The Fifth Estate

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The Fifth Estate

R

2013

2h 8m

Drama

Mystery & Thriller

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

35%

Tomatometer

176 Reviews

36%

Popcornmeter

10,000+ Ratings

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and a colleague, Daniel Domscheit-Berg, join forces to become watchdogs over actions of the privileged and powerful. Despite scant resources, they are able to create a platform for whistle-blowers to leak covert data anonymously, thereby exposing government secrets and corporate crimes. However, a major battle erupts when Assange and Berg gain access to the biggest cache of confidential intelligence documents in U.S. history.

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Critics Consensus

Heavy on detail and melodrama but missing the spark from its remarkable real-life inspiration, The Fifth Estate mostly serves as a middling showcase for Benedict Cumberbatch's remarkable talent.

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J. Hoberman

ARTINFO.com

Feb 22, 2019

Given its own aggressive attention deficit disorder, The Fifth Estate is the sort of movie that might induce a migraine.

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Deborah Ross

The Spectator

Sep 5, 2018

Those in the know say Cumberbatch's performance captures the physical Assange perfectly, but the film fails to get a handle on him as a personality, or offer any kind of insight into what his true motivation might be.

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Louis Black

Austin Chronicle

Oct 25, 2013

2.5/5

Tthe film finally falls short, an explosive beginning leading to a pedestrian end.

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Richard Crouse

Richard Crouse

Jan 31, 2021

2.5/5

A rather ham fisted look at the information wars, which contains some drama but takes too long to get to the good stuff.

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Richard Propes

TheIndependentCritic.com

Sep 7, 2020

2.5/4.0

It is less involving when we're forced to sit through ancillary storylines and conflicts that do little to advance the story.

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Allen Almachar

The MacGuffin

Jul 23, 2020

C-

Very few films this year have registered such a lack of an emotional reaction.

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Daniele C

@RT54836503 Aug 30, 2026

Insightful and honest

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Alain E

@AlainE Jun 16, 2026

The script is very unfocused. Too much information about the Daniel character and minimal description of what happened after the disclosures. All we see are the different journalists debating what to do with the information. In the end people are protesting in favor of Assange, but we are not told why. After Daniel destroyed the equipment was the website restored? Not mentioned. Obviously this is a story that would need a miniseries to be properly narrated, but this movie does not approach a satisfactory presentation. Finally, the fact that Assange eventually was used by the Russians is immaterial. The documents Wikileaks disclosed were not manipulated.

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J T

@Jason123 Feb 23, 2026

Cumberbatch does a pretty good job with Julian Assange's character and the work he put into developing Wikileaks, which is hard to do in a fast moving flick. Overall not bad, I enjoyed it and its definitely better than the 35% Rotten Tomatoes score.

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mark g

@Mark_Alan_G. Aug 21, 2025

What a load of crap. This wasn't a champion of the 1st amendment, this was a stooge being used by Russia to smear the US. Hypocritical when you take into account the horrific atrocities he ignored from Russia.

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betty c

@RT05525841 Nov 16, 2024

The Fifth Estate only shares one side of the story they are airing!! Shame on them. They are definitely controlled by the powers that be. I believe they are funded by our government. Their story on the Coutts border blockade was totally one sided. They lied about the men that were charged and only showed one side of the situation. The RCMPs side and our corrupt government and legal systems side. They didn't bother talking to people who were actually at the blockade or others that know the people that were arrested. Why is that?? Who paid for this broadcast? Hmmm....were they biased by the people who control them? When they find out the whole truth and nothing but the truth, will they own up and apologize to those involved and unjustly accused? I doubt it very much.

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William T

@RT27622449 Jul 17, 2024

I enjoy the soundtrack and the performance of Daniel Brühl is excellent and i am in love of Alicia Vikander.

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Bill Condon

Director

Benedict Cumberbatch

Julian Assange

Daniel Brühl

Daniel Domscheit-Berg

Dan Stevens

Ian Katz

Alicia Vikander

Anke

Carice van Houten

Birgitta Jonsdottir

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Synopsis

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and a colleague, Daniel Domscheit-Berg, join forces to become watchdogs over actions of the privileged and powerful. Despite scant resources, they are able to create a platform for whistle-blowers to leak covert data anonymously, thereby exposing government secrets and corporate crimes. However, a major battle erupts when Assange and Berg gain access to the biggest cache of confidential intelligence documents in U.S. history.

Director: Bill Condon
Producer: Steve Golin, Michael Sugar
Screenwriter: Josh Singer
Distributor: DreamWorks SKG
Production Co: Anonymous Content, Reliance Entertainment
Rating: R (Some Violence|Language)
Genre: Drama, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 18, 2013, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 23, 2015
Box Office (Gross USA): $3.3M
Runtime: 2h 8m
Sound Mix: Datasat, SDDS, Dolby Digital

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