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Watch the first trailer for Oliver Stone’s ‘Snowden’ movie

Published Apr 27th, 2016 9:00PM EDT
Oliver Stone Snowden Movie Trailer
Image: YouTube

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If you don’t know who Edward Snowden is and why he’s so important to the technology sector, then Oliver Stone’s Snowden will tell you everything you need to know about his story. If you already know who Snowden is, then you’re probably already anticipating the movie eagerly.

The first trailer already makes Snowden look like the next Bourne-style action movie, though parts of the trailer make the movie look kind of, well, lame. It’s too early to pass judgement, but watch it yourself and you’ll see.

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Playing Snowden is Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who’s joined by Shailene Woodley, Melissa Leo, Zachary Quinto, Tom Wilkinson, Rhys Ifans and Nicholas Cage. The movie opens September 16th, so there’s plenty of time to see more clips from this new Stone film until then.

From the looks of it, Stone wants us to understand how Snowden became an intelligence officer, from the early days of his army training. He didn’t end up in any special forces unit, but it looks like he had more important skills than simply turning into a war machine for the government.

Stone gets directing and writing credits for this one, and the screenplay was based on two books, including The Snowden Files (Luke Harding) and Time of the Octopus (Anatoly Kucherena).

We do expect Stone & Co. to make use of plenty of visual effects to depict the massive surveillance operations conducted by the NSA – which Snowden found and leaked to the press – but that’s a small price to pay to understand it all. Check out the trailer below.

Chris Smith Senior Writer

Chris Smith has been covering consumer electronics ever since the iPhone revolutionized the industry in 2008. When he’s not writing about the most recent tech news for BGR, he brings his entertainment expertise to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe and other blockbuster franchises.

Outside of work, you’ll catch him streaming almost every new movie and TV show release as soon as it's available.