June 16, 2005
HANSSEN
(retitled BREACH)
Screenplay revisions by Billy Ray,
Based on “The Eleventh Hour” screenplay by Adam Mazer & Bill Rotko
Synopsis by Brian Aldrich
December 2000, seasoned veteran FBI agent ROBERT HANSSEN, the FBI’s liaison with the State Department and an incredible computer expert, is reassigned to start a new computer division in the months prior to his retirement. He’s married, has a bunch of kids and grandkids, and devotedly practices his Catholic faith daily. Young computer specialist ERIC O’NEILL, 25, works in the FBI Special Surveillances Group. He’s married to JULIANA, an immigrant from East Germany. He desperately wants to be made an agent. Special Agent KATE BURROUGHS reassigns Eric to become Hanssen’s office assistant. Apparently, Hanssen has been posting “lurid” material on the Internet. Hanssen could prove to be an embarrassment to the FBI, so she wants Eric to keep an eye on him.
Eric moves into his new office, wired for sight and sound by Kate’s crew. When Hanssen arrives, he appears distant and officious. He quickly makes it clear that he can tell when someone is lying and catches Eric sneaking into his inner office. Eric reports to Kate whenever she pages him. Juliana finds Eric’s behavior to be peculiar, but he can’t tell her what his new assignment is all about. As Eric gets to know his new boss, Hanssen appears to be a genuinely patriotic, conservative family man with no aberrant Internet pornography habits. Hanssen invites Eric and Julianna to go to church and picnic with his family. Eric starts to respect Hanssen and begins to think maybe the FBI is trying to railroad him out of the agency. When he shares his misgivings with Kate, she informs him that Hanssen has been a Soviet informant since 1985. Kate is trying to build a case against Hanssen so they can finally arrest him. Kate has 50 agents on the case. Kate wants Eric to download the information from Hanssen’s palm pilot, but Hanssen never leaves it out of his sight.
So, Eric arranges an accident and a photo appointment to get Hanssen out of his office and away from his palm pilot. The scheme works and Eric downloads the information. Hanssen catches him on moving his briefcase, but Eric lies successfully to cover himself. Kate informs Eric that the pal pilot provided them with a lot of evidence against Hanssen, but they need to search his car. So, Eric takes him to a DIA meeting in his own car. When the meeting is called off and they head back to the office, Eric has to delay their arrival until Kate’s crew can put Hanssen’s car back together. Afterwards, Eric notices Hanssen beginning to act erratically. When Hanssen gives him a package to be mailed to Germany, Eric opens it at home and finds a pornographic recording of Hanssen having sex with his unaware wife Bonnie. Julianna comes home and sees the recording. She’s already upset about Eric working for creepy Hanssen, so they have a fight about it. When Eric complains to Kate, she informs him that the car search found a package of classified materials wrapped up for a drop. She’s going to have Hanssen arrested after he makes the drop. Hanssen masturbates in Eric’s presence. He shows up drunk to Eric’s house and takes him for a ride. He shares that he thinks his car is bugged. Hanssen takes him out to the woods and begins shooting at the trees. Hanssen’s feeling sorry for himself, but Eric calms him down by telling him off. Eric and Kate watch video surveillance as Hanssen makes the drop and then is arrested. Hanssen is given life imprisonment. Eric quits the FBI and goes into law.
Summary Criticism: The characters are sympathetic. The story is compelling. Basically, this is a well-crafted script that brings current cultural topics (religion, privacy) into a routine spy genre story.
Breach (2007) - imdb
Breach (2007) - wiki
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