Factual

The Perfect Weapon, an HBO documentary special based on the best-selling book by New York Times national security correspondent David E. Sanger, will debut Friday, October 16 at 8.00 p.m. on HBO and to stream on HBO Max. Directed by John Maggio, the film explores the rise of cyber conflict as a primary way in which nations now compete with and sabotage one another. Cheap, invisible and devastatingly effective, cyber weapons are the present and future of geopolitical conflict – a short-of-war pathway to exercising power. The Perfect Weapon draws on interviews with top military, intelligence and political officials for a comprehensive view of a world of new vulnerabilities, particularly as fear mounts over how cyberattacks and influence operations may affect the 2020 U.S. election, vulnerable power grids, America’s nuclear weapons arsenal, and the global networks that are the backbone of private enterprise. The film also explores how the U.S. government is struggling to defend itself from cyberattacks while simultaneously stockpiling and using the world's most powerful offensive cyber arsenal.

Interviewees include former Secretary of State and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, former NSA Director and first commander of U.S. Cyber Command Keith Alexander, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, current Director of DHS’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Christopher Krebs, former Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton, filmmaker Seth Rogen, former US Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, and Microsoft President Brad Smith.

The Perfect Weapon is directed by John Maggio (Panic: The Untold Story of the 2008 Financial Crisis, HBO’s The Newspaperman) and comes from Ark Media, the production company headed by Maggio, Barak Goodman and Rachel Dretzin. Former Vice News head Josh Tyrangiel and Sanger served as executive producers of the documentary along with Maggio.