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:

You can't expose the world's secrets without exposing yourself.

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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 Icelandic Swahili Arabic

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 USA:

$1,714,000, 20 October 2013, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$3,254,172, 1 December 2013

Company Credits

Production Co:

DreamWorks,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

On September 18 2013, Wikileaks released a mature version of the complete script to the public, because "the film is, from WikiLeaks' perspective, irresponsible, counterproductive and harmful." They also published a "Talking Points" memo "because it represents a frank internal appraisal of [the film] and what is wrong with it."

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Goofs

The caption says that Assange is in Tonsberg, Norway. The video is showing Aalesund, which is in a whole other part of the country.

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Quotes

Julian Assange: Man is least himself when he talks with his own person. But if you give him a mask, he will tell you the truth. Two people, and a secret: the beginning of all conspiracies. More people, and, more secrets. But if we could find one moral man, one whistle-blower. Someone willing to expose those secrets, that man can topple the most powerful and most repressive of regimes.

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Connections

Features Collateral Murder (2010)

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Soundtracks

Melt!
Written by Flying Lotus (as Steven Ellison)
Performed by Flying Lotus
Courtesy of Warp Records

User Reviews

Should Be about the Truth

"The Fifth Estate" is a film made by Dreamworks apparently with the intention of showing Julian Assange as an egocentric villain and seems to manipulate the truth about the role of the Weakleaks. On the contrary, his unfaithful and ambitious partner Daniel Domscheit-Berg a.k.a. Daniel Schmitt is depicted like a rational adviser and the hero, destroying the whistleblower information and data of the Weakleaks to protect the "innocent spies and informers". The film is based on a book written by Daniel Domscheit-Berg; therefore totally partial about the truth without showing the side of Julian Assange. I am not expert in this subject and I have just the common sense of reading and listening to the news about Julian Assange and the Wikileaks. But the film seems to be manipulative and depicting one side of the truth only. Therefore as a documentary, it is worthless; however a thriller, it is engaging and has good performances. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "O Quinto Poder" ("O Quinto Poder")