Open Road Films has released a new trailer for director Oliver Stone’s upcoming thriller Snowden. The film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as government contractor Edward Snowden and recounts how he obtained and absconded with thousands of classified NSA documents, which he then disseminated to the press in the interest of informing the public about privacy breaches from its own government.

Following a Comic-Con panel where Stone said that Pokemon Go can lead to totalitarianism (everyone knows that Stalin was a bulbasaur fan), this trailer once again makes us question the necessity of a Snowden film following the documentary Citizenfour.  It seems like rather than face the complexities of surveillance and personal freedom, and delve into the questions of what Snowden did was patriotic or traitorous, this looks like a generic spy thriller that happens to be based on true events.  It's like Stone wanted to make a more palatable version of Snowden's story for people who don't like documentaries or reading.  It's also not an encouraging sign that although they're showing the film at Comic-Con, it's under embargo until September.

Watch the new Snowden trailer below. The film also stars Shailene Woodley, Melissa Leo, Zachary Quinto, Tom Wilkinson, Rhys Ifans, and Nicolas Cage. Snowden opens in theaters on September 16th.

Here's the official synopsis for Snowden:

Snowden stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and is written and directed by acclaimed filmmaker Oliver Stone. The script is based on the books The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World’s Most Wanted Man by Luke Harding and Time of the Octopus by Anatoly Kucherena.