Breach

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.

Plot
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 believes he is being surveilled by Russians with a grudge. 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 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, also observing that catching the greatest mole in American history would be the most important event to ever occur in his FBI career. 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.

Critical reception
Reviews of the film have been very positive, with much praise going to Chris Cooper's performance. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 84% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 164 reviews. Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 74 out of 100, based on 36 reviews.

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.

Peter Rainer of The Christian Science Monitor named Breach the best film of 2007., Richard Schickel of TIME magazine named it the 6th best film of 2007., and Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post named it the 9th best film of 2007.

Accurency
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.
• In the film, O'Neill's Alma Mater is stated to be Gonzaga University. While he did attend Gonzaga College High School, his college degrees came from Auburn University. 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.