Traitor

Starring Don Cheadle and Guy Pearce, this tense thriller follows Samir Horn, a Sudanese-American who speaks Arabic and holds to a devout Muslim faith. He is haunted by the memory of his father, who was killed by a car bomb when Samir was a child, a trauma that shapes his worldview as an adult.

As an adult, Samir works as an arms dealer. During a high-stakes negotiation with Omar in Yemen, he is arrested and jailed, only to later form a wary if uneasy friendship with Omar. When Omar’s people stage an escape, Samir accompanies them, and they cross paths with Fareed, a lieutenant in the al-Nathir terrorist organization. Across the border, FBI Special Agent Roy Clayton begins to suspect that Samir has been radicalized and makes it his mission to track him down.

Samir’s path takes a sharp turn when he joins al-Nathir, leveraging the specialized skills he developed as a U.S. Army Special Forces Engineer Sergeant to carry out a bombing at the U.S. Consulate in Nice, France. The revelation that Samir is operating as a deep undercover asset for Carter, a U.S. intelligence contractor, adds a layered complexity to the operation. The aftermath hits hard, as Samir is devastated to learn that innocent people died in the consulate attack despite his and Carter’s covert efforts.

Impressed by Samir’s abilities, Fareed introduces him to Nathir, the group’s leader, who unveils a chilling plot: suicide bombers on fifty buses across the U.S. during Thanksgiving. Samir is tasked with acting as a liaison to each of the al-Nathir’s sleeper bombers, a role that places him at the center of a dangerous web. The tension escalates when Carter inadvertently interrupts a meeting between Samir and Omar, and Omar proceeds to kill Carter.

With his cover now exposed, Samir confesses the depth of his mission to Clayton, who tracks him to Halifax, Nova Scotia. While Clayton investigates, he uncovers a disturbing detail: the deaths in Nice were faked, with only one real casualty. On a cargo ship bound for Marseille, Samir eliminates Nathir and Fareed, turning his focus to Omar. He confronts Omar and explains that by targeting innocents, they betrayed Islam. He then reveals that he manipulated the bombers’ emails and coordinated them onto a single bus, ensuring that almost all the bombers died—save for the driver of that bus. Canadian police and the FBI close in, killing Omar and wounding Samir.

In the aftermath, Samir opens up to Clayton about the weight of his actions and the guilt he carries for taking innocent lives. He recalls the Qur’an’s admonition that killing an innocent person is like killing all mankind. Clayton offers a different perspective, quoting the corollary that saving an innocent person is saving all mankind, and he treats Samir as a potential ally, suggesting a possible future with the FBI.

Last Updated: November 22, 2025 at 15:58