The Fifth Estate (2013)

A dramatic thriller based on real events that reveals the quest to expose the deceptions and corruptions of power that turned an Internet upstart into the 21st century's most fiercely debated organization.

Director:

Bill Condon

Writers:

Daniel Domscheit-Berg (book), David Leigh (book)

Stars:

Benedict Cumberbatch, Daniel Brühl, Carice van Houten

2 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Peter Capaldi	...	Alan Rusbridger
David Thewlis	...	Nick Davies
Anatole Taubman	...	Holger Stark
Alexander Beyer	...	Marcel Rosenbach
Philip Bretherton	...	Bill Keller
Dan Stevens	...	Ian Katz
Daniel Brühl	...	Daniel Berg
Benedict Cumberbatch	...	Julian Assange
Jamie Blackley	...	Ziggy
Ludger Pistor	...	Supervisor
Alicia Vikander	...	Anke Domscheit
Michael Kranz	...	Otto
Christin Nichols	...	Otto's Girlfriend
Christoph Franken	...	Game Console Hacker
Ben Rook	...	Young Julian

Storyline

The story begins as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and his colleague Daniel Domscheit-Berg (Daniel Brühl) team up to become underground watchdogs of the privileged and powerful. On a shoestring, they create a platform that allows whistle-blowers to anonymously leak covert data, shining a light on the dark recesses of government secrets and corporate crimes. Soon, they are breaking more hard news than the world's most legendary media organizations combined. But when Assange and Berg gain access to the biggest trove of confidential intelligence documents in U.S. history, they battle each other and a defining question of our time: what are the costs of keeping secrets in a free society-and what are the costs of exposing them?

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Plot Keywords:

internet | wikileaks | computer hacker | whistleblowing | news leak | 

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Taglines:

How Wiki Leaks uncovers the secrets of the World

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Genres:

Biography | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and some violence

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook

Country:

USA India Belgium

Language:

English Arabic Icelandic Swahili

Release Date:

18 October 2013 (USA)

Also Known As:

The 5ifth Estate

Filming Locations:

Hoeilaart, Belgium

Box Office

Budget:

$28,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$1,673,351 (USA) (18 October 2013)

Gross:

$3,254,172 (USA) (29 November 2013)

Company Credits

Production Co:

DreamWorks SKG, Reliance Entertainment, Participant Media

Technical Specs

Runtime:

128 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital Datasat SDDS

Color:

Color Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The character "Ziggy" is based on the WikiLeaks Volunteer Sigurdur Thordarson that later turned out to be an FBI Informant.

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Goofs

In one of the shots, one of the hackers wearing a Beats Audio headset. The events supposed to be before 2003, and Beats Audio was founded in 2006.

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Quotes

Sarah Shaw: You don't want ugly pictures, you should stay out of ugly wars.

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Connections

Featured in The Graham Norton Show: Harrison Ford/Benedict Cumberbatch/Jack Whitehall/James Blunt (2013)

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Soundtracks

Double Edge
Written by Emika and Finian Greenall
Performed by Emika
Courtesy of Ninja Tune

User Reviews

A Turkey by any measure

Even to the way Assange ties his scarf this film is complete make-believe, and is probably best given a wide berth for those interested in what really happened regarding the leaked US embassy cables.

I've just watched Mediastan, which is a road movie recounting the distribution of the cables across central Asia and the obstacles encountered: geographical, political, security, and media. It's a riveting and at times amusing journey - and an education. For serious insights into how the global media world currently operates, I'd wholeheartedly recommend it.

So, honestly, forget The Fifth Estate, and the rest of the Hollywood hype; Mediastan is the real story of Cablegate and Operation Cable Run.