Line #25 Film/TheReport


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_20190822_100931.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:How Far Would You Go to Find the Truth?]]
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4	''The Report'' is a 2019 thriller written and directed by Scott Z. Burns and produced by Creator/StevenSoderbergh.
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6	It tells the [[BasedOnATrueStory true story]] of the 2012 Senate investigation into the CIA's use of torture in the wake of 9/11. Creator/AdamDriver stars as Daniel J. Jones, an idealistic staffer for California Senator Dianne Feinstein (Creator/AnnetteBening) tasked with leading the investigation and uncovering the evidence and discover the lengths to which the government went to shield themselves from accountability.
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8	The movie also stars Creator/TedLevine, Creator/MichaelCHall, Creator/MauraTierney, Creator/CoreyStoll, and Creator/JonHamm. It premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival ahead of a general release on November 15. The trailer can be seen [[https://youtu.be/x79Gf4cJDDE here]].
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10	!!Tropes associated with ''The Report'' include:
11	* AmoralAttorney: CIA General Counsel John Yoo, who approved the use of torture and infamously determined that the President could legally order [[GroinAttack a child's testicles to be crushed]] "to stop a plane from crashing into a building".
12	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Daniel avoids prosecution and is able to complete and release the report, which led to the [=McCain=]-Feinstein bill outlawing the practices described being passed and signed. However, the report is heavily redacted and not only were none of the people involved prosecuted, many were ''promoted''.]]
13	* BlatantLies: The whole justification for the CIA's use of torture is shown to be built on the false identification of one prisoner as a high-ranking member of Al Quaeda.
14	* ColdBloodedTorture: Its use by the CIA is the focus of the investigation.
15	* CIAEvilFBIGood: The FBI is portrayed as being more concerned with legality and prisoner care, in contrast with the CIA who are looking for excuses to torture prisoners.
16	* DeadlyEuphemism: "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques" is explicitly used as a way of redefining techniques that would otherwise be called "torture".
17	* {{Determinator}}: Nothing will get in the way of Daniel Jones' quest for the truth.
18	* DuelingMovies: With ''Film/TheLaundromat'', another fact-based investigative procedural written by Scott Z. Burns.
19	* GovernmentProcedural: The movie delves deep into the nitty-gritty of how Senate investigations operate.
20	* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Pretty much everybody, but most notably Senators Dianne Feinstein and Sheldon Whitehouse and then-CIA director James Brennan.
21	* HowWeGotHere: The film opens with Jones meeting up with Cyrus Clifford, a lawyer. We then get to see the events that led to Jones seeking out Clifford in the first place.
22	* IDidWhatIHadToDo: One CIA Agent that approaches Jones claims this about the [=EITs=], and insults him for trying to expose them.
23	* InsistentTerminology: When Clifford asks Jones if he stole documents, Jones replies that he "relocated" them.
24	* JurisdictionFriction: When then-Attorney General Eric Holder opens an investigation into the CIA's use of torture, it ends the Agency's cooperation with the Senate investigation. In addition, it causes all Republican Senators and their staffers to pull out. This substantially hampers the ability of the investigation to do its work.
25	* KnowNothingKnowItAll: It's pretty clear that Jim Mitchell and Bruce Jessel have no clue what they're talking about and that their "improved" interrogation techniques are nothing of the sort. Tellingly, when Ali Soufan asks them whether they have ever participated in an interrogation of terrorists, criminals, or literally ''anyone'', Mitchell responds that he has never attended a real interrogation, yet continues to espouse how the [=EITs=] are a godsend.
26	* MarriedToTheJob: Jones admits he became this over the five years he worked on the torture report; he had a relationship early on, but it ended because of his work. Later, one of his co-workers quits because she's afraid of the same thing happening to her.
27	* NeverMyFault: The CIA seems to have a terminal case of this. The film implies that the reason the CIA began to use torture was to cover up the fact that 9/11 could have been prevented by them. When it becomes clear [[InterrogatedForNothing the [=EITs=] don't work]], they continue it anyway and act like it works so they don't have to admit that they screwed up, and when Jones gets too close to releasing the report, they treat him like an ObstructiveBureaucrat for daring to point out the flaws and basic inhumanity of their methods.
28	* ObstructiveBureaucrat: John Brennan is portrayed as becoming this once he's confirmed as CIA director, downplaying the investigation, insisting on heavy redactions to the report, and spying on the investigators.
29	* OnceMoreWithClarity: Early in the movie, Jones leaves the facility he works at, and it's implied that he stole (or "relocated"; see InsistentTerminology above) something from there. When we see the scene later in the movie, we see it was [[spoiler:the report inside the CIA condemning the "enhanced interrogation techniques" they were using]].
30	* OnlySaneMan: During the torture of Zubaydah, FBI Agent Ali Soufan is the only one to realize that Mitchell and Jessel have no clue what they are talking about and that the [=EITs=] are [[InterrogatedForNothing ineffective]]. After he gets kicked off, Raymond Nathan takes up the role by being the only one to be horrified by Zubaydah's treatment.
31	* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Senator Feinstein serves as this for Jones. Only a couple people from the intelligence community oppose torture by the CIA. She's dedicated to both stopping it and exposing the truth when Jones delivers his report to her, in spite of the CIA's protests. Most members of her committee also count to a lesser degree, along with Senator [=McCain=] (himself having endured torture as a POW in North Vietnam), though he only appears in real stock news footage.
32	* SpiritualAntithesis: to ''Film/ZeroDarkThirty''. Both fact-based procedurals that take diametrically opposite views on torture.
33	* TakeThat: ''Film/ZeroDarkThirty'' and ''Series/TwentyFour'' are both portrayed as media glorifying the use of torture.
34	* TortureIsIneffective: The movie makes the point that not only does torture ''[[InterrogatedForNothing not]]'' work, it also makes it harder to prosecute the suspects who are submitted to torture due to the illegality of the practice, along with damaging the US's global position (as someone points out, captured American personnel are at greater risk for being tortured themselves if captured when their government is known to do the same).

Context Film / TheReport