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Breach
Directed by	Billy Ray
Produced by	Scott Kroop Adam Merims Scott Strauss
Written by	Billy Ray Adam Mazer William Rotko
Starring	Chris Cooper Ryan Phillippe Laura Linney Dennis Haysbert Caroline Dhavernas Gary Cole
Music by	Mychael Danna
Cinematography	Tak Fujimoto
Editing by	Jeffrey Ford
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	February 16, 2007 August 31, 2007
Running time	110 min.
Country	USA
Official website
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

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. Breach is rated PG-13 for violence, sexual content and language.

Contents 1 Cast 2 Plot 3 Trivia 4 Accuracy 5 Critical reception 6 External links

Actor	Role
Chris Cooper	Robert Hanssen
Ryan Phillippe	Eric O'Neill
Laura Linney	Kate Burroughs
Caroline Dhavernas	Juliana O'Neill
Gary Cole	Rich Garces
Dennis Haysbert	Dean Plesac
Kathleen Quinlan	Bonnie Hanssen
Tom Barnett	Jim Olsen
Bruce Davison	John O'Neill

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Director Billy Ray refused to have "A Billy Ray film", or variant of this phrase, appear anywhere in the credits.

The filmmakers fictionalized much of Eric O'Neill's story, as mentioned in the end credits. Among the major changes made for the film:

• The real O'Neill knew going in that Hanssen was the subject of a counterintelligence investigation. There was no cover story about sexual perversions, and no dramatic meeting where O'Neill learned the truth.
• There was no extensive contact outside the office between O'Neill and Hanssen as portrayed in the film (the O'Neills visiting the Hanssens, the Hanssens dropping by O'Neill's apartment). However, Hanssen did take O'Neill to church.
• The scene where O'Neill deliberately steers himself and Hanssen into a traffic jam to delay a return to the office is not fictional, but the street featured in the film is different from the real street because of filming considerations.
• The scene where Hanssen takes O'Neill out into the woods and drunkenly fires his pistol is fictional.
• Unlike in the movie, O'Neill never saw Hanssen after the arrest.
• While O'Neill did obtain Hanssen's PDA, he took it to FBI techs to download rather than downloading it himself.

There are also a few anachronisms in the film:

• Windows XP was shown on several computers but it was not released when the events of the film took place.
• Hanssen ordered that the office get an OC-48 connection because of its "2.4 megabit" speed but really OC-48 has 2.4 gigabits per second bandwidth.

Reviews of the film have been very positive, with much praise going to Chris Cooper's performance. On the February 17, 2007 broadcast of the television show Ebert & Roeper, Richard Roeper gave the film a "thumbs up" rating, calling it the best movie of the year so far. He also declared Cooper's performance worthy of an Oscar nomination.

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