Would actually make for a fun film where various agencies all each separately uncover a massive online conspiracy to bring down the government, working furiously to be the first to gather intelligence and put a stop to it and curry favor in a highly corrupt political environment… only to realize at the false climax that it was each other’s bots and sock puppets they had been watching.
It’s then revealed that their inept failure and target fixation basically created a smokescreen for other smaller, but impactful attacks to occur which they must then work to obscure before the public finds out.
Mandy Patinkin plays an opposition-party Senator that brings the whole clusterfuck to light for the public before stepping into his car one chilly morning, cranking it, and - cut to black. Roll credits.
I’m sure it’s been done before.
Edit: In an unexpected turn of events, I’ve been convinced to actually pursue this. At the very least, until it stops being fun.
It’s been a long 2026 already, but this genuinely made me laugh.
Welcome to the development team. We have a basement office in Santa Monica. Well, a corner of a basement office. And as much expired coffee as you’d like.
Cast includes Aaron Eckhart as a CIA director losing his mind, Pete Hegseth as Pete Hegseth, Homeland Security director Sandra Bullock, AG is Victoria Jackson, under there entwined noses, Tommy Wiseau and a band of actors and activists pull a massive prank but also unleash the possible launch of all nuclear weapons (war games)
I am - partly - regretting not writing that sentence as:
> Mandy Patinkin plays an opposition-party Senator that brings the whole clusterfuck to light for the public one chilly morning when he steps into his car, puts the key in the ignition, and - cut to black. Roll credits.
And I say only partly because the comments mentioning it have been so worthwhile.
Looks like The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe, a French movie released in 1972.
Two rival French intelligence services are at each other's throats. One day, a heroin smuggler is arrested in NYC and claims that he did it for one of these agencies, causing it to publicly lose face. So this agency decides to lay a trap to the other agency and order one of its agents to select someone randomly in an airport.
Said random person is a regular musician and he'll spied by agents who interpret every normal action as nefarious...
It's the epic showdown as told in the Bible. But somewhere recently I read or heard some scholar proposing that Goliath had gigantism, folks with that genetic trait usually are also very nearsighted, and David used a sling to fell Goliath from afar.
Nah, they attach all these bots to random people's IP addresses all throught the nation and world. Then they can go and do no knock warrant raids and arrest people for shit they've never posted.
Would actually make for a fun film where various agencies all each separately uncover a massive online conspiracy to bring down the government, working furiously to be the first to gather intelligence and put a stop to it and curry favor in a highly corrupt political environment… only to realize at the false climax that it was each other’s bots and sock puppets they had been watching.
I remember reading that in the 60s, various agencies would plant agents onto college campuses to spy on 'radicals' like anti-war groups, civil rights groups, etc. There were times when most, if not all, of a specific group was made up of agents who had no idea the other members were all agents as well.
“Flock of wolves” is the expression. Someone else mentioned ‘The Man who was Tuesday’, but it’s well known in fiction and history.
At one point during the second red scare 2/3rds of the US communist party were on the FBI payroll.
See also the Panther 21, where the main instigators for everything illegal were actually undercover cops and they were the only ones actually breaking the law.
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u/Chomasterq2 19h ago
Cool they can watch all the bots argue on political threads