Arlington Road is a 1999 drama film[1] directed by Mark Pellington and starring Jeff Bridges, Tim Robbins, Joan Cusack, and Hope Davis.

The film tells the story of a widowed George Washington University professor who suspects his new neighbors are involved in terrorism and becomes obsessed with foiling their terrorist plot.

The film was heavily inspired by the growing concern in the 1990s regarding the right-wing militia movement, Ruby Ridge, the Waco siege and Oklahoma City bombing.

His FBI agent wife Leah died in the line of duty in a Ruby Ridge-style standoff, and Michael now lives with his 9-year-old son Grant in Reston, Virginia.

Upon finding a severely injured boy named Brady stumbling in his neighborhood, Michael rushes him to the hospital, where the wounds are determined to be caused by fireworks.

Michael takes his class on a field trip to the site where Leah was killed and excoriates the FBI for igniting the standoff by failing to assess whether the besieged Weaver family were armed.

Oliver discovers Michael's interest and confronts him, stating that his immature act (in revenge for the government's role in his father's suicide) cost him imprisonment and a new identity to hide his past from his children.

After discovering that messages had been erased from his answering machine, Michael asks Whit to check FBI records about Oliver and recent calls to his home.

He also visits the father of the late Dean Scobee, accused of blowing up a federal building 14 months earlier in St. Louis, from where the Langs had moved.

Oliver intercepts Michael's car and beats him, promising to kill Grant and expounding his group's mission and their current target: the J. Edgar Hoover Building.

A news montage, portraying Michael as a lone wolf terrorist seeking revenge for Leah's death, shows that the Langs have successfully framed him.