The investigation already includes fifty agents, and is personally overseen by FBI Director Louis Freeh, who has been reading O'Neill's reports on Hanssen.Īlthough the FBI already has enough evidence to arrest Hanssen, Director Freeh wants to catch Hanssen in the act of making a drop so that their case against him will be airtight, ensuring that he will cooperate once arrested and not retaliate by exposing more undercover agents and informants. The entire Information Assurance Division that Hanssen now heads was created specifically to lure him away from his previous job as liaison to the State Department, and his office was specially constructed with hidden surveillance equipment. She admits that the sexual deviance allegations are only a secondary consideration and that Hanssen is suspected of having spied for the Soviet Union and Russia for years and being responsible for the deaths of agents working for the United States. O'Neill finds no evidence of Hanssen leading a secret double life and develops a growing respect for his boss, leading him to confront his handler in the undercover assignment, Kate Burroughs. A devout Catholic who is also a member of Opus Dei, Hanssen urges O'Neill, a lapsed Catholic, and his secular East German-born wife to become active churchgoers. He calls the bureau's information technology systems antiquated and laments the lack of coordination and information exchange with other intelligence agencies.Įventually, Hanssen becomes a friend and mentor to O'Neill and takes a personal interest in him and his wife Juliana, who is suspicious of Hanssen and resents his intrusions. He frequently rails against the bureaucracy of the FBI and complains that only those who regularly "shoot guns" are considered for senior positions instead of those, like himself, who are involved in vital national security matters. Initially, Hanssen insists on a strict formality between the two men. Hanssen has been recalled from a detail post at the State Department to FBI headquarters ostensibly to head up a new division specializing in Information Assurance. The film received generally positive reviews and grossed $41 million on a $23 million budget.Įric O'Neill is a young ambitious FBI employee assigned to work undercover as a clerk to Robert Hanssen, a senior agent he is told is suspected of being a sexual deviant. It stars Chris Cooper as Hanssen and Ryan Phillippe as Eric O'Neill, the FBI Investigator who helped bring about his downfall. The film is based on the true story of Robert Hanssen, an FBI agent convicted of spying for the Soviet Union and later Russia for more than two decades. Breach is a 2007 American spy thriller film directed by Billy Ray, who wrote the screenplay with Adam Mazer and William Rotko.
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