Burn After Reading(2008)

R
Rated R for pervasive language, some sexual content and violence
1h 36m

Release Date: Sep 12, 2008 | Wide

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 it.

Releases

Original Release | Sep 12, 2008

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Box Office Results

Updated as of Apr 30, 2026 06:29 AM ET

Results

Opening Weekend US & Canada:
$19,128,001
Total US & Canada:
$60,355,347
Total International
$103,373,555
Total Worldwide:
$163,728,902

Current Showtimes

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(U.S. Only)

Director & Top Cast

Ethan Coen
Director

Joel Coen
Director

Brad Pitt
Chad Feldheimer

Frances McDormand
Linda Litzke

George Clooney
Harry Pfarrer

John Malkovich
Osborne Cox

Tilda Swinton

Katie Cox

Richard Jenkins

Ted

Elizabeth Marvel

Sandy Pfarrer

David Rasche

CIA Officer Palmer DeBakey Smith

J.K. Simmons

CIA Superior

Olek Krupa

Krapotkin

Michael Countryman

Alan

Kevin Sussman

Tuchman Marsh Man

J.R. Horne

Divorce Lawyer

Hamilton Clancy

Peck

Armand Schultz

Olson

Pun Bandhu

Party Guest

Technical Specifications

Sound Mix: SDDS,Dolby Digital,DTS

Aspect Ratio: 1.85 : 1

Other Details

Country of Origin: United Kingdom,France,United States

Language: English

Summaries

Plot Summary

Faced with a demotion at work due to a drinking problem, Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich) angrily quits his job as a CIA analyst and resolves to write a memoir about his life and career. When his pediatrician wife Katie (Tilda Swinton) finds out, she sees it as a justifiable opportunity to file for divorce and continue her adulterous affair unimpeded. Taking her lawyer's advice, she copies financial records and several other files from her husband's computer onto a CD. These files contain a rambling, meaningless diatribe by Cox on purported CIA activities.When the CD gets left on the locker room floor of Hardbodies, a local gym, by a careless law firm employee, it falls into the hands of dim-witted personal trainer Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt) and his co-worker Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand), who mistakenly believe the numerical data in the Coxes' bank records, and especially, Cox's diatribes, to be highly sensitive government information. After getting the data traced back to Osbourne, who thinks his memoirs have been stolen, Chad and Linda plan to give the disc back to him for a reward, with Linda planning to use the money to pay for plastic surgery. When a phone call and subsequent meeting with Osbourne provoke a furious reaction and go horribly wrong, Chad and Linda turn over the disc to the Russian embassy, offering more information in return for monetary compensation. With no other data to give them, Linda persuades Chad to sneak into the Coxes' home to get more files from their computer.Meanwhile, Osbourne's increasingly erratic behavior, aggravated in part by his encounters with Chad and Linda, prompt Katie to move ahead with the divorce proceedings. She changes the locks on their house, forcing Osbourne to move onto the sailboat they have docked on the Chesapeake Bay. With her husband out of the picture, Katie invites her lover, Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney), to move in. A womanizing, multi-adulterous deputy U.S. Marshal, Harry is coincidentally also secretly seeing Linda. Harry finds Chad, whom Linda sent to find more files on Osbourne, hiding in a wardrobe in the Coxes' home, panics, and fatally shoots Chad.Two days later at the CIA headquarters, Palmer Smith (David Rasche), Osbourne's former superior, and his director learn that information from Osbourne has been given to the Russian Embassy. The two men are perplexed, given Osbourne's low-level security clearance, the material delivered to the Russians being of no importance to anyone, and the apparent motive of all involved parties remaining unknown. Smith is told to maintain observation until the situation "makes sense". Harry, burdened by keeping the day prior's events secret, gets into an argument with Katie and decides to leave the house. On his way out, he spots a man who has been trailing him for the past several days. After tackling him to the ground, Harry finds out that the man is a private detective hired by his wife Sandra "Sandy" (Elizabeth Marvel) to gather evidence for impending divorce proceedings. Sandy is shown to be having an extramarital liaison of her own. Harry is devastated and goes to see an agitated Linda, who confides in Harry that Chad is missing. Harry agrees to help find Chad.The next morning, Harry and Linda meet in a park, and Linda provides him with more information about Chad's disappearance. When Linda mentions the name "Osbourne Cox", Harry figures out that Chad is the man he shot. He panics, realizes that there are strange men in the park (most likely the CIA people trailing Linda) and flees, assuming Linda is a spy. Linda then turns to Ted Treffon (Richard Jenkins), the kindhearted manager of Hardbodies, who has unrequited feelings for her and has been critical of Linda and Chad's scheming thus far.Believing the Russians have kidnapped Chad, he agrees to go to the Coxes' home to search Osbourne's computer. Unemployed and having spent the past several days living on a small boat, Osbourne becomes unhinged when he finds out that Katie has emptied his bank accounts and, no longer having keys, decides to break into the house to get some of his personal belongings. Finding Ted in the basement, Osbourne initially takes him to be Katie's lover. He soon realizes Ted's affiliation with Linda and what he refers to as the "league of morons" he feels that he has been struggling against his whole life and kills Ted.At CIA headquarters a few days later, Palmer and his director try to understand what exactly happened. It is revealed that while trying to board a flight to Venezuela, Harry was detained because his name was on a hot list and that the CIA is holding Linda, who is promising to "play ball" and "sit on it" if they will pay for her plastic surgery. A CIA agent shot Osbourne during his assault on Ted and the bullet has put Osbourne in a coma. The director instructs Palmer to let Harry fly to Venezuela (as that country has no extradition treaty with the US and therefore will not send him back) and pay for Linda's surgery. The director and Palmer conclude that despite their oversight and the unusual events that have unfolded, there appears to be no lesson for the agency to have learned, be it moral, espionage, or otherwise. "I guess we learned not to do it again," the director concludes (despite not knowing exactly what they did), and closes his file.Meanwhile, staff at the Russian embassy have dismissed the contents of Cox's ramblings in the files from his computer - arguably the one factor that started off the entire chain of events - as "drivel".

Storyline

Osbourne Cox, a Balkan expert, resigned from the CIA because of a drinking problem, so he begins a memoir. His wife wants a divorce and expects her lover, Harry, a philandering State Department marshal, to leave his wife. A CD-ROM falls out of a gym bag at a Georgetown fitness center. Two employees there try to turn it into cash: Linda, who wants money for cosmetic surgery, and Chad, an amiable goof. Information on the disc leads them to Osbourne who rejects their sales pitch; then they visit the Russian embassy. To sweeten the pot, they decide they need more of Osbourne's secrets. Meanwhile, Linda's boss likes her, and Harry's wife leaves for a book tour. All roads lead to Osbourne's house. — <jhailey@hotmail.com> Rather than accept a demotion due to alcoholism (which he vehemently denies he has, despite it being the truth), mid level CIA analyst Osborne Cox, whose latest assignment was the Balkans desk, decides to quit. With all his free time, he decides he's going to write an explosive memoir of his CIA life to get back at his former employers. He may or may not be aware that his work is not the only problematic issue in his life as his pediatrician wife Katie Cox is having an affair with Harry Pfarrer, a marshal with the US Treasury. Harry and his children's book author wife Sandy Pfarrer are so called friends with Ozzy and Katie, who each individually bitch about the other couple behind their backs. Harry and Katie have stated to each other that they are committed to each other and would be married if it wasn't for their spouses. Little does Katie know that Harry is being unfaithful not only with her but a plethora of other women, most of who he meets on the Internet. In addition, paranoid Harry can't help feel that he's being followed. Meanwhile, the talk among the staff at Hardbodies Gym is Linda Litzke, one of their own. Middle aged Linda is determined to reinvent herself, including having a multitude of cosmetic procedures, all in an effort to make herself feel better about herself and attract a man into her life. Her primary approach to meet men is online dating sites, she in the process being oblivious to the fact that her boss, Ted Treffon, the gym's owner, is in love with her. A further problem for Linda is that the gym's extended health benefits program does not cover what would otherwise be these very expensive cosmetic procedures. The already complicated lives of these two groups of people intersect and become even more complicated when a CD containing what looks to be classified government information is found in the women's change room of the gym. Linda and her best friend at the gym, the slightly dim Chad Feldheimer, one of the trainers, learn that the information "belongs" to Ozzy (it being his memoirs). They believe the CD is a good opportunity to earn a little money - for Linda, for her much wanted cosmetic surgeries - if not from Ozzy, than from anyone who will pay for it, including other governments such as the Russians. — Huggo