The 2019 political thriller The Report starred Adam Driver as an FBI employee/Senate staffer who plans to bring out a report that would reveal several inhuman torture methods used on CIA detainees. The film raised several questions on the state of American security in a post-9/11 world and the moral ethics of imprisonment and torture. It's an unflinchingly realistic and visceral insight into the internal politics behind such decisions.
The Report drew praise from critics and it surely did justice to the extensive, real-life 6,700-page report by Daniel Jones that the movie is based upon. Here are a few other thrillers dealing with political exposés, whistle-blowers, and similar themes that should pique your interest if you enjoyed The Report.
Kill The Messenger (2014)
This thriller has similar themes to The Report, only it's a journalist that serves as a whistle-blower instead of someone on the inside. Jeremy Renner plays Gary Webb, a real-life investigative journalist who went to great lengths to expose the CIA's financial support of South American contra rebels as a part of a complex drug trade.
Webb's publication as well as CIA officials themselves try their best to prevent him from pursuing this story, but he carries on fearlessly uncovering the truth.
Snowden (2016)
Oliver Stone is a director who's known for asking uncomfortable questions about the military and the government through his cinematic endeavors. Hence, it should come as no surprise that one of his recent releases was a biopic on the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Snowden, a top contractor for the National Security Agency, began to leak classified information when he felt disgruntled with the organization invading the privacy of everyday Americans.
Like Snowden himself, the film drew a polarizing response, but it serves as a decent biopic with a committed performance by leading man Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Erin Brockovich (2000)
Based on the true life-story of activist Erin Brockovich, this Steven Soderbergh directorial venture focuses on Pacific Gas and Electric allegedly poisoning a city's water supply and Brockovich teaming with a lawyer attempt to challenge the corporation.
Julia Roberts' award-winning portrayal and the film's overall story give an enjoyable twist to its serious subject matter. Erin Brockovich also pretty inspires its audience to act on and exercise their freedoms in times of crisis.
All The President's Men (1976)
Alan J. Pakula's direction and William Goldman's screenwriting elevate All The President's Men to the highest standards of political thrillers. Starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as the journalists who first broke the story behind Richard Nixon and the notorious Watergate Scandal, the film works efficiently as a crime thriller with new twists and turns in every act.
Apart from its historical context, the film is relevant even today as it serves as a cautionary tale on the importance of a free press.
The Insider (1999)
The titular insider in this film is Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe), an employee at a tobacco company who exposed the harmful effects cigarettes can have on human bodies. This makes him the target of the company that strove to hide its history of haunting medical research to protect its business. When a TV journalist (Al Pacino) attempts to feature Wigand on live television, matters get complicated even further.
Absent of any unnecessary melodrama, The Insider is a straightforward film adaptation of a Vanity Fair article aptly titled "The Man Who Knew Too Much."
Silkwood (1983)
Silkwood boasts a stellar cast including Meryl Streep, Cher, and Kurt Russell, but it's Streep who shines the most as a bold woman who plans on revealing the dark secrets of an Oklahoma nuclear plant. The real-life Karen Silkwood raised her voice against the nuclear plant's unsafe working conditions but was unfortunately assassinated for her fearlessness.
Haunting and realistic, Silkwood accurately portrays the threats and dangers that big business corporations can pose.
Charlie Wilson's War (2007)
Tom Hanks usually portrays extremely positive characters on screen— but in this film, he plays sly Congressman Charlie Wilson, the mastermind who helped Afghan rebels fight Soviet forces in the 1970s. This alliance would be the cause of decades of violence and political strife, continuing to the present day.
Unlike the other films on this list, Charlie Wilson's War doesn't take a strong stance one way or another on the issue it is addressing. Instead, it uses a light, satirical premise to show the audience a dramatization of the truth which can then be interpreted in multiple ways.
Enemy Of The State (1998)
On the surface, Enemy Of The State feels like a generic action film, but it does get serious and inquisitive as it goes on. Will Smith plays a lawyer who chances upon a videotape showing an orchestrated killing of a Congressman. When he plans on making the tape public, government operatives play a deadly cat-and-mouse game with him.
On the whole, the film is an adrenaline-fueled ride that has gained relevance after the Patriot Act and NSA's increased surveillance in the future. Some critics consider it to be quite ahead of its time in that regard.
The Informant! (2009)
Written by The Report's Scott Z. Burns and stylishly directed by Steven Soderbergh, The Informant! uses elements of crime caper comedies to show how Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon) exposed a price-fixing conspiracy in the 1990s. Corporate pressure aside, his own bipolar disorder ends up complicating things even further for the whistle-blower.
Like Charlie Wilson's War, The Informant! relies on a lighthearted comedic tone to expose something that's much darker in reality.
The Constant Gardener (2005)
Based on the John Le Carre mystery novel of the same name, The Constant Gardener features Rachel Weisz's compelling portrayal of an Amnesty activist challenging a health corporation's misdoings in Kenya. Ralph Fiennes plays her British diplomat husband in Kenya, and when his wife is killed under mysterious circumstances, the protagonist tries his best to find her killers and bring them to justice.
Even though it's a political drama at its core, the film doesn't shy away from adrenaline-fueled action as the husband's desperate quest for revenge becomes increasingly dangerous.