The Fifth Estate
A brilliant but reckless hacker launches a whistleblowing platform to expose global conspiracies, only to watch his partnership crumble as power‑hungry forces close in and betrayal threatens to destroy everything he built.
“You can't expose the world's secrets without exposing yourself”
Synopsis
This article examines the relationship between WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his early supporter and eventual colleague Daniel Domscheit-Berg, and how the website's growth and influence led to an irreparable rift between the two friends.
Credits
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How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
A crew of 953+ credited
Why a floor?
This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Craft leads on file
Edited by Virginia KatzShot by Tobias A SchliesslerScored by Carter BurwellDesigned by Mark TildesleySound by Josh BergerCostumes by Shay CunliffeStunts by Charles K KemberoVFX by Glenn Allen
Box Office
2013 · Box office
📉 Underperformed — grossed 0.3× its budget
Why 2.5×?
Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).
Worldwide gross
$8.6M
Opening week (7-day): $2.3M
Peak 1,769 theaters
Also known as
- Inside WikiLeaks - Die fünfte Gewaltde
- Le Cinquième pouvoirfr
- Il quinto potereit
- (English)The Fifth Estate
- (Bulgarian)Петата власт
Release dates around the world5 countries · showhide
- CanadaSep 5, 2013
- FinlandSep 25, 2013
- BrazilSep 26, 2013
- LebanonOct 4, 2013
- United KingdomOct 11, 2013
Production & Distribution
Community tags
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Cast & Crew
953 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Benedict Cumberbatch
as Julian Assange
Daniel Bruhl
as Daniel Berg
Carice Van Houten
as Birgitta Jónsdóttir
Alicia Vikander
as Anke Domscheit
Peter Capaldi
as Alan Rusbridger
David Thewlis
as Nick Davies
Anatole Taubman
as Holger Stark
Alexander Beyer
as Marcel Rosenbach
Philip Bretherton
as Bill Keller
Dan Stevens
as Ian Katz
Jamie Blackley
as Ziggy
Michael Kranz
as Otto
Supporting cast
86Christin Nichols
as Otto's Girlfriend
Christoph Franken
as Game Console Hacker
Ben Rook
as Young Julian
Lucinda Raikes
as Julian's Mother
Marleen Lohse
as Tacheles Waitress
Sylvia Rohrer
as Zilke's Assistant
Michael Culkin
as Ralph Zilke
Axel Milberg
as Hans
Joe Kinyua
as John Paul Oulu
Peter King Nzioki
as Oscar Kamau Kingara
Lukas Piloty
as German Reporter
Thomas Ancora
as French Reporter
Phil Kaiser
as Rental Agent
Moritz Bleibtreu
as Marcus
Jeany Spark
as Wired Reporter
Laura Linney
as Sarah Shaw
Anthony Mackie
as Sam Coulson
John Schwab
as White House Staffer
Stanley Tucci
as James Boswell
Lisa Kreuzer
as East Berlin Woman
Philipp Langenegger
as Der Spiegel Reporter
Cornelia Ivancan
as WikiLeaks Fan #1
Martin Glade
as WikiLeaks Fan #2
Franziska Walser
as Daniel's Mother
Edgar Selge
as Daniel's Father
Alexander Siddig
as Dr. Tarek Haliseh
Michael Jibson
as Irritated Reporter
Lydia Leonard
as Alex Lang
William French
as Aide
Darren Evans
as Private Manning
Kyle Soller
as Young Staffer
Nigel Whitmey
as General Thomason
Sonya Cassidy
as Alan's Secretary
Chris Mckinney
as Times Reporter
John Moraitis
as Bearded Times Reporter
Christian Contreras
as Times War Correspondent
Camilla Rutherford
as Guardian Lawyer
Milena Karas
as Der Spiegel Reporter #1
Birger Frehse
as Der Spiegel Reporter #2
Eben Young
as Diplomat #1
Avye Leventis
as Diplomat #2
Rachel Handshaw
as State Department Staffer #1
Guy Paul
as State Department Staffer #2
Simon Connolly
as State Department Staffer #3
Amr El Bayoumi
as General
Amir Boutrous
as Mutassim Al-Gaddafi
Mimi Ferrer
as Shida Haliseh
Fares Ahmed Alahmadi
as Driver
Wilfred Maina
as Man on Phone
Mounir Margoum
as Border Guard
Gudmundur Thorvaldsson
as WikiLeaks Staffer #1
Hera Hilmar
as Wikileaks Staffer #2
David Akinloye
as Airline Passenger
Xenia Assenza
as Pretty Girl
Svetlana Belesova
as Hacker
Olivier Bisback
as Special Agent
Eddy Bollens
as Medewerker White House
Christina Brown
as Self
George W Bush
as Self
Quang Huy Chu
as Passerby at Railway Station
Hillary Clinton
as Self
Pascaline Crevecoeur
as Bar's woman
Walter Cronkite
as Self
Yuval David
as Broadcast Journalist
Truus De Boer
as Diplomatic Staff of the US State Department
Kurt De Meuter
as Associate White House
Meister Devgan
as Hacker
Bjarni Gautur
as Icelandic Protester
Linda Gegusch
as Flight passenger
Egill Helgason
as Self
Eric Kabongo
as Train passenger
Lukasz Kataoka
as Hacker
Cinsyla Key
as The Airplane Passenger
Greg Landt
as Hacker
Barack Obama
as Self
Michelle Obama
as Self
Franklin D Roosevelt
as Self
Kristjan S Vald
as Icelandic Man
Egor Savin
as Komparse
Sean Talo
as Floormanager
Georges Terryn
as Extra
Ben Turner
as New York Times Reporter
Wiets Verhoeven
as General Staff
Alexander Von Roon
as Reporter
Brian Williams
as Self
Ahmad Zarabi
as Indian Journalist
Directors
1Writers
5Producers
31Angela Lupo
visual effects executive producer: Company 3
Annie Chen
visual effects producer: Prologue
Bori Bartucz
dailies producer
Clare Cheetham
on-set visual effects producer: uFX (as Clare Heneghan)
Dan Masciarelli
visual effects producer: Method Design
Emmeline Yang
co-producer
Eric Torres
visual effects producer: The Creative Cartel
Glenn Allen
visual effects producer: Brainstorm Digital
Greg Yolen
co-producer
Hilde De Laere
co-producer
Jack Morrissey
co-producer
Jeff Skoll
executive producer
Jenny Fulle
visual effects producer: The Creative Cartel
Jim Shamoon
executive producer: Kenya
Jonathan King
executive producer
Kyle Cooper
main title executive producer: Prologue
Leifur B Dagfinnsson
line producer: Iceland
Mario Zvan
line producer: Kenya
Mathias Schwerbrock
line producer: Germany
Matthew Engel
visual effects producer: Company 3
Michael Sugar
Producer
Nick Monton
digital intermediate producer: Company 3
Olivier Janssen
driver: producer
Paul Green
executive producer
Renuka Ballal
visual effects producer: Phosphene
Richard Friedlander
visual effects producer: Brainstorm Digital
Richard Sharkey
executive producer
Stefan Sonnenfeld
digital intermediate colorist: Company 3 / digital intermediate executive producer: Company 3
Steve Golin
Producer
Vivian Connolly
visual effects executive producer: Phosphene
Wim Goossens
service producer: Belgium
Other crew
827Isabelle Nijs
accountant
Lien Soete
accountant
Sabrina Demey
accountant
Lore Pierreux
accounts assistant
Jean Coert Grobbelaar
action vehicle coordinator: Kenya
Thabo Grobelaar
action vehicles: Kenya
Finn Pelke
additional assistant director: Germany
Matthias Braun
additional assistant director: Germany
Philipp Kramer
additional assistant director: Germany
Arturo Sosa
additional assistant editor
Craig Cobb
additional assistant editor
Agnes Grandits
additional assistant editor (as Agnes Challe-Grandits)
Parents Guide
AI Personalities
Advisory Bot AI
I keep the family-safety picture honest — community advisories, AI-moderated, summarized without spin.
Ratings & reviews
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