Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe) was a central witness in the lawsuits filed by Mississippi and the 49 other states against the tobacco industry, which eventually were settled for $246 billion. Wigand, former head of research and development and a corporate officer at Brown & Williamson, was a top scientist, the ultimate insider. No one like him had ever gone public before. Meanwhile, Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino), investigative reporter and "60 Minutes" producer, mostly for Mike Wallace (Christopher Plummer) segments, arranged a legal defense team for Wigand and taped the famous Wallace interview with its devastating testimony. However, before the most newsworthy "60 Minutes" segment in years could air, Bergman would lose to a CBS corporate decision to kill it and would experience breakdown and bitter divisions within "60 Minutes." Wigand would find himself sued, targeted in a national smear campaign, divorced, and facing possible incarceration. Wigand, having wagered so much and now unable to deliver his testimony to the American people, and Bergman, trying to defeat the smear campaign and force CBS to air the interview, are two ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. They find themselves in a fight from which no one will emerge as he entered, and nothing will be the same again.