RyanPhillipe Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Billy Ray's new film Breach unfolds in the hazy shades of a Washington, D.C. winter -- steely blues and cold grays, concrete and frost outside and pale fluorescent light indoors. Junior FBI man Eric O'Neill (Ryan Phillippe) is working counter-terrorism, snapping photos from hiding and working on new database methodologies in his spare time -- he's a keener, an eager beaver, and he wants to serve his country and his career. Bureau higher-up Burroughs (Laura Linney) tasks O'Neill with a very specific job -- working as the clerk to FBI data-maven Robert Hanssen (Chris Cooper), who's heading up the project to create the Bureau's new data-storage and handling protocols ... and, according to Burroughs, is a 'sexual deviant.' O'Neill's supposed to write everything down, make observations, report only to Burroughs and not tell anyone -- even his wife Juliana (Caroline Dhavernas) about the truth of what he's doing. It's hard for O'Neill, but in another way, it's easy -- because, as it turns out, even he doesn't know the real truth of what he's doing.

As played by Cooper, Hanssen is a stiff-backed hard-ass: he hates the Bureau's bureaucracy, resents his office lacking a window, curses the current data-storage methodology the Bureau uses. He's a fervent Catholic, his life revolving around Latin mass and service to the Bureau. In a series of carefully-crafted scenes, O'Neill gets to know Hanssen a bit -- and while Hanssen is a jerk ("Your name is 'Clerk.' You call me 'Sir' or 'Boss.' ..."), O'Neill can't understand why he's being assigned to ride a guy whose biggest crime seems to be being unlikable. Confronting Burroughs about his assignment -- he used to be tracking terrorists, now he's wasting time babysitting a man two months from mandatory retirement -- Burroughs explains the truth behind the truth. Hanssen has been selling secrets to the Soviets. For the past 22 years.

Ryan Phillipe and Chris Cooper will soon be teaming up for Breach (or Hanssen, if IMDb is to be believed) a spy thriller about an FBI agent (Phillipe) tapped to run a division which protects classified evidence. He finds himself teamed up with Cooper, who may or may not be providing information to the KGB (he is). The movie is based on the real life story of Robert Hanssen, who was arrested in 2001. Hanssen spent the years from 1985 to 2001 as a mole, spying for Russia and the KGB for money. He pleaded guilty to espionage and conspiracy in exchange for not receiving the death penalty. He has been serving a life sentence since 2002.