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IMDbPro

Breach

  • 20072007
  • PG-13PG-13
  • 1h 50m
IMDb RATING
7.0/10
60K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
8,826
964
Ryan Phillippe and Chris Cooper in Breach (2007)
Clip: O'Neill confronts Hanssen in the woods
Play clip0:47
Breach
6 Videos
60 Photos
BiographyCrimeDrama
FBI upstart Eric O'Neill enters into a power game with his boss, Robert Hanssen, an agent who was put on trial for selling secrets to the Soviet Union.FBI upstart Eric O'Neill enters into a power game with his boss, Robert Hanssen, an agent who was put on trial for selling secrets to the Soviet Union.FBI upstart Eric O'Neill enters into a power game with his boss, Robert Hanssen, an agent who was put on trial for selling secrets to the Soviet Union.
IMDb RATING
7.0/10
60K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
8,826
964
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Director
      • Billy Ray
    • Writers
      • Adam Mazer(screenplay)
      • William L. Rotko(screenplay)
      • Billy Ray(screenplay)
    • Stars
      • Chris Cooper
      • Ryan Phillippe
      • Dennis Haysbert
    Top credits
    • Director
      • Billy Ray
    • Writers
      • Adam Mazer(screenplay)
      • William L. Rotko(screenplay)
      • Billy Ray(screenplay)
    • Stars
      • Chris Cooper
      • Ryan Phillippe
      • Dennis Haysbert
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 234User reviews
    • 146Critic reviews
    • 74Metascore
    • Awards
      • 1 win & 3 nominations

    Videos6

    Breach
    Clip 0:47
    Breach
    Breach
    Clip 1:03
    Breach
    Breach
    Featurette 0:23
    Breach
    Breach
    Interview 0:40
    Breach
    Breach
    Interview 0:39
    Breach
    Breach
    Interview 0:39
    Breach

    Photos60

    Ryan Phillippe and Chris Cooper in Breach (2007)
    Chris Cooper in Breach (2007)
    Laura Linney in Breach (2007)
    Caroline Dhavernas in Breach (2007)
    Kathleen Quinlan in Breach (2007)
    Ryan Phillippe and Chris Cooper in Breach (2007)
    Ryan Phillippe and Caroline Dhavernas in Breach (2007)
    Ryan Phillippe in Breach (2007)
    Ryan Phillippe and Chris Cooper in Breach (2007)
    Ryan Phillippe and Laura Linney in Breach (2007)
    Ryan Phillippe and Dennis Haysbert in Breach (2007)
    Ryan Phillippe and Caroline Dhavernas in Breach (2007)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Chris Cooper
    Chris Cooper
    • Robert Hanssen
    Ryan Phillippe
    Ryan Phillippe
    • Eric O'Neill
    Dennis Haysbert
    Dennis Haysbert
    • Dean Plesac
    Laura Linney
    Laura Linney
    • Kate Burroughs
    Caroline Dhavernas
    Caroline Dhavernas
    • Juliana O'Neill
    Gary Cole
    Gary Cole
    • Rich Garces
    Kathleen Quinlan
    Kathleen Quinlan
    • Bonnie Hanssen
    Bruce Davison
    Bruce Davison
    • John O'Neill
    Jonathan Watton
    Jonathan Watton
    • Geddes
    Tom Barnett
    Tom Barnett
    • Jim Olsen
    Jonathan Potts
    Jonathan Potts
    • D.I.A. Suit
    David Huband
    David Huband
    • Photographer
    Catherine Burdon
    Catherine Burdon
    • Agent Nece
    Scott Gibson
    Scott Gibson
    • Agent Sherin
    Courtenay J. Stevens
    Courtenay J. Stevens
    • Agent Loper
    • (as Courtenay Stevens)
    Clare Stone
    Clare Stone
    • Lisa Hanssen
    Jonathan Keltz
    Jonathan Keltz
    • Greg Hanssen
    Richard Fitzpatrick
    Richard Fitzpatrick
    • Michael Rochford
    • Director
      • Billy Ray
    • Writers
      • Adam Mazer(screenplay) (story)
      • William L. Rotko(screenplay) (story)
      • Billy Ray(screenplay)
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      In the hallway, we constantly see a poster with names and pictures of spies that have been caught, as well as short narratives of what their crimes were and how much time they're serving. These posters really exist in secure government facilities, and prominently displayed on all of them, since the events of this movie took place, is a photo of Robert Hanssen.
    • Goofs
      When Hanssen and O'Neill first enter the chapel together, Jesuit-trained O'Neill performs the sign of the cross incorrectly, touching forehead-shoulder-shoulder-sternum, rather than forehead-sternum-shoulder-shoulder.
    • Quotes

      Eric O'Neill: What if he's smarter than I am?

      Kate Burroughs: A couple of years ago, the bureau put together a task force. Lots of assets had been disappearing. So this task force was formed to find the mole who was giving them up. Our best analysts poring over data for years looking for the guy, and they could never quite find him. Guess who was put in charge of the task force? He was smarter than all of us. Actually, I can live with that part. It's the idea that my entire career has been a waste of time, that's the part I hate. Everything I've done since I got to this office, everything we've all been paid to do, he was undoing it. We all coulda just stayed home.

    • Connections
      Featured in HBO First Look: Breach (2007)
    • Soundtracks
      Near You
      Written by Francis Craig, Kermit Goell

      Performed by The Andrews Sisters

      Courtesy of Geffen Records

      Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

    User reviews234

    Review
    Review
    Top review
    Two Men in a Boat
    I was surprised at how effective this was. You know from the very beginning how it will end. You know because it is a true story that there will be no trendy plot twists. You expect, and find, that the young assistant is built around a cliché, as is Hanssen's Catholicism, which oddly ignores the role of Opus Dei in this venture, and focuses on prayer instead of devotion.

    And there is a formulaic bit about damaging fathers and odd wives. More: there's the project command center that is drawn from movies and not from life. And finally, our hero is told the FBI's biggest secret in an open public place. This would never ever happen, and it is staged this way only to help the pacing of the thing in terms of stagecraft. And that DIA computer room, with the nice clean Cray-like machines, is from the same fantasy world as "Red October's" neon-lighted missile tubes.

    But in spite of all this, it works. And especially compared to "The Departed," it works, simply, cleanly, deeply.

    That's because the filmmaker decided early in the game that he was going to do what the Hong Kong "Infernal Affairs" did well and others copied: this business of actors playing characters who are actors. In this case, we have two such in the same boat.

    We have a top information manager at the FBI working for the Russians and acting normal, even when leading the hunt for himself. We have the young under cover guy pretending to be simply a clerk. Each intuits the other is watching. The older man completely wins at the start, with the younger man eventually besting him in artifice. Its a calculation that the filmmaker makes, when deciding not to tell us why our young hero does what he does and where he gets the tools. In an ordinary story, that would hurt, but here it is a wise decision because such "explaining" would get in the way of the economy of the thing. And it is all about economic connection with us.

    Its a bit counterintuitive that effective stories sometimes get better by lopping off story elements and information. But it is true. Some students of the Hanssen case believe that Hanssen's primary motive was to show his own importance (as a information security planner) by revealing holes in the system that he would have plugged. I wish this film would have worked with that a bit, because this notion of helping the system by hurting is system is both what the story could have been about and the means used to tell the story.

    Still, a good one.

    As a historical note, there's a reason folks from the FBI and CIA, even senior ones, can't wander into NSA computing facilities. Hanssen wasn't allowed, probably a good thing at the time. Opus Dei again.

    Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.
    helpful•87
    35
    • tedg
    • Feb 24, 2007

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • February 16, 2007 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Official site
      • Universal Pictures (United States)
    • Languages
      • English
      • Russian
      • Arabic
      • Latin
    • Also known as
      • Hanssen
    • Filming locations
      • Toronto Film Studios, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    • Production companies
      • Universal Pictures
      • Sidney Kimmel Entertainment
      • Outlaw Productions (I)
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $33,231,264
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $10,504,990
      • Feb 18, 2007
    • Gross worldwide
      • $40,953,935
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 50 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • SDDS
      • Dolby Digital
      • DTS
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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