Fridae

If not for the plot twist (revealed in the trailer, believe it or not) in Traitor, this film about an FBI agent tracking down a terrorist is pretty much a carbon copy of almost every other terrorist film released after the September 11 incident. The twist merely adds a dash of Infernal Affairs to the mix, but unfortunately, nothing much else is done with it. This results in a movie that would have gone straight to video if not for the stars involved, and the fact that it's released almost 9 months late in Singapore is testament to this fact.

Don Cheadle plays Samir Horn, a Sudan-born American that has gone to work for Muslim extremist groups, using his weapons expertise to launch attacks all over the world. Roy Clayton (Guy Pearce), an FBI agent, is inexplicably charged with the task of tracking down the international terrorist. He apprehends Samir quite early in the film, but Samir manages to escape his Yemen prison, and begins to plan a series of terrorist attacks targeting Americans.

Clayton goes on a hunt for Samir again, but it is then revealed that Samir is actually a super-secret agent working for the CIA, with only one person on the inside - Carter (Jeff Daniels) that knows his true identity. Thus, Clayton and Samir spend the last quarter of the movie on a cat-and-mouse chase across America , despite actually being on the same side.

The plot of Traitor is fairly predictable (and for the more skeptical audience, the number of plot holes may be quite distracting) and since the Infernal Affairs-esque twist is made known to audiences beforehand, there's really nothing much else to anticipate apart from several neat explosions and the great performance from Don Cheadle. Jeff Daniels also acquits himself, but Guy Pearce turns in a surprisingly bland performance given his track record. There is a relatively satisfying climax, but most audiences would probably have ceased to care by then.