In Lebanon, Hezbollah militants escort producer Lowell Bergman (Pacino) to Hezbollah founder Sheikh Fadlallah, where Lowell convinces him to be interviewed by Mike Wallace (Plummer) for CBS show 60 Minutes. In Louisville, Kentucky, Jeffrey Wigand (Crowe) packs his belongings and leaves his Brown and Williamson office, returning home to his wife Liane (Venora) and two children, one of whom suffers from acute asthma. When Liane asks about the boxes in Wigand’s car, he reveals that he was fired from his job that morning.

Returning home to Berkeley, California, Bergman receives an anonymous package containing documents relating to tobacco company Philip Morris, and approaches a friend at the FDA for the name of a translator. Bergman is referred to Wigand, and calls him at his home only to be steadfastly rebuffed. Curious with Wigand’s refusal to even speak to him, Bergman eventually convinces him to meet at the Seelbach Hotel in Louisville. In the privacy of their hotel room, agrees to translate the tobacco documents, but stresses that he cannot talk about anything else because of his confidentiality agreement. After leaving with the documents, Wigand appears at a meeting with Brown and Williamson CEO Thomas Sandefur (Gambon), who orders him to sign an expanded confidentiality agreement, under threat of revoking his severance pay, medical coverage and initiating legal proceedings. Wigand, enraged at the threats and believing that Bergman notified Sandefur about their confidential meeting, calls and accuses Bergman of treachery.