IMPERIUM

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Spectre (Tim)

The film opens with a quote by Adolf Hitler:

“Words build bridges into unexplored regions.”

INSPIRED BY REAL EVENTS

We open up in Washington D.C. A large white van is shown driving around the city.
It parks at a building and we see three men prep and arm a bomb in the backseat. One
of the men, Usman (Roger Yawson) looks around at the people that are near the
building and hesitates, understanding the consequences. He sighs, and then enters a
car and leaves the site.

In a parking garage nearby, three FBI agents listen to the conversation between the
three terrorists. It turns out to be a sting operation. As the agent in charge tells the
other two to get ready, FBI Agent Nate Foster (Daniel Radcliffe) tries to take his gun
out, but is rebuffed by another agent believing that Foster would accidentally shoot
him than the bad guys. When Nate protests, the lead agent tells Nate to be quiet and
follow their lead.

The three bad guys park in the garage where the FBI agents are nearby. The leader
asks Usman if his heart is clear, and the man shakes his head yes. The three gets
outside the car and the leader hands Usman a phone with a phrase to dial in so the
bomb can be set off. He dials it in but nothing happens. Suddenly, the two other men
pull guns on him, whilr Nate and the other FBI agents swarm him as Usman is
handcuffed. It turns out he was the one they were really after.

They bring Usman back to interrogation and get nowhere until Nate volunteers to go
in and talk to him. Angela Zampano (Toni Collette) enters the room where they are
watching the interrogation and is angry they are using the place when she requested
the room; she is told they just broke up a terrorist attack. In the room with Usman,
Nate learns that Usman’s village was attacked after being falsely accused of hiding
terrorists there. Usman’s parents brought him over for a better life but he felt
dissatisfied that his family lived well while the rest of their family was slaughtered
under false pretenses.
Nate then questions Usman about his wanting to blow up a building. Usman said the
man who e-mailed him asked if he wanted to wage jihad so he said yes. He rented a
storage unit, and got a few simple electronic items at the man’s request, and when he
arrived at the storage unit that day, the van and the bomb were waiting for him.
Usman breaks down, obviously over his head and did not understand the full scope of
what he signed up for.  Nate talks to his superiors, noting that he was told that they
would only move forward if they had concrete evidence on Usman. The superiors tell
them they had hours of him talking about waging jihad. Nate says that talking about
doing something and actually doing something are two different things; the point
being they may have caused an entrapment situation (i.e. if there was no bomb ready
for Usman, he wouldn’t have attempted to use it). Nate sees Usman as little more than
a scared, angry young boy. Zampano, who listens to Nate’s reasoning, laughs out
loud, obviously humored by Nate’s empathetic stance and his Boy Scout behavior.

Nate goes to a wine store and buys a bottle. The clerk says he must obviously be
seeing someone, and Nate says yes. In reality, Nate is in his apartment alone, eating a
nice meal while listening to classical music and reading a book.

Nate is at work, listening to classical music while writing a report when an agent
throws a ball at him, telling him of an emergency meeting. Nate looks at them furious,
knowing that they don’t respect him due to his youth.

At the meeting, Nate and the other agents learn that a chemical truck that crashed on
the highway was illegally carrying Cesium 137, a radiation treatment chemical. The
order was tracked back to North Africa and six of the eight canisters are missing.
Given the origin of the material, the agents in charge believe it to be another Muslim
based terrorist attack. However, Zampano raises her hand and asks what their opinion
is on it being a domestic terrorist attack. The agent who is briefing the others says the
evidence points otherwise. Zampano counters that the last potential attack of this type
was James Cummings, a white supremacist from Maine, who had intended to detonate
a chemical bomb at President Obama’s inauguration. The agent briefing the room says
Zampano or anyone else can follow up any leads they find promising.

Later, Zampano grabs Nate and takes him down to her office. She asks him about the
Oklahoma City bombings and Timothy McVeigh. Nate, being 5 at the time, doesn’t
know much about it, and tries to give her some generalized answers. Zampano calls
him on his BS and hands him a book about McVeigh and gives him a summary;
McVeigh was a decorated Gulf War Veteran, intelligent yet not insane, and a white
supremacist following a plan. McVeigh was reenacting a scene from The Turner
Diaries, in which the “hero” drives a truck bomb into a federal building in order to
start a Race War.
Nate asks why Zampano is telling him this. Zampano says she understands Nate’s
specialty is Islamic terrorism and that is what most of his bosses think is going to
happen. However, she tells him that just because you don’t see something, doesn’t
mean it isn’t happening. She plays him a recording of ultra right wing radio
personality Dallas Wolf (Tracy Letts) who speaks of a coming Race War and how the
FBI is covering up the theft of dangerous chemicals from a truck crash, information
Wolf shouldn’t know about.

At a bar, Zampano tells Nate more about Wolf, and how the leader of a local Neo-
Nazi group is friendly with him. Zampano needs someone to go undercover, get close
to the leader, and thus get close to Wolf and find out if they have the Cesium and what
they plan to do with it. She thinks the best candidate is Nate. Nate balks, saying he
does not have the training to do undercover work. Zampano says he actually has the
perfect training for the job and runs down his history; High IQ, great people skills, yet
is introverted and a loner, brought upon a lifestyle of constant moving with his single
mother. Nate is worried about physically defending himself, but Zampano says he has
the psychological tools to never be put in that situation. Nate once again tries to
decline, but Zampano says they don’t have time for his hesitation because when
people get chemicals like the ones that were stolen, they don’t sit on them, they use
them against people.

At home, Nate drinks heavily, and looks at pictures and articles related to the use of
chemical weapons.  He is overwhelmed by the hatred. Nate and Zampano go to his
superior about an undercover operation, only for his boss to berate and insult him,
explicitly telling him the dangers of undercover work and how it can kill your career
momentum. His boss tells Nate he can do whatever he wants, but he better be damn
sure about it, lest he wants to embarrass himself or get killed. Zampano speaks to
Nate, telling him The Turner diaries has sold half a million copies and all that have
bought are white supremacists, many of whom that have attempted or successfully
pulled off terrorist attacks on the U.S.

Nate is at home, looking at the mirror. He takes off his glasses and then proceeds to
shave his head. He goes over his identity with Zampano; Nate Thomas, former marine
in Iraq who worked on a WMD squad. During the time of deployment, he became
disillusioned and began to question what is really going on with his country. We see
Nate get an apartment, hiding his undercover materials in the sofa. He buys a truck
and begins to read Mein Kamp in order to fully get into the mindset of a skinhead. He
orders a bunch more books on white nationalism online and begins to dig into them
all, though he has to stop at times, overwhelmed by the hatred on the pages that clash
with the idealism and good character inside him.
As he continues to talk over his cover story with Zampano, he shows her a fake record
of his service as Nate Thomas in case anyone questions him. Zampano immediately
tears it up and says if he is at the point he has to show paperwork to prove himself,
he’s already dead. Zampano explains that hate groups have begun using “lone wolf”
attacks as a tactic called “Leaderless resistance.” The top guys inspire the ones below
them to do the attacks, allowing their intentions to be done while still allowing their
hands to technically stay clean. Zampano asks what Nate offers to the supremacists, to
which Nate replies his loyalty. Zampano says anyone can be loyal, but he has to be
more than that. He has to give them something that no one else can offer. To that,
Nate sets up a fake medical supply store, which specializes in buying, handling, and
storing radioactive material like Cesium, which will be useful to the Neo-Nazi’s if
they stole the material.

Zampano briefs Nate on a CI, Frank Hedges (Adam Meier) which will get Nate an
introduction to the gang’s leader Vince Sargent (Pawel Szajda) who knows Dallas
Wolf well. Nate will join into the group, get to know them, get close to Vince, and
thus get close to Dallas Wolf. Frank and Nate head to a diner where Vince and the
others are waiting. After being searched for weapons and wires, Nate sits down and
begins narrating his cover story as a former Marine. Little by little, Nate charms
Vince, who says they need some work on their security.  Nate points out that their
head of security, Roy (Seth Numrich) picked a booth farthest away from all exits so if
things went down, they would be screwed. Nate says that his time in Iraq helped him
notice things like that, including that Roy and one other man had weapons but the
others did not. Roy asks why Nate is wearing Levi jeans (since the name has Jewish
connotation). Nate replies his brother gave them to him as a gift when he returned
from Iraq, and while his brother may not share Nate’s view, they were a gift and he
would not insult his brother by not wearing them. Nate then points out boycotts are
useless as the Jews head and control Fortune 500 companies, and thus most if not all
products we buy. Vince smiles and shakes his head, saying Nate is right, wondering
aloud if the diner is owned by the Jews as well.

Later that night, Nate and the others go to a skinhead bar. Vince asks about Nate’s
medical supply company and Nate says they can talk about that whenever he wants
too. Later, Nate speaks with Johnny (Devin Druid) a young recruit to the gang.
Johnny relates a story about how in high school, he saw a friend of his get beaten up
badly by six black students. When he came in and saw it happen, they just looked at
him and he walked away. Nate immediately realizes Johnny joined for a sense of
power and belonging, and the shame of his previous cowardice. Nate tries to tell him
that he had problems too growing up but he can channel them for something positive,
obviously trying to push the kid out of the group before it is too late. Roy comes in to
find them and tells them they need to get drunk and pushes Johnny to the bar to get
more beers. As Nate goes to leave too, Roy, the only one that has doubts about him,
stops him.

“Nate. You know what man? Everyone seems to fucking like you,” Roy states
ominously.

“Yeah,” Nate replies with a nod and walks away.

At his apartment, Nate downloads the audio of everything that happened on the day
and begins to transcribe them. As he does so, flashes of white supremacist meetings,
rallies, and attacks are shown, apparently flashing through his mind as he types
everything down.

The next morning, Nate is awakened by loud knocks at his door. He hastily hides his
laptop underneath the sofa cushions and goes to the door. Roy and Johnny are there,
and Roy makes it clear that the group knows where Nate lives. Nate is forced to invite
them in. As Roy looks around, Nate asks why they are here. Nate is told Vince is
outside, and they have a surprise for him. Nate says he is ready and wants to leave,
when Roy notices a strap that is protruding from the couch, next to where Nate hid the
laptop. Roy pulls at it till it comes free. Roy says he has some busted up furniture and
the three of them leave.

Nate is forced to get a tattoo by the guys.

Nate is debriefed by Zampano, who is angry he didn’t finish his transcript. “Look at
my fucking arm,” Nate snaps, relaying the reason why he couldn’t finish. Zampano
asks why he is being antagonistic with Roy; to make him look small could make an
enemy. Zamapano tells him she is only being hard on him to protect him. She needs
him to get to Dallas Wolf, and to do so Nate needs to start relating to the guys he is
with; to see them as human beings.

Nate and the gang head to a family barbeque headed by Gerry Conway (Sam
Trammell). Nate meets Gerry’s wife Becky (Vanessa Ore) and is offered cupcakes
with Swatiska icing on top. Nate is ushered into the living room, where he learns via
an online broadcast that Dallas Wolf will be holding a rally in D.C., and that several
groups will plan to protest him and his followers.  He meets Andrew Blackwell (Chris
Sullivan), from the Aryan alliance, and Ernest Walton (David Aranovich) a Grand
Dragon in the local Ku Klux Klan. Both try to recruit Nate into their respective
groups, though Frank quickly ushers Nate out. Frank explains that Blackwell believes
in religious overtones in regards to his ideology and finds it stupid. Frank says Nate
needs to know who to stick with.
In the backyard, Roy complains about there being no alcohol at the barbeque, but
Franks says it is only for two hours, and they will behave themselves as guests. Nate
is introduced to Gerry, who unlike them has the appearance of a low key, suburban
dad. He meets Gerry’s kids Madeline and Tim who show Nate their tree house.

“It’s to protect us,” Madeline says.