Traitor is a 2008 American spy thriller film written and directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff, based on a story by Steve Martin. In the film, a Sudanese-American former US soldier (Don Cheadle) with a background in explosives is the prime suspect in a search by an FBI Special Agent (Guy Pearce), for the bomb-maker in a string of global terror explosions aimed at civilians.

The film was released on August 27, 2008. It received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $27 million against its $22 million budget.

Plot

Samir Horn is an Arabic-speaking Sudanese-American and devout Muslim. His Sudanese father was killed by a car bomb when he was a child. As an adult, Samir is first seen operating as an arms dealer. While negotiating a deal with Omar in Yemen he is arrested and thrown into a Yemeni jail. Later, Samir and Omar become friends, and when Omar s people arrange an escape, they take Samir with them. They meet Fareed, a lieutenant in the al-Nathir terrorist organization. FBI Special Agent Roy Clayton suspects Samir has been radicalized and begins tracking him.

Joining al-Nathir, Samir uses the skills he learned as a Special Forces Engineer Sergeant with the U.S. Army Special Forces to bomb the U.S. consulate in Nice, France. It is revealed that Samir is working under deep cover for a U.S. intelligence contractor, Carter; Samir is devastated when he learns that despite his and Carter s covert efforts, innocent people perished in the consulate bombing.

Impressed with Samir, Fareed introduces him to leader Nathir, who discloses a plot to place suicide bombers on 50 buses in the U.S. during Thanksgiving and instructs Samir to act as liaison to each of the al-Nathir sleeper bombers. Later, Carter unwittingly interrupts a meeting between Samir and Omar, and is killed by Omar.

Samir reveals his deep cover to Clayton, who tracks him to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. While investigating, Clayton also discovers the deaths in Nice were fake, save for one. While on board a cargo ship to Marseille, France, Samir kills Nathir and Fareed, and tells an enraged Omar that by targeting innocents they betrayed Islam. Samir then tells Omar that he switched the bombers emails and placed them all on the same bus, so all of them died without victims (except for the driver of the one bus). The Canadian police and the FBI break in, kill Omar, and injure Samir.

Later, underneath the L in Chicago, Samir tells Clayton he feels guilty for killing innocent people, and that the Qur an says that to kill an innocent person is to kill all mankind. Clayton responds by noting that the Qur an also says that by saving an innocent person, he has saved all mankind, tells Samir he is a hero, and assures him of a possible career with the FBI.

Cast

• Don Cheadle as Samir Horn
• Guy Pearce as FBI agent Roy Clayton
• Saïd Taghmaoui as Omar
• Neal McDonough as FBI agent Max Archer
• Jeff Daniels as Carter
• Archie Panjabi as Chandra Dawkin
• Mozhan Marnò as Leyla
• Lorena Gale as Dierdre Horn
• Alyy Khan as Fareed
• Adeel Akhtar as Hamzi

Production

The project had been in development since 2002 and was originally set to be produced by Walt Disney Pictures (through Touchstone Pictures), but was dropped owing to management change. It was picked up by Overture Films. Principal photography started in early September, 2007, in Toronto, Marseille, and Marrakesh.

Reception

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 65% based on 169 reviews, with an average rating of 6.19/10. The website s critics consensus reads: Despite another reliable performance from Don Cheadle, Traitor suffers from too many cliches and an unfocused narrative. Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 61 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating generally favorable reviews .

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three stars out of four and wrote in his review, The movie proceeds quickly, seems to know its subject matter, is fascinating in its portrait of the inner politics and structure of the terrorist group, and comes uncomfortably close to reality. But what holds it together is the Cheadle character.

Box office

The film opened #5 with $7.9 million from 2,054 in its opening weekend. It went on to gross $23.5 million in the United States, and $2.2 million in other markets, for a total $27.6 million worldwide.

Related films

Anwar, a 2010 Malayalam Indian film, is an uncredited remake of Traitor.

Year	2008
ReleaseDate	2008-08-27
RuntimeMins	114
RuntimeStr	1h 54min
Plot	When straight arrow FBI agent Roy Clayton heads up the investigation into a dangerous international conspiracy, all clues seem to lead back to former U.S. Special Operations officer, Samir H… Read all
Awards	Awards, 5 nominations
Directors	Jeffrey Nachmanoff
Writers	Jeffrey Nachmanoff, Steve Martin
Stars	Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Archie Panjabi
Produced by	Ashok Amritraj,Don Cheadle,Steve Gaub,Arlene Gibbs,David Hoberman,Kay Liberman,Todd Lieberman,Steve Martin,Glynis Murray,Anjalika Mathur Nigam,Richard Schlesinger,Jeffrey Silver
Music by	Mark Kilian
Cinematography by	J. Michael Muro
Film Editing by	Billy Fox
Casting By	Deborah Aquila,Robin D. Cook,Nicole Hilliard-Forde,Tricia Wood
Production Design by	Laurence Bennett
Art Direction by	Rocco Matteo
Set Decoration by	Jaro Dick
Costume Design by	Amine Benkhayi,Gersha Phillips
Makeup Department	Mariam Lee Abounouom,Amber Chase,Veronica Ciandre,Reynald Desbant,Liz Gruszka,Jérôme Jardin,Khadija Najahi,Kelly Shanks,Johann Benét
Production Management	Jimmy Abounouom,Aurélie Brenguier,Deb LeFaive,Valerie Flueger Veras,Omar Veytia,Bryan Yaconelli
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director	Noureddine Aberdine,Hamid Ait Timaghrit,Lofti Aït Jaoui,Matt Birman,Simon Board,Adam Bocknek,Olivier Bouffard,Rachid Doha,Harvey Drouelle,Mouhssine El Badaoui,Linda Gabbay,Mustapha Grumij,Clément Inglesakis,Grant Lucibello,Neesha Patki,Michael Peleshok,Tom Petch,Stefan Rand,Kajja Taoufik,Cecilia Testa
Art Department	J. Tracy Budd,Rory Cheyne,Jody Lynn Clement,Ouassel Elkilali,Xavier Floris,Ross Fraser,Valérie Grall,Pascal Gras,Patricia Larman,Lionel Mathis,Paul Mauris-Blanc,Jeff Mawle,Craig McLauchlan,Elizabeth Moran,Chris Pellegrini,François Peyon,Eric Pierard,Enrico Pittiglio,John ‘Butch’ Rose,Dominique Sinibaldi,Robert S. Smith,Matthew Alan Taylor,Jennifer Wood,Serge Borgel,Aziz Hamichi,Ian C. Harris
Sound Department	Sean Paul Armstrong,Brian Dunlop,David Esparza,Marshall Garlington,Brooke Graeff,Robert Jackson,Travis MacKay,Andy Malcolm,Adam Mohundro,Gabriel J. Serrano,Leslie Shatz,Eric Thompson,John J. Thomson,Callie Thurman,Don White,Nourdine Zaoui,Alan Zielonko
Special Effects by	Mohamed Ali Aqermim,Jacob Riewe Henriksen,Philippe Hubin,Søren Hvam,Hummer Højmark,Tony Kenny,Christian Kitter,Mark Kitter,Jean-Christophe Magnaud,Sylvie Rousselin,Andrew F. Searle,Martin Thomsen
Visual Effects by	Danny Albano,Patrick L. Almanza,Greg Astles,Adam Avitabile,Jamie Baxter,Darren A. Bell,Derek Bird,Tom Burton,Dominic Cheung,Jeppe N. Christensen,Daniel Claesson,Michael Collins,David Di Biase,Henrik Fett,Jordan Flanagan,Greg Gibbons,Sascha Alexander Haber,Thomas Hansen,Michael Hatton,Rikke Hovgaard Jørgensen,Bonnie Kanner,Daniel Karlsson,Louis Kim,Ken Kimble,Jeffrey Klug,Claus Kogsbøll,Lev Kolobov,Karen Krause,Martin Kupski,Matthew Lynch,Vlad Lysik,Julian MacDougald,Roger Mocenigo,Lon Molnar,Michael Morreale,Erin L. Nelson,Jeff Newton,Chris Nokes,Sarah Obacz,Jeremy Oddo,Phillip Palousek,Scott Parker,Daniel Paulsson,Neil Rafuse,Rebecca Ramsey,Scott Riopelle,Michael Roderick,Migs Rustia,Avi Salem,Andy Simonson,Martha Soehendra,Paul Stemmer,Tammy Sutton,Wilson Tang,Mike Uguccioni,Sarah Wormsbecher,Thomas Øhlenschlæger,Ole Bukowsky
Stunts	Mohammed Abarach,Lasfer Abdelghni,Yassine Afroukh,Younes Afroukh,Nick Alachiotis,Virginie Arnaud,Susana Baker,Joseph Beddelem,Farid Benakki,Christian Bergner,Leigh Bianco,Marco Bianco,Matt Birman,Spencer Birman,Lauren Bouette,Chad Camilleri,Yassine El Khamsi Chahd,Chaqir El Faaize,Abderrazak Elbeldi,Eric Etje,Rick Forsayeth,Errol Gee,Mohamed Gouyd,Philippe Guégan,Noureddine Hajoujou,Christian Hening,Sadik Ihdina,Mouloud Ikhaddelene,Liise Keeling,Danny Lima,Youssef Marchouki,Christophe Marsaud,Alice Naigeon,Cecilia Ngo,Rick Parker,Daryl Patchett,Cheryl Quiacos,Robert Racki,Bryan Renfro,Faical Tamim,Khalid Tarhoul,Todd Rogers Terry,Michaël Troude,Alicia Turner,Frédéric Vallet,Gunther Van Severen
Camera and Electrical Department	Richard Berube,Lee Blasingame,Raphael Boettger,Lyamani Bouhmdi,Michel Bouquerel,Rocky Brown,André Chemetoff,Ira Cohen,Marie Collet,Jeff DaSilva,Jean-François Dubut,Hugues Espinasse,Carson T. Foster,Grégori Gajéro,Peter Gmehling,Thibaut Guenois,Mal Haneen,Bob Harper,Wilton Higgins,Mark W. Hindle,Jamie Hodgson,Lewis Hume,Simon Hume,Mouna Khaali,Cyril Kuhnholtz,Peter Kuttner,Said Lagbouri,Derek Lang,Philippe Leroy,John V. Lindsay,Philip Lozano,Sean Marjoram,Driss Marzak,Patricia Meyer,Chris Mierzwinski,Rafy,Nicolas Ragetly,Kurt E. Soderling,Kamaleddine Talmi,Vincent Tulasne,Richard Weber,Shawn White,Kit Whitmore,Mark N. Woods,Yassine Abounouom,Jaime Dawkins,Ian C. Harris,Patrick Krauter
Casting Department	Salah Benchegra,Kate Dowd,Fabienne Dubois,Saad Fekhari,Darlene R. Hunt,Rachel Komar,Jane Rogers,Erin Toner,Catherine Petra Villalobos,Lisa Zagoria
Costume and Wardrobe Department	Lahcen Abbana,Tanya Batanau-Chuiko,Maria Fermo,Nancy Granfield,Roslyn Hanchard,Damion Saliani,Marcia Scott,Bonnie Sutherland,Jenny Svantesson,Hassan Taghriti
Editorial Department	Scott Gregory,Mo Henry,George Papuashvili,Gregg Schaublin,Damien Smith,Everette Webber,Trevor White
Location Management	Toufiq Abouobayd,Coralie Brady,Derek Brady,Driss Gaidi,Benjamin Granier,Adam Meaden,Mark Moore,Gabriel Pérez,Mono Wilborn
Music Department	Marcel Adjibi,Murray Anderson,Bunny Andrews,Kevin Barrans,Sandy Chila,Marissa S. Enhus,Tobias Enhus,Wolfgang Funk,El Hamad,George Hamad,Denholm Harding,Brent Harris,Alan Haskel,Simon James,Brendan Jury,Mark Kilian,Roman Kovalik,Kory Kruckenberg,Robert Puff,M.C. Rai,David Sabee,Matt Shelton,Casey Stone,Joseph Trapanese,Brian Valentino,Ben Watters,El Yathribi
Script and Continuity Department	Daniela Saioni
Transportation Department	Jason McCormack,Hicham Regragui,Carl Severin,Evan Siegel,Khalid Smour,Ian C. Harris
Additional Crew	Amanda Alden,Abdel-Khalig Ali,Geoffrey Ashley,Mohamed Atbir,Christel Baridon,Gina Boulougouris,Aziz Bousfiha,Rina Brannen,John Charles,Ken Dhaliwal,Hicham El Ghorfi,Taylor Estell,Kim Ferandelli,Sean Furst,Ray Gaffoor,Steve Holt,Holli Hopkins-McGinley,Jim Jaffe,Ryan Keaveney,Abazar Khayami,Ross Kirkman,Yana Collins Lehman,Marc Leroyer,Garry Maher,Gabriel Mamruth,Christophe Maratier,Chris Marsland,Sandra Matossi,Peter McKernan,Robert Milicevic,Tim Monich,Shamu Naidu,Anjalika Mathur Nigam,Michael Patrevito,Tom Petch,Michael Riley,Jillian Sabean,Munir A. Shaikh,Ahmed Shalaby,Todd Shannon Jr.,Jeffrey Simlett,Andrew Somers,Jason Sugars,Adrienne Swan,I. Monica Williams,Rebecca Windsor,Sean Ban Beaton,Esperanza Casero,Naomi K. Prescott,Heli Soell
Thanks	Robbie Brenner,Lincoln Leibner,Peter Singer,Frank Wuliger
Genres	Action, Crime, Drama
Companies	Overture Films, Mandeville Films, Hyde Park Entertainment
Countries	USA
Languages	English, Arabic
ContentRating	PG-13
ImDbRating	6.9
ImDbRatingVotes	57847
MetacriticRating	61
Keywords	thanksgiving,aerial camera shot,fbi federal bureau of investigation,reference to muhammad,marseille france