Snowden

I. Summary

Snowden was born in North Carolina and his family moved to Central Maryland, a short distance
from NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, when he was a child. He dropped out of high school and
studied intermittently between 1999 and 2005 at a community college; he completed a GED but
did not receive a college degree. He enlisted in the army reserved a Special Forces candidate in
May 2004, but he was discharge four months later. In 2005 he worked as a security guard at the
Center for Advance Study of Language, a university of Maryland research facility affiliated with
the NSA. Despite a relative lack of formal education and training, Snowden demonstrated an
aptitude with computers and he was hired by the Central Intelligence Agency in 2006. He was
given a top-secret, clearance and in 2007 was posted to Geneva, where he worked as a network
security technician under a diplomatic cover.

Snowden left the CIA for the NSA in 2009.There he worked as a private contractor for the
companies Dell and Booz Hamilton. During this time, he began gathering information on a
number of NSA activities - most notably, secret surveillance programs that he believed were
overly broad in size and scope. In May 13, Snowden requested a medical leave of absence and
flew to Hong Kong, where due to the following month he conducted a series of interviews and
journalism from the newspaper The Guardian footage filmed during that period was featured in
the documentary Citezenfour(2014). Snowden also disclosed the existence of PRISM, a data-
mining program that reportedly that gave the NSA, The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the
Government Communications Headquarters-Britain's NSA equivalent-direct access. To the
servers of such Internet Giants as Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Apple.

On June 9, 2013, days after stories were initially published in The Guardian and The Washington
Post without revealing the identity of their source. Snowden came forward, stating that he left no
need to hide because he had done nothing wrong. In a subsequent with the South China Morning
Post, he claimed that the NSA had been hacking into Chinese computers since 2009 and that he
had taken a job with Booz Allen Hamilton expressly to obtain information about secret NSA
activities. The U.S. charged Snowden with espionage on June 14, and Justice department
officials, including Attorney General Eric Holder, began negotiating authorities in Hong Kong in
an attempt to initiate extradition procedures. The Hong Kong government declined to act, and
Snowden, with the assistance of media organization Wikileaks, flew to Moscow, where his exact
whereabouts became the source of intense speculation. Russia Pres. Vladimir Putin confirmed
that Snowden, whose passports had been revoked by the U.S., remained within the confines of
the international transit zone of Moscow's Shermetyevo airport. The last scene is in an
auditorium where Snowden makes an appearance through a remote-controlled monitor to an
audience of college students. He says he would hope to return to the U.S. for a fair trial, but he
knows now is not the time for that to happen. The moderator asks him how his life has changed
since doing what he did. We see then the REAL Edward Snowden saying that he has given up a
lot of things since he became a whistle blower, but he has no regrets because he knows in his
heart that he was doing the right thing. The audience applauds him, and the film closes on
Snowden smiling. The final text states that Edward Snowden has been living in Moscow since
2013 in hiding, and Lindsay Mills flew over there to join him.

II. Character Analysis

Edward Snowden - is a computer programmer who worked as a subcontractor for the National
Security Agency (NSA). Snowden collected top-secret documents regarding NSA domestic
surveillance practices that he found disturbing and leaked them.

Lindsay Mills - is an American acrobat and blogger. She came to international attention as the
girlfriend of Edward Snowden in 2013 at the time of the Global surveillance disclosures. Mills
left the United States to join Snowden in exile in Moscow by October 2014.They married in
2017.

III. Reaction

In 2013, a little over six months after Barack Obama was reelected, an ex-employee of the
National Security Agency named Edward Snowden leaked a series of documents that revealed
the agency breaking the law by spying on the world. This instantly made him one of the most
wanted guys in the world. While many people I know consider him a traitor, I consider him a
true American hero. He had the courage to reveal the government’s illegal activities when no one
else had the courage to. Here’s hoping Obama gives him a full pardon as the last thing he does as
president, but until then, here’s what I thought of Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone’s biopic
Snowden.This movie covers the decade leading up to the leak. After being discharged from the
military due to injury, Edward Snowden (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) decides to join the CIA and
discovers his talent for coding. As he and his girlfriend Lindsey Mills (Shailene Woodley) travel
the world, Snowden begins to feel the stress of protecting the NSA’s illegal activities and the
stress soon causes him to reveal the truth. It becomes his mission to show what is really going
on, even if it means sacrificing his own life.As I said, I think Snowden is a real hero, so a movie
about him had me on board from the beginning. I had the lucky opportunity of seeing the movie
at a special national event, which was followed by a live chat with Edward Snowden himself,
broadcast from Moscow. I have to say, this is one of the most thrilling biopics I have seen this
year. Apart from my support for Snowden, the movie was brilliantly made. I have not seen any
other Oliver Stone movies, but this one certainly makes me want to see the others.

I thought the movie was perfectly cast. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was perfect as Snowden. He
looked and sounded almost exactly like the real guy, and it was awesome. I also thought Shailene
Woodley was great. I don’t remember what Snowden’s real girlfriend looks like, but Woodley
delivered a strong performance. All of the supporting cast members were great too. A lot of
biopics I see ended up feeling too long, and I usually get bored, or lose interest like that. This
movie found ways to keep me invested through the whole movie. Between the great
performances and perfectly paced scenes, the movie kept my interest. Snowden became one of
my favorite character

IV. Relevance

It serves as a warning to everyone that we can't trust our mobile phones even our laptop and
computer because who knows maybe someone is watching us from our own cameras. Someone
is tracking or following or IP address that can lead our lives to become horrible. It is not still safe
to use gadgets when it comes to our personal information. It helps us not to browse the internet
too much because we all know that the link we are entering are gathering out information and
can't stop them.