. After Snowden is diagnosed with epilepsy, Mills agrees that he should join the operation, believing the environment in Hawaii may be beneficial for his health. Upon beginning his new job in "The Tunnel", Snowden learns that Epic Shelter is actually providing real-time data that assists U.S. drone pilots in launching lethal strikes against terror suspects in Pakistan.
Snowden ultimately becomes disillusioned with what he is a part of. It culminates in Snowden smuggling a microSD card into his office by way of a Rubik's Cube, and loading all relevant data. He then tells his colleagues he is feeling ill and departs. He advises Mills to fly home to Maryland, after which he contacts Poitras and Greenwald to schedule the meeting. With the help of journalist Ewen MacAskill, the information is disseminated to the press on June 5, 2013, with additional leaks published in the following days. In the aftermath, with the help of MacAskill, Greenwald and Poitras, Snowden is smuggled out of Hong Kong on a flight bound for Latin America via Russia. However, the U.S. government revokes his passport, forcing him to remain in Moscow indefinitely. He is eventually granted asylum for three years, with Mills joining him at a later date. In a remote interview expressing his activism, Snowden states that he is willing to face a court in the US if he is guaranteed a fair trial. Credit sequences showcase news headlines and interviews detailing the consequences of Snowden's actions in Congress, leading to broad reforms in the United States.
Cast
Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Edward Snowden Edward Snowden briefly portrays himself in a cameo Shailene Woodley as Lindsay Mills Melissa Leo as Laura Poitras Zachary Quinto as Glenn Greenwald Tom Wilkinson as Ewen MacAskill Scott Eastwood as Trevor James Logan Marshall-Green as Drone Pilot/"Catfish" Timothy Olyphant as CIA officer Geneva Ben Schnetzer as Gabriel Sol LaKeith Lee Stanfield as Patrick Haynes Rhys Ifans as Corbin O’Brian Nicolas Cage as Hank Forrester Joely Richardson as Janine Gibson Robert Firth as Dr. Stillwell Ben Chaplin as Robert Tibbo
Anatoly Kucherena, Snowden's Russian attorney and the author of the novel Time of the Octopus, on which the screenplay is said to be partly based, plays a Russian diplomat in one of the Geneva scenes.
Production
Development
When Oliver Stone was first approached to helm the film, he was hesitant. At the time, he was working on another controversial subject, about the last few years in the life of Martin Luther King Jr., with Jamie Foxx attached to star, and did not immediately wish to tackle a project as incendiary again. He had been previously criticized for being too apathetic towards George W. Bush – despite calling him the second worst President in U.S. history only after Richard Nixon – in his film, W. (2008). Nonetheless, a series of events and persuasion prompted him to finally agree to direct it. Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who worked with Laura Poitras to break the Snowden story, asked him for some advice; a couple of months later, Snowden's Russian lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, contacted Stone via his producer asking to meet him. Wanting to sell his book about Snowden, Kucherena arranged a meeting in Moscow, in a secure place that Stone would not reveal. It was a fictional book, but Stone developed an interest in it and called it "very Fyodor Dostoyevsky", in the sense that none of it is realistic. Stone, who did not know if Snowden would cooperate, was undecided whether to make a fictional film with an unnamed character or a story as realistic as possible.
Stone began meeting with Snowden in January 2014. At first, Snowden was wary about the idea of turning his life into a film. Stone went to meet Snowden twice more in late May of that year, and Snowden finally agreed to the idea and even decided to take part. Although he became involved in the project, he was given no script approval, nor did he receive any payment for the film. Payment was instead given to The Guardian. Snowden had seen a piece of Oliver Stone's Untold History of the United States and was fascinated by it. Columbia Pictures already had the rights to Greenwald's book on the case.
On June 2, 2014, it was announced that Stone and Moritz Borman had acquired the rights to the nonfiction book The Snowden Files by Luke Harding, and that Stone would write and direct a film based on it. The film on Martin Luther King Jr. was scrapped since Stone was committed to direct Snowden instead. Eight days later, on June 10, 2014, Stone acquired the rights to another book, Time of the Octopus, by Kucherena. Stone used both books as the sources for his screenplay. On November 6, 2014, Open Road Films acquired the American rights to the film, while Wild Bunch was set to handle foreign sales. Deadline Hollywood confirmed on November 10, 2014, that Endgame Entertainment had come on board to produce the film.
Pre-production
Before production began, Stone and Gordon-Levitt met Snowden in 2015 in Moscow, where he had been living in exile with his girlfriend, Lindsay Mills, since evading the U.S. government's attempts to arrest him for espionage. The U.S. government had revoked his passport while Snowden was trying to reach South America. Gordon-Levitt described Snowden as a person who is akin to Philippe Petit, whom Gordon-Levitt played in the 2015 film The Walk. Problems arose in Russia, however, as companies that were affiliated with the U.S. refused to become involved in the project, and no studio was ready to support it. It became extremely difficult for Stone, who had to finance everything along with the producer. Eventually, financing came through from France and Germany, and the film ended up being shot in Germany as a German production, with contracts being signed eight days before production began. Since the budget was too tight, Stone had to miss the funeral of his mother, who had died in America while filming was occurring in Germany. Going back to America would have meant that Stone would have had to cut four days of work, which he said he could not afford to do.
Casting