The Fifth Estate. Those who aim to keep governments, clergy, the media, the elite and the common man in check, recently defined as whistleblowers, watchdogs, citizen journalists...and WikiLeaks.

Every generation produces a rebellious figure that changes the game of power and becomes something larger than themselves. For some, that person is a visionary symbol of hope; for others, a dangerous enemy of the state. In the early 21st century, such a figure has emerged in Julian Assange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and his groundbreaking, information-disseminating organization, WikiLeaks. Initiated in 2006 as a nonprofit devoted to publishing previously secret, potentially incendiary information from anonymous sources, while offering the security of cutting-edge cryptography, WikiLeaks shattered the mold of 21st century news gathering, trumping mainstream media organizations and infuriating people in power.

Then, Assange became a news story unto himself. In 2010, as WikiLeaks led the release of the largest trove of secret, government files ever to see the light of day, Assange began to emerge simultaneously as a hero, a villain, a journalist, or perhaps just a guarded man caught in a blinding global spotlight.

Did WikiLeaks strike a bold, winning blow for democracy and justice, allowing ordinary people who had been kept in the dark to see the concealed actions of governments and corporations that skirted the edges of law? Or did it open the digital floodgates to reckless disclosures that could put people and nations in unpredictable peril

Joining Cumberbatch in the cast are Daniel Brühl, Alicia Vikander, Dan Stevens, Peter Capaldi, David Thewlis, Anthony Mackie, Stanley Tucci and Laura Linney. The film was adapted for the screen by Josh Singer (who would go on to document the story of the Pentagon Papers and The Washington Post for Steven Spielberg with The Post), from the book by Daniel Domsheit Berg, David Leigh and Luke Harding.