Based on the books The Snowden Files (2014) by Luke Harding and Time of the Octopus (2015) by Anatoly Kucherena, the film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Edward Snowden, a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) subcontractor and whistleblower who copied and leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) beginning in 2013.

In addition to Gordon-Levitt, the film features an ensemble cast including Shailene Woodley, Melissa Leo, Zachary Quinto, Tom Wilkinson, Scott Eastwood, Logan Marshall-Green, Timothy Olyphant, Ben Schnetzer, LaKeith Lee Stanfield, Rhys Ifans and Nicolas Cage.

Snowden screened at San Diego Comic-Con on July 21, 2016, before premiering at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2016.

[2] In 2013, Edward Snowden arranges a clandestine meeting in Hong Kong with documentarian Laura Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald.

They discuss releasing the classified information in the former's possession regarding illegal mass surveillance conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA).

Initially, his answers to the screening questions are insufficient, but Deputy Director Corbin O'Brian decides to take a chance on him, in the wake of extraordinary times.

He learns about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which circumvents the Fourth Amendment rights of U.S. citizens by allowing warrant requests to be approved by a panel of judges that were appointed by the Chief Justice.

After his superior decides to set up their target on a DUI charge in order to coerce information from him, Snowden resigns from the CIA.

These plans include planting malware in different computers that manage government, infrastructure and financial sectors so that, in the event that any allies turn against the US, that country can effectively be shut down in retaliation.

Three months later, Snowden has left his post with the NSA and returned to Maryland where he and Mills resume their relationship and he takes a position consulting for the CIA.

Upon beginning his new job in "The Tunnel", Snowden learns that Epic Shelter is actually providing real-time data that assists U.S. drone pilots in launching lethal strikes against terror suspects in Pakistan.

In the aftermath, with the help of MacAskill, Greenwald and Poitras, Snowden is smuggled out of Hong Kong on a flight bound for Latin America via Russia.

Credit sequences showcase news headlines and interviews detailing the consequences of Snowden's actions in Congress, leading to broad reform in the NSA.

At the time, he was working on another controversial subject, about the last few years in the life of Martin Luther King Jr., with Jamie Foxx attached to star, and did not immediately wish to tackle a project as incendiary again.

[7] Wanting to sell his book about Snowden, Kucherena arranged a meeting in Moscow, in a secure place that Stone would not reveal.

Stone, who did not know if Snowden would cooperate, was undecided whether to make a fictional film with an unnamed character or a story as realistic as possible.

Before production began, Stone and Gordon-Levitt met Snowden in 2015 in Moscow, where he had been living in exile with his girlfriend, Lindsay Mills, since evading the U.S. government's attempts to arrest him for espionage.

[8] On September 21, 2014, Joseph Gordon-Levitt was in talks to play Edward Snowden, the American computer professional who leaked classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) to the mainstream media starting in June 2013.

[26] For his role as Snowden, Joseph Gordon-Levitt pledged to donate his entire salary from the film to "help facilitate the conversation" about the relationship between technology and democracy.

[7] Due to fears of the film leaking, Stone employed self-described ethical hacker Ralph Echemendia as a technical supervisor, and made sure all cast and crew used a secure chat-and-file-sharing program.

[40] Stone held a private screening of Snowden at the former home of Ernest Hemingway in Sun Valley, for an invited audience of around two dozen, including actress Melissa Leo, who portrayed documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras.

The film received critical praise from the attendees, and one audience member was quoted saying, "What he did that's so brilliant is, he gave this kid's whole back story, so you really like him.

[2] The film was released on September 16, 2016, alongside Blair Witch, Bridget Jones's Baby and Hillsong: Let Hope Rise, and was projected to gross around $10 million from 2,443 theaters in its opening weekend.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Snowden boasts a thrilling fact-based tale and a solid lead performance from Joseph Gordon-Levitt, even if director Oliver Stone saps the story of some of its impact by playing it safe.

[47][48][49] Richard Roeper gave the film three out of four stars, saying, "Snowden works best when it's just Edward and the three journalists in that hotel room, sweating it out, or when we see the pattern of events that led him to commit acts that exposed the shocking practices of our own government that also quite possibly created serious security breaches.

"[50] On November 19, 2016, during the Camerimage festival, cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle received the Bronze Frog award for his work on this film.