Watch the trailer below.
The story is about Mark Whitacre, a rising star at Decatur, Illinois based Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) in the early 1990s, blows the whistle on the company’s price-fixing tactics, after his wife forces him.
One night in early November 1992, Whitacre confesses to FBI agent Brian Shepard that ADM executives — including Whitacre himself — had routinely met with competitors to fix the price of lysine, an additive used in the commercial livestock industry. Whitacre secretly gathers hundreds of hours of video and audio over several years to present to the FBI. He assists in gathering evidence by clandestinely taping the company’s activity in business meetings at various locations around the globe such as Tokyo, Paris, Mexico City, and Hong Kong, eventually collecting enough evidence of collaboration and conspiracy to warrant a raid.
Whitacre’s good deed dovetails with his own major infractions and struggle with bipolar disorder. The film focuses on Whitacre's meltdown resulting from the pressures of wearing a wire and organizing surveillance for the FBI for three years, instigated by Whitacre's reaction, in increasingly manic overlays, to various trivial magazine articles he reads. In a stunning turn of events immediately following the covert portion of the case, headlines around the world report that Whitacre had defrauded $9 million from his own company at the same period of time he was secretly working for the FBI and taping his co-workers, while simultaneously hoping to be elected as CEO following the arrest and conviction of the remaining upper management members. After being confronted with evidence of his fraud, Whitacre's claims in his defense begin to spiral out of control, including an accusation of assault and battery against Shepard. Because of this major infraction and Whitacre’s bizarre behavior, he was sentenced to a prison term three times longer than the white-collar criminals he helped to catch. Agent Herndon visits Whitacre while in prison in order to support him for a presidential pardon. (Wikipedia)
One night in early November 1992, Whitacre confesses to FBI agent Brian Shepard that ADM executives — including Whitacre himself — had routinely met with competitors to fix the price of lysine, an additive used in the commercial livestock industry. Whitacre secretly gathers hundreds of hours of video and audio over several years to present to the FBI. He assists in gathering evidence by clandestinely taping the company’s activity in business meetings at various locations around the globe such as Tokyo, Paris, Mexico City, and Hong Kong, eventually collecting enough evidence of collaboration and conspiracy to warrant a raid.
Whitacre’s good deed dovetails with his own major infractions and struggle with bipolar disorder. The film focuses on Whitacre's meltdown resulting from the pressures of wearing a wire and organizing surveillance for the FBI for three years, instigated by Whitacre's reaction, in increasingly manic overlays, to various trivial magazine articles he reads. In a stunning turn of events immediately following the covert portion of the case, headlines around the world report that Whitacre had defrauded $9 million from his own company at the same period of time he was secretly working for the FBI and taping his co-workers, while simultaneously hoping to be elected as CEO following the arrest and conviction of the remaining upper management members. After being confronted with evidence of his fraud, Whitacre's claims in his defense begin to spiral out of control, including an accusation of assault and battery against Shepard. Because of this major infraction and Whitacre’s bizarre behavior, he was sentenced to a prison term three times longer than the white-collar criminals he helped to catch. Agent Herndon visits Whitacre while in prison in order to support him for a presidential pardon. (Wikipedia)
Funny! Though the conflicts are not understandable for me, the comedy, the black comedy made me LOL. Untrustable Mark. Everything that he said are lie to covers another lie. He really got a big problem with it. I love when Mark's thought about everything that happen. It's not connect with the thing but sometimes I do it too. I don't feel so alone. I ain't really followed the story. It made me dizzy. I just enjoy the jokes and this one make me LOL until now XD
Mark Whitacre: Mark Whitacre, secret agent 0014.
Rusty Williams: Why 0014?
Mark Whitacre: Cause I'm twice as smart as 007.
I have ever meet with people like Mark who say lie to make everything better or make s/he acceptable in society. I am the one of them. After said it, I'm feel like such a fool. Why I said that? After that, I regret.
Fyi, Matt Damon worked hard to build image Mark by ate a lot. See the differences. The hair color and nose also changed to this role.
The movie is based on 2000 nonfiction book, The Informant by journalist Kurt Eichenwald. I have thought to add it on 30 Book To Movies challange.
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