Poll: Most Courageous Whistleblower Movie Character?

Results of 476 votes:

1. 1.
   

   Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Snowden (2016)

    

   Real-life whistleblower: Edward Snowden Case: U.S. National Security Agency's use of illegal mass surveillance programs *also Edward Snowden as himself in Citizenfour (2014)
2. 2.
   

   James Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

    

   Fictional whistleblower: Jefferson Smith Case: U.S. Congress and Jackson City's Jim Taylor Willet Creek Dam Project (graft/political corruption)
3. 3.
   

   Al Pacino in Serpico (1973)

    

   Real-life whistleblower: Frank Serpico Case: N.Y.C. Police Department police corruption
4. 4.
   

   Russell Crowe in The Insider (1999)

    

   Real-life whistleblower: Jeffrey Wigand Case: Brown & Williamson's cigarette additives cover-up (carcinogenic/addictive)
5. 5.
   

   Matt Damon in The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)

    

   Fictional whistleblower: Jason Bourne Case: CIA's "Operation Blackbriar", a targeted assassination program
6. 6.
   

   Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront (1954)

    

   Fictional whistleblower: Terry Malloy Case: New York Harbor Longshoreman's Union Malloy gave testimony to the New York Harbor Waterfront Commission against union boss Johnny Friendly for murder and ot…
7. 7.
   

   Meryl Streep in Silkwood (1983)

    

   Real-life whistleblower: Karen Silkwood Case: Kerr-McGee Corporation's health and safety practices and anti-union backlash at its Cimarron Nuclear Fuel Fabrication Site
8. 8.
   

   Jack Lemmon in The China Syndrome (1979)

    

   Fictional whistleblower: Jack Godell Case: California Gas & Electric's Ventana nuclear power plant (nuclear power safety/contruction)
9. 9.
   

   Charlize Theron in North Country (2005)

    

   Whistleblower: Josey Aimes (based on real-life Lois Jenson) Case: Pearson Taconite and Steel female verbal/sexual harassment and physical abuse
10. 10.
    

    Sharlto Copley in District 9 (2009)

     

    Fictional whistleblower: Wikus Van De Merwe Case: MNU's barbarous alien experimentation
11. 11.
    

    Michael J. Fox in Casualties of War (1989)

     

    Whistleblower: PFC Max Eriksson (based on real-life PFC Robert M. Storeby) Case: Incident on Hill 192, kidnap, gang rape and murder
12. 12.
    

    Robert Redford in Three Days of the Condor (1975)

     

    Fictional whistleblower: Joseph "Joe" Turner, CIA code name "Condor" Case: CIA's rogue operation to seize Middle Eastern oil fields
13. 13.
    

    Rachel Weisz in The Whistleblower (2010)

     

    Real-life whistleblower: Larysa Kondracki Case: DynCorp International's United Nations peacekeeper sex trafficking
14. 14.
    

    William Binney in A Good American (2015)

     

    Real-life whistleblowers: William Binney, Kirk Wiebe, Edward Loomis , Diane Roark and Thomas Drake Case: U.S. NSA's decision to use "Trailblazer", a NSA electronic surveillance program that …
15. 15.
    

    Tom Cruise in The Firm (1993)

     

    Fictional whistleblower: Mitch McDeere Case: Bendini, Lambert & Locke's tax fraud, money-laundering and mob connections
16. 16.
    

    Keira Knightley in Official Secrets (2019)

     

    Real-life whistleblower: Katharine Gun Case: U.S. National Security Agency's bugging of the foreign offices of Angola, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Chile, Guinea and Pakistan. All were Security Council "…
17. 17.
    

    Bill Camp and Mark Ruffalo in Dark Waters (2019)

     

    Real-life whistleblower: Robert Bilott and Wilbur Tennant Case: DuPont knowingly contaminates the public drinking water supply for decades with the toxic chemicals used to make Teflon. Corporate de…
18. 18.
    

    Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz in The Constant Gardener (2005)

     

    Fictional whistleblowers: Tessa Quayle and Justin Quayle Case: Karel Vita Hudson Pharmaceutical's unethical Dypraxa drug trial on impoverished African test subjects
19. 19.
    

    Ewan McGregor in The Ghost Writer (2010)

     

    Fictional whistleblower: Mike McAra and The Ghost, an unnamed ghostwriter Case: CIA's manipulation of British Prime Minister, Adam Lang by his wife, Ruth Lang SPOILER: (a foreign intelligence agent)
20. 20.
    

    Daniel Brühl and Benedict Cumberbatch in The Fifth Estate (2013)

     

    Real-life whistleblowers: Julian Assange, WikiLeaks Founder and Daniel Berg, OpenLeaks Founder Cases: Various Leak websites serve as a whistleblower conduit and are devoted to making thier informati…
21. 21.
    

    Liam Neeson in Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House (2017)

     

    Real-life whistleblower: William Mark Felt Sr., aka "Deep Throat" Case: U.S. President Richard "Dick" Nixon's Watergate scandal *also Hal Holbrook as "Deep Throat" in Al…
22. 22.
    

    Sean Penn in Fair Game (2010)

     

    Real-life whistleblower: Joseph C. Wilson Case: U.S. President George W. Bush's misrepresentation of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction capability (yellowcake uranium)
23. 23.
    

    Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams in Dick (1999)

     

    Fictional whistleblowers: Betsy Jobs and Arlene Lorenzo, aka "Deep Throat" Case: U.S. President Richard "Dick" Nixon's Watergate scandal
24. 24.
    

    George Clooney and Tom Wilkinson in Michael Clayton (2007)

     

    Fictional whistleblowers: Arthur Edens and Michael Clayton Case: U-North's toxic agrochemicals, murder and attempted murder
25. 25.
    

    Jennifer Lawrence in Don't Look Up (2021)

     

    Fictional whistleblower: Kate Dibiasky Case: U.S government officials and technology giant, BASH corportation conspire to suppress public knowledge of an extinction level comet that threatens all life…
26. 26.
    

    James Spader in The Pentagon Papers (2003)

     

    Real-life whistleblower: Daniel Ellsberg Case: U.S. Department of Defense's Pentagon Papers scandal *also Matthew Rhys as Daniel Ellsberg in The Post (2017) *also Daniel Ellsberg as himself in The M…
27. 27.
    

    Matt Damon in The Informant! (2009)

     

    Real-life whistleblower: Mark Whitacre Case: Archer Daniels Midland's food and commodities price fixing
28. 28.
    

    Cary Elwes in The Pentagon Wars (1998)

     

    Whistleblower: James Burton (based on real-life James Burton) Case: U.S. Military's Bradley Fighting Vehicle project
29. 29.
    

    Yoo Yeon-seok in Whistle Blower (2014)

     

    Whistleblower: Shim Min-Ho (based on real-life whistleblower Ryu Young-joon) Case: Korean researcher's fabricated and unethical medical research are exposed and undermine what were thought to be groun…
30. 30.
    

    Lena Stolze in The Nasty Girl (1990)

     

    Whistleblower: Sonja (based on real-life Anna Rosmus) Case: an unnamed Bavarian Village's Nazi Germany Third Reich connections
31. 31.
    

    Paz Vega in Kill the Messenger (2014)

     

    Real-Life whistleblower: Coral Baca Case: CIA's supported cocaine trafficking into the USA
32. 32.
    

    Humphrey Bogart in The Harder They Fall (1956)

     

    Fictional whistleblower: Eddie Willis Case: Boxing Promoter Nick Benko's fixing of professional boxing matches
33. 33.
    

    Naomi Scott in Charlie's Angels (2019)

     

    Fictional whistleblower: Elena Houghlin Case: Brock Industries' head of development, Peter Fleming covers up a dangerous flaw in Calypso, an energy conservation product that can be weaponized and used…
34. 34.
    

    Brittany Kaiser in The Great Hack (2019)

     

    Real-life whistleblowers: Brittany Kaiser, Christopher Wylie, and others Case: Facebook's & Cambridge Analytica's data scandal and related manipulation of political elections through personal data…