Enemy of the State (1998)

As the U.S. Congress moves to pass new legislation that dramatically expands the surveillance powers of law enforcement agencies, Congressman Phil Hammersley (Jason Robards, uncredited) remains firmly opposed to its passage. A National Security Agency official, Thomas Reynolds (Jon Voight), realizes the only way to assure its passage is to kill Hammersley. Rep. Hammersley is quietly killed in a remote park by Reynolds’ team, but they are unaware that a video camera set up in a duck blind by wildlife researcher Daniel Zavitz (Jason Lee) has captured the entire incident. Zavitz discovers the murder, and alerts an anti-war friend and underground journalist while preparing the video on computer cartridge. Reynolds learns of Zavitz’s footage, and sends a team from the National Security Agency to recover the video by any means necessary. On the run, Zavitz silently passes the computer cartridge to his old college friend, labor lawyer Robert Clayton Dean (Will Smith), and soon dies in a traffic accident.
When the NSA discover that Dean may have the video, they raid his house and plant surveillance devices. Without evidence of the video, the NSA further proceeds to create a false scandal that Dean has a love affair with Rachel Banks (Lisa Bonet), a former girlfriend. This leads to Dean being dismissed from his job, his bank accounts frozen, and his wife throwing him out the house. Dean, trailed by the NSA, meets with Banks, and Banks offers to set up a meeting with “Brill”, an information contact of hers. On meeting Brill (Gabriel Byrne), he discovers the man is a decoy to throw the NSA off his trail while the real Brill, retired NSA agent Edward Lyle (Gene Hackman) sneaks them away and helps to rid Dean of all the tracking devices on his body. While they hide, the NSA frame Dean for the murder of Banks. While Lyle is able to find evidence that the NSA executed the murder, it is destroyed during a frantic escape from an NSA raid.
Dean and Lyle blackmail another supporter of the surveillance bill, Congressman Sam Albert (Stuart Wilson), and record various state secrets to lure Reynolds into agreeing to a meeting with Brill to reveal his involvement. Dean and Lyle are captured by Reynolds and the NSA before the meeting. Dean quickly invents the subterfuge that the Hammersley murder footage is in the hands of the Pintero mafia family, an organization he had to deal with before this incident and aware their headquarters are under FBI surveillance. When Dean and Lyle meet the Pinteros, Renyolds and the NSA team intervene, leading to a Mexican standoff and eventually a full-fledged gunfight which the FBI quickly put an end to, but not after Reynolds and several of his NSA team are killed. Dean and Lyle escape, with Lyle quickly disappearing from the authorities. The FBI discovers the plot behind the legislation, causing it to fail to gain passage, though they cover up the NSA’s involvement. Dean is cleared of all charges and is reunited with his wife. Lyle escapes to exile in a tropical location, but sends a friendly ‘goodbye’ message to Dean via his rigged television set.

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