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IMDbPro

The Fifth Estate

  • 2013
  • R
  • 2h 8m
IMDb RATING
6.2/10
42K
YOUR RATING
Daniel Brühl and Benedict Cumberbatch in 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 centuryÂ’s most fiercely debated organization.
Play trailer2:32
25 Videos
68 Photos
BiographyCrimeDrama

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 debate... Read allA 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.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
    • David Leigh
    • Luke Harding
  • Stars
    • Benedict Cumberbatch
    • Daniel Brühl
    • Carice van Houten
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    6.2/10
    42K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Bill Condon
    • Writers
      • Daniel Domscheit-Berg
      • David Leigh
      • Luke Harding
    • Stars
      • Benedict Cumberbatch
      • Daniel Brühl
      • Carice van Houten
    • 123User reviews
    • 225Critic reviews
    • 49Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 2 wins & 3 nominations

    Videos25

    Trailer #1
    Trailer 2:32
    Watch Trailer #1
    The Fifth Estate
    Clip 1:15
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    The Fifth Estate
    Clip 0:27
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    The Fifth Estate
    Clip 0:56
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    The Fifth Estate
    Clip 0:53
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    The Fifth Estate
    Clip 0:46
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    The Fifth Estate
    Clip 1:01
    Watch The Fifth Estate
    The Fifth Estate: 10,000 Hits An Hour
    Clip 1:01
    Watch The Fifth Estate: 10,000 Hits An Hour
    The Fifth Estate: Published In Full
    Clip 0:46
    Watch The Fifth Estate: Published In Full
    Behind the Scenes
    Featurette 2:34
    Watch Behind the Scenes
    The Fifth Estate: David Thewlis On His Character
    Featurette 0:46
    Watch The Fifth Estate: David Thewlis On His Character
    The Fifth Estate: Carice Can Houten On The Importance Of The Story
    Featurette 0:35
    Watch The Fifth Estate: Carice Can Houten On The Importance Of The Story

    Photos68

    Daniel Brühl and Benedict Cumberbatch in The Fifth Estate (2013)
    Benedict Cumberbatch in The Fifth Estate (2013)
    Benedict Cumberbatch and Dan Stevens in The Fifth Estate (2013)
    Daniel Brühl and Benedict Cumberbatch in The Fifth Estate (2013)
    Laura Linney in The Fifth Estate (2013)
    Benedict Cumberbatch in The Fifth Estate (2013)
    Daniel Brühl in The Fifth Estate (2013)
    Daniel Brühl and Benedict Cumberbatch in The Fifth Estate (2013)
    Benedict Cumberbatch in The Fifth Estate (2013)
    Peter Capaldi and Dan Stevens in The Fifth Estate (2013)
    Benedict Cumberbatch in The Fifth Estate (2013)
    Moritz Bleibtreu, Daniel Brühl, Carice van Houten, and Benedict Cumberbatch in The Fifth Estate (2013)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Benedict Cumberbatch
    Benedict Cumberbatch
    • Julian Assange
    Daniel Brühl
    Daniel Brühl
    • Daniel Berg
    Carice van Houten
    Carice van Houten
    • Birgitta Jónsdóttir
    Alicia Vikander
    Alicia Vikander
    • Anke Domscheit
    Peter Capaldi
    Peter Capaldi
    • Alan Rusbridger
    David Thewlis
    David Thewlis
    • Nick Davies
    Anatole Taubman
    Anatole Taubman
    • Holger Stark
    Alexander Beyer
    Alexander Beyer
    • Marcel Rosenbach
    Philip Bretherton
    Philip Bretherton
    • Bill Keller
    Dan Stevens
    Dan Stevens
    • Ian Katz
    Jamie Blackley
    Jamie Blackley
    • Ziggy
    Ludger Pistor
    Ludger Pistor
    • Supervisor
    Michael Kranz
    Michael Kranz
    • Otto
    Christin Nichols
    • Otto's Girlfriend
    Christoph Franken
    • Game Console Hacker
    Ben Rook
    • Young Julian
    Lucinda Raikes
    Lucinda Raikes
    • Julian's Mother
    Marleen Lohse
    Marleen Lohse
    • Tacheles Waitress
    • Director
      • Bill Condon
    • Writers
      • Daniel Domscheit-Berg
      • David Leigh
      • Luke Harding
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Julian Assange emailed Benedict Cumberbatch to ask him to not to participate in the film.
    • Goofs
      After Julian and Daniel fight and finally split up there is a shot of the streets outside Daniel's apartment by night. Two cars drive past backwards, revealing the film has been played in reverse.
    • Quotes

      Julian Assange: If you want the truth, no one is going to tell you the truth, they're going to tell you their version. So if you want the truth, you have to seek it out for yourself. In fact that's where power lies, in your willingness to look beyond this story, any story. And as long as you keep searching, you are dangerous to them. That's what they're afraid of: you. It's all about you. And a little bit about me too.

    • Crazy credits
      The song details in the film's end credits include incorrect information for one of the songs ("Pray").

      The correct credits are:

      "Pray (Consejos de Royer)" Written by Munchi Performed by Munchi Courtesy of Munchi
    • Connections
      Featured in The Agenda with Tom Bradby: Episode #4.1 (2013)
    • Soundtracks
      Stompbox (Spor Remix)
      Written by Liam Black, Leon Harris and Daniel Arnold

      Performed by The Qemists

      Courtesy of Ninja Tune

    User reviews123

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    5/10
    The truth may be in there somewhere.
    I tend not to read reviews until after I've watched a film lest they sway my opinion, but it wasn't hard to miss the nonchalance (that veers towards damnation) with which The Fifth Estate has been received. Nor that it plays just once per day, at 9pm, at my local Cineworld compared to five screenings per day for Captain Phillips, eight for Ender's Game and fourteen for Thor: The Dark World.

    But Bill Condon's (Gods and Monsters, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn) film about Wikileaks founder and hero/pariah (delete according to your political stance) Julian Assange really isn't that bad. Take that as you will.

    Not really a biopic, The Fifth Estate takes a similar approach to Assange as The Social Network did with Mark Zuckerberg, looking more at the product of the man than the man himself. It consumes 8 minutes more of your time than The Social Network, feels twice as long, is far more arduous and will require just a single viewing, compared to repeat visits for the Facebook flick.

    Trudging through the meeting of the ultimate whistleblower Assange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Daniel Berg (Daniel Brühl), the explosion of Wikileaks in the public's perception, the shadowy deals with The Guardian and the fall out from countless exposés about underhand dealings from governments and corporations, The Fifth Estate spews out a huge amount of information but never quite manages to get down to the gritty truth.

    It feels cluttered and more of a lecture than a movie and I'm not sure I know a great deal more about Assange now than I did yesterday. Too much has been shoehorned into its 128 minute running time but it still only glances over some of the highest profile matters surrounding Assange: the Bradley/Chelsea Manning revelations and the sexual misconduct allegation against Assange that have led to his exile in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

    Cumberbatch succeeds admirably in portraying Assange as an obsessive with a serious case of egotism and a lack of social graces or personal care. It's a fine performance and will be a revelation to those who know Cumberbatch only from BBC's Sherlock or Star Trek Into Darkness. He is eminently watchable and succeeds in making an unpleasant man fascinating to watch. Assange wrote an open letter to Cumberbatch hoping to dissuade him from portraying him on film in The Fifth Estate, a "wretched" film, a work of fiction "based on a deceitful book", and one imagines that, should a copy of the film reach him inside his 'prison' he'll be dismayed by the way he is portrayed. Perhaps he'll be magnanimous to concede that, nevertheless, it is a fine performance from Cumberbatch.

    Many of the other prominent actors don't fare quite as well. Brühl follows up his superb performance in Rush with a more downbeat character that he never really sinks his teeth into. Like Brühl, Alicia Vikander, Berg's love interest and just one of many thorns in Assange's side, has little to play with and her performance is smothered by the presence of Assange.

    Bucking the trend, David Thewlis gives a pastiche of a Guardian journalist, more given to flouncing noisily into meetings and huffing in exasperation than acting. But Thewlis' performance is evened out by able turns from the new Doctor Who, Peter Capaldi, Laura Linney and Stanley Tucci, though with so many characters vying for screen time and Condon battling to squeeze in as much information as possible alongside some outdated 80s techniques (text across faces, anyone?), they, too are lost in the mêlée.

    The Fifth Estate isn't a great film and it may not be terribly truthful (the jury's still out on that one) but, despite it's flaws, I still enjoyed it. Once! And maybe truthful representations aren't important. As Cumberbatch wrote in his response to Assange, "…the film should provoke debate and not consensus."

    And in that, at least, The Fifth Estate succeeds admirably.

    For more reviews from The Squiss, subscribe to my blog and like the Facebook page.
    helpful•61
    24
    • TheSquiss
    • Oct 29, 2013

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    FAQ3

    • What does the title mean?
    • Is the movie anti-WikiLeaks?
    • What does the tagline "You are the fifth estate" mean?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • October 18, 2013 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • United States
      • India
      • Belgium
    • Official sites
      • Official Facebook
      • Stream The Fifth Estate officially on Disney+ Hotstar Indonesia
    • Languages
      • English
      • Icelandic
      • Swahili
      • Arabic
    • Also known as
      • The 5ifth Estate
    • Filming locations
      • Domaine provincial d'Hélécine, 2 rue Armand Dewolf, Hélécine, Walloon Brabant, Belgium(White House interior scenes)
    • Production companies
      • Dreamworks Pictures
      • Touchstone Pictures
      • Reliance Entertainment
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $28,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $3,255,008
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $1,673,351
      • Oct 20, 2013
    • Gross worldwide
      • $9,058,564
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      2 hours 8 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
      • Black and White
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
      • Datasat
      • SDDS
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.35 : 1

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