Breach is a 2007 film starring Chris Cooper, Ryan Phillippe, and Laura Linney. The film is directed by Billy Ray and is based on the story of Eric O'Neill, an upstart FBI operative working under Robert Hanssen, an agent convicted of spying for the Soviet Union (and, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia) for 15 years. The film debuted in the USA on February 16, 2007. The film's DVD was released on June 12, 2007. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (532x755, 48 KB) Original Site: http://www. ... William (Billy) Ray began writing television and movies since 1994 with Color of Night and is currently working on the movie Breach. ... Christopher W. Cooper (born July 9, 1951) is an Academy Award-winning American film actor. ... Ryan Phillippe (born Matthew Ryan Phillippe on September 10, 1974) is an American actor. ... Laura Linney (born February 5, 1964) is an Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning American actress, active in movies, television, and theatre. ... Dennis Dexter Haysbert (born June 2, 1954) is an American film and television actor. ... Caroline Dhavernas (IPA:kɛɹalɪn dÉ‘vɛɹnÉ‘) (roughly pronounced Daverna for English speaking audience but originally pronounced Davernaus (aus like house)) (born May 15, 1978) is a Québécois Canadian actress, best known as Jaye from the cancelled but immensely popular television series Wonderfalls on Fox. ... Gary Cole (born September 20, 1956) is an American actor, known for numerous roles, including the television series Fatal Vision, The West Wing, Midnight Caller, American Gothic, Wanted and Crusade, and the films Office Space, In the Line of Fire, Kiss the Sky, Dodgeball, The Brady Bunch Movie, A Very... Mychael Danna is a film composer. ... Tak Fujimoto is a celebrated cinematographer who has contributed to many important and influential motion pictures. ... Jeffrey Ford (born November 8, 1955 in West Islip, New York) is an American writer in the Fantastic genre tradition, although his works have been described as spanning both Fantasy and Science Fiction. ... Universal Pictures is the main motion picture production/distribution arm of Universal Studios, a subsidiary of NBC Universal. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... February 16 is the 47th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is now the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom. ... is the 243rd day of the year (244th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is now the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... 2007 has been referred to, by film and media critics, as the year of the threequels, a nickname referring to both the 2004 summer movie season and three film franchises from that year, which again appear this year: Spider-Man 3, Shrek the Third, and Oceans Thirteen, and in... Christopher W. Cooper (born July 9, 1951) is an Academy Award-winning American film actor. ... Ryan Phillippe (born Matthew Ryan Phillippe on September 10, 1974) is an American actor. ... Laura Linney (born February 5, 1964) is an Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning American actress, active in movies, television, and theatre. ... William (Billy) Ray began writing television and movies since 1994 with Color of Night and is currently working on the movie Breach. ... Eric M. ONeill is a former American FBI operative. ... The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a federal criminal investigative, intelligence agency, and the primary investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). ... Robert Philip Hanssen (b. ... The rise of Gorbachev Although reform stalled between 1964–1982, the generational shift gave new momentum for reform. ... February 16 is the 47th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is now the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... DVD (Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc) is an optical disc storage media format that can be used for data storage, including movies with high video and sound quality. ... is the 163rd day of the year (164th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is now the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ...

Cast

Christopher W. Cooper (born July 9, 1951) is an Academy Award-winning American film actor. ... Robert Philip Hanssen (b. ... Ryan Phillippe (born Matthew Ryan Phillippe on September 10, 1974) is an American actor. ... Eric M. ONeill is a former American FBI operative. ... Laura Linney (born February 5, 1964) is an Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning American actress, active in movies, television, and theatre. ... Caroline Dhavernas (IPA:kɛɹalɪn dɑvɛɹnɑ) (roughly pronounced Daverna for English speaking audience but originally pronounced Davernaus (aus like house)) (born May 15, 1978) is a Québécois Canadian actress, best known as Jaye from the cancelled but immensely popular television series Wonderfalls on Fox. ... Gary Cole (born September 20, 1956) is an American actor, known for numerous roles, including the television series Fatal Vision, The West Wing, Midnight Caller, American Gothic, Wanted and Crusade, and the films Office Space, In the Line of Fire, Kiss the Sky, Dodgeball, The Brady Bunch Movie, A Very... Dennis Dexter Haysbert (born June 2, 1954) is an American film and television actor. ... Kathleen Denise Quinlan (born November 19, 1954) is an Oscar nominated American actress, mostly seen on television and in motion pictures. ... Thomas P.M. Barnett Dr. Thomas P.M. Barnett is a leading American military strategist. ... Davison as Senator Robert Kelly in X-Men Bruce Davison (born June 28, 1946 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American actor. ...

Plot

Eric O'Neill is a junior FBI employee hoping that his surveillance work on counterterrorism will earn him a promotion to agent when he is given a special assignment. While undercover as a clerk, he is to monitor Robert Hanssen, a senior agent whom he is told is suspected of being a sexual deviant. Hanssen had been recalled to FBI headquarters ostensibly to head up a new division specializing in Information Assurance. In psychology and sexology, paraphilia (in Greek para παρά = besides and -philia φιλία = love) is a term that describes sexual arousal in response to sexual objects or situations which may interfere with the capacity for reciprocal affectionate sexual activity. ... The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a federal criminal investigative, intelligence agency, and the primary investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). ... U.S. Department of Defense Information Assurance emblem Information Assurance (IA) is the science of managing the risks to information assets. ...

At first, Hanssen insists on a strict formality between them with O'Neill calling Hanssen "sir" or "boss" and O'Neill referred to only as "clerk". Hanssen frequently rails against the hidebound bureaucracy of the FBI. He complains that only those who regularly "shoot guns" are considered for senior positions instead of those, like him, who are involved in vital national security matters. He calls the bureau's information technology systems antiquated and laments the lack of coordination and information exchange with other intelligence agencies.

Eventually, Hanssen becomes a mentor to O'Neill. He is impressed with a study of the FBI's computer systems completed by the junior employee. Hanssen also takes a personal interest in O'Neill and his young wife. A devout Catholic who is also a member of Opus Dei, Hanssen tries to lead O'Neill, an inactive Catholic, and his largely secular East German born wife to become active church goers. Josemaría Escrivá, the founder of Opus Dei Opus Dei, formally known as The Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei, is an organization of the Catholic Church that emphasizes the Catholic belief that everyone is called to holiness and that ordinary life is a path to sanctity. ... For the historical eastern German provinces, see Historical Eastern Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR), German Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR), was a Communist Party-led state that existed from 1949 to 1990 in the former Soviet occupation zone of Germany. ...

O'Neill, while sometimes feeling Hanssen is becoming overly involved in his personal life, has a growing respect for him and has found no evidence of a secret double life. O'Neill confronts his handler, Agent Kate Burroughs, in the undercover assignment. She tells him that the sexual deviance allegations are only a secondary consideration. Hanssen is actually under investigation for having spied for the Soviet Union and Russia since around 1985. Year 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link displays 1985 Gregorian calendar). ...

While the FBI could arrest Hanssen now under lesser charges, they want to catch him in the act of espionage. If the FBI can threaten him with the possibility of the death penalty for treason, Hanssen may be more likely to divulge the information he stole. O'Neill is assigned to obtain data from Hanssen's Palm Pilot and keep him occupied while the FBI searches and bugs his car. Traitor redirects here. ... An early model - the Pilot 5000 The Palm m130 was one of the first Palms with a colour screen Pilot was the name given to the first generation of personal digital assistants manufactured by Palm Computing in 1996 (then a division of U.S. Robotics and later 3Com). ...

Hanssen suspects that he is under surveillance. The tracking devices in his car cause interference with the radio. He also wonders why he was placed in an isolated position in the FBI only a few months before he's scheduled to retire. The FBI intercepts a message he sends to his Russian handlers saying he likely will not provide any more information. Hanssen tells O'Neill that he is being spied upon by Russian agents. O'Neill persuades Hanssen that he is not being trailed by the Russians or by him on behalf of the FBI. Hanssen becomes confident enough to make one last dead drop of stolen information. The FBI arrests him in the act. A dead drop or dead letter box, is a location used to secretly pass items between two people, without requiring them to meet. ...

At the end of the movie, due to the stress of the investigation on him and his marriage, O'Neill quits his job at the FBI. After packing his things from Hanssen's office, he catches the elevator door, in which stands Hanssen himself, accompanied by two agents. Hanssen asks O'Neill to "pray for me," to which O'Neill agrees, and the movie ends with the elevator doors closing.

Critical reception

Reviews of the film have been very positive, with much praise going to Chris Cooper's performance. On the February 17th edition of Ebert and Roeper, Richard Roeper gave the film a thumbs up calling it the best movie of the year so far. He also declared Cooper's performance worthy of an Oscar nomination. Christopher W. Cooper (born July 9, 1951) is an Academy Award-winning American film actor. ... Ebert & Roeper (formerly Siskel & Ebert) is a popular movie-review television program starring film critic Roger Ebert and columnist Richard Roeper, both of the Chicago Sun-Times. ... Richard Roeper (born October 17, 1959[1]) is a columnist/film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times and, since September of 2000, has co-hosted Ebert & Roeper with fellow film critic Roger Ebert. ... Academy Award The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are the most prominent and most watched film awards ceremony in the world. ...

Trivia

• This movie has been known to make those that watch it incredibly bored, mostly because it is almost two hours of nothing interesting at all. The suspense never builds, the plot never thickens, any emotion regarding the characters is not felt.
• A portrait of John Ashcroft hangs in Hanssen's office. He was the United States Attorney General who made the official statement regarding Hanssen's arrest at the beginning of the film.
• The scene in which Hanssen and his clerk are returning to the FBI headquarters from the DIA headquarters contains geographic errors. None of the routes mentioned by O'Neill are located on any direct route between the DIA headquarters at Bolling AFB and the FBI headquarters in downtown Washington, DC. The filmmakers chose a scenic route along the Potomac. While the scenery does not match up, the DIA does have a facility in Clarendon (a neighborhood in Arlington, VA) and the agents tailing the Suburban mention "Wilson Boulevard," the direct route which would in fact take them back to the Roosevelt Bridge (which is shown).
• There is a scene in the movie showing the congregation at what is referred to as a "traditional Latin Mass" (presumably the pre-Vatican II Tridentine rite which is celebrated in DC on Sundays a few blocks from the FBI building). The congregation recites the pre-communion prayer "Lord I am not worthy to receive you.." in English . Responses at such masses are usually said by the altar boys, and if said by the congregation they would be in Latin: "Domine, non sum dignus.." (Though the moviemakers did use the English translation of the pre-Vatican II text, not the translation that is normally used in English today.) Also, at a Trindentine liturgy, that response would be repeated three times. Curiously, the next line in the film is in Latin, when the priest recites "Dominus vobiscum" followed by the congregation's Latin response "et cum spiritu tuo". Although that exchange is accurately taken from the Latin Mass, it does not occur at that point in the service. The organ is playing a communion hymn (Panis Angelicus by Cesar Franck) through all of this.
• The scene where Ryan Phillippe and Laura Linney are talking outside the United States Navy Memorial at night was actually filmed at Woodrow Wilson Plaza, between the Ronald Reagan Building and the Federal Triangle Metro Station. A Metro "M" pylon shown briefly in the scene before Linney and Phillippe's meeting shows the Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter Station with the Orange and Blue line stripes, which are the lines the Federal Triangle Station is on. A large bronze statue of a rose on the Wilson Plaza is hidden in the film by an overlaid pyramid shaped monument instead.
• Robert Hanssen's car was a 1996 or 1997 silver 4-door Ford Taurus GL.
• The computers shown in the movie were operating using Windows XP. However, Windows XP was not released until October 2001, 8 months after the events of the movie took place.
• When walking into morning mass, Ryan Phillippe does the sign of the cross wrong. He starts at his forehead, and then goes left, right, and down. The correct way to do it is forehead, down, left, right.

John David Ashcroft (born May 9, 1942) was the 79th Attorney General of the United States. ... Seal of the United States Department of Justice The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice (see 28 U.S.C. Â§ 503) concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. ... The Defense Intelligence Agency, or DIA, is a major producer and manager of military intelligence for the United States Department of Defense. ... Bolling Air Force Base, in Southwest Washington, DC, is named for Col. ... The United States Navy Memorial at 7th Street between Pennsylvania Avenue and Indiana Avenue in Washington, D.C. honors those who have served, and are currently serving, in the Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and the Merchant Marine. ... The Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, named after the 40th president of the United States, is the first federal building in Washington, D.C. designed for both governmental and private sector purposes. ... Freedom Plaza as viewed from the Old Post Office Pavillion There are several uses of the term: A building complex in Washington, D.C. with a generally uniform style of architecture including orange Spanish tile roofs, devoted to many of the Civil Service functions of the United States Federal Government... Archives-Navy Meml-Penn Quarter is a Washington Metro station in Washington, DC on the Green and Yellow Lines. ...

External links

• Official Site
• Breach at the Internet Movie Database
• Breach at Yahoo! Movies
• Breach - History vs. Hollywood
• Interview with the film's director -- from NPR.org
• February 2007 Washington Post article revisiting the Hanssen case
• Eric O'Neill's Official Site