Summary: Directed by Oliver Stone (Platoon, JFK, World Trade Center), the political thriller Snowden (2016) details the real-life story of National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), the former U.S. Army soldier and CIA computer network security specialist who became a highly placed NSA infrastructure analyst and leaked classified information about the U.S. government’s elaborate global surveillance programs. At issue are provocative questions about patriotism, conscience and the right to privacy in the Digital Age, as well as the need for the state to protect its citizens and the duty of an individual to do what is right despite the possible personal cost of that action. The film was based on the books The Snowden Files (by Luke Harding) and Time of the Octopus (by Anatoly Kucherena) and co-stars Shailene Woodley, Melissa Leo, Zachary Quinto, Timothy Olyphant and Nicolas Cage.
