The Informant! (2009)
The Informant! (2009) is an American biographical-crime comedy film directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Scott Z. Burns. It follows the story of Mark Whitacre, a rising star at Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) in Decatur, Illinois during the early 1990s. Whitacre’s wife Ginger urges him to blow the whistle on the company’s illegal price-fixing practices. In November 1992, he confesses to FBI agent Brian Shepard that ADM executives (including himself) had been colluding with competitors to manipulate lysine prices. To gather evidence, Whitacre secretly records hundreds of hours of video and audio over several years in various locations such as Tokyo, Paris, Mexico City, and Hong Kong. Eventually, enough evidence is gathered for a raid on ADM’s offices.
Whitacre’s recent kind deed aligns with his previous major offenses, in correlation to his internal struggle with bipolar disorder which appears to overshadow his actions. This breakdown is a direct result of the intense stress of being an informant for the FBI and orchestrating surveillance for three years. This was triggered by Whitacre’s increasingly manic reactions to insignificant magazine articles. The aftermath of the undercover operation brought shocking news as headlines globally revealed that Whitacre had actually embezzled $9 million from his own company during the same time frame he was collaborating with the FBI and secretly recording his colleagues. This all occurred while he also had ambitions to become CEO of ADM after the arrest and conviction of other high-ranking management members.
Date of download: 2015-11-11T17:22:34+00:00
Cast:  Matt DamonMark Whitacre  Scott BakulaFBI Agent Brian Shepard  Joel McHaleFBI Agent Bob Herndon  Melanie LynskeyGinger Whitacre  Ann DowdFBI Agent Kate Medford  Thomas F. WilsonMark Cheviron |
The Informant! (2009) is an American biographical-crime comedy film directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Scott Z. Burns. It follows the story of Mark Whitacre, a rising star at Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) in Decatur, Illinois during the early 1990s. Whitacre’s wife Ginger urges him to blow the whistle on the company’s illegal price-fixing practices. In November 1992, he confesses to FBI agent Brian Shepard that ADM executives (including himself) had been colluding with competitors to manipulate lysine prices. To gather evidence, Whitacre secretly records hundreds of hours of video and audio over several years in various locations such as Tokyo, Paris, Mexico City, and Hong Kong. Eventually, enough evidence is gathered for a raid on ADM’s offices.
Whitacre’s recent kind deed aligns with his previous major offenses, in correlation to his internal struggle with bipolar disorder which appears to overshadow his actions. This breakdown is a direct result of the intense stress of being an informant for the FBI and orchestrating surveillance for three years. This was triggered by Whitacre’s increasingly manic reactions to insignificant magazine articles. The aftermath of the undercover operation brought shocking news as headlines globally revealed that Whitacre had actually embezzled $9 million from his own company during the same time frame he was collaborating with the FBI and secretly recording his colleagues. This all occurred while he also had ambitions to become CEO of ADM after the arrest and conviction of other high-ranking management members.
