burn after reading

Director: ethan coen,joel coen

Actor: brad pitt,frances mcdormand,george clooney,john malkovich

Data Published: Fri Sep 12 2008

Genres: Comedy,Crime,Drama,Thriller

Key Words: dark comedy,stupidity,farce,internet dating,black comedy

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0887883/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burn_After_Reading

Description: Burn After Reading is a movie starring Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, and George Clooney. A disk containing mysterious information from a CIA agent ends up in the hands of two unscrupulous and daft gym employees who attempt to sell...

Plot: Faced with a demotion at work due to a drinking problem, Osbourne Cox angrily quits his job as a CIA analyst and decides to write a memoir. When his pediatrician wife Katie finds out, she sees it as an opportunity to file for divorce and continue her affair with Harry Pfarrer, a deputy U.S. Marshal. She copies her husband's financial records and other files, including the draft memoir, and gives them to her lawyer. The lawyer's assistant copies the files onto a CD, which she accidentally leaves on the locker room floor of Hardbodies, a local gym. The disc falls into the hands of dim-witted personal trainer Chad Feldheimer and his co-worker Linda Litzke, who mistakenly believe it to contain sensitive government information. They plan to return the disc for a reward, with Linda hoping to use the money to pay for cosmetic surgery. After a phone call and subsequent meeting with Osbourne provoke a furious reaction, Chad and Linda attempt to sell the disc to the Russian embassy. Unbeknownst to them, the Russian ambassador is a spy for the CIA. Osbourne's increasingly temperamental and erratic behavior prompts Katie to change the locks on their house and invite Harry to move in. Harry is a womanizer and is also seeing Linda. Linda persuades Chad to sneak into the Coxes' home to get more files from their computer. Harry finds Chad hiding in a wardrobe and the shock causes him to shoot Chad dead. Two days later at the CIA headquarters, Palmer Smith, Osbourne's former superior, and his director learn that information from Osbourne has been given to the Russian Embassy. They are perplexed: the material delivered to the Russians is of no importance, and the apparent motive of all the involved parties is unknown. The director, unaware of Chad's identity, orders Chad's death to be covered up. Harry argues with Katie and leaves the house. On his way out, he spots a man who has been trailing him for the past several days. Harry tackles the man and finds out that he is a private detective hired by his wife Sandy to gather evidence to divorce him. Separately, it is revealed that Sandy is having an affair of her own. Harry is devastated and goes to see an agitated Linda, who confides to Harry that Chad is missing. Harry agrees to help find Chad. Linda returns to the Russian embassy to find Chad. The Russians have dismissed the CD contents as "drivel" and escort Linda off the embassy grounds. She turns to Ted Treffon, the kindhearted manager of Hardbodies, who has unrequited feelings for her. Against his better judgement, Ted agrees to go to the Coxes' home to search Osbourne's computer. Harry and Linda meet in a park; Harry believes a man in the park is surveilling him. Linda denies knowing the man, which makes Harry suspicious. When Linda reveals the address where Chad disappeared, Harry realizes that Chad is the man he shot. Convinced that Linda is a spy and that everyone in the park is surveilling him, he panics and flees. Osbourne becomes unhinged when he finds out that Katie has emptied his bank accounts and decides to break into the house to get his alcohol and personal belongings. Finding Ted in the basement, Osbourne shoots Ted and then kills him with a hatchet. A CIA agent intervenes by shooting Osbourne, leaving him in a coma. At CIA headquarters a few days later, Palmer and his director try to understand what happened. Harry has been detained trying to flee to Venezuela, as that country has no extradition treaty with the US. The director instructs Palmer to send Harry to Venezuela. The director and Palmer agree to leave Osbourne comatose and deal with him if he ever wakes. Linda promises to keep quiet if they will pay for her plastic surgery, to which the director agrees. They conclude that there appears to be no lesson for the agency to learn from the events. "I guess we learned not to do it again," the director says, despite not knowing exactly what they did, and closes the file.