The film begins with Poitras showing us a car traveling down a dark tunnel with very little light and no end in sight. This is the journey of the film, into darkness without any certainty as to what is coming nor any result. Edward Snowden has sent encrypted emails to Poitras calling himself 'Citizenfour'. From the very start we know that Poitras is taking a risk by communicating with this person. They state they have information, but it is unclear what it is or if it/he is reliable. What is the selling point for the journey to continue for the audience and Poitras is that she was "selected" by Citizenfour because of her history with the NSA, who has put her on a watch list. And, because of this she is stopped and detained every time she enters back into the United States. Why? Because she made a film about the Iraq War.
Citizenfour is seeking to pull the curtain back on US intelligence agencies' misuse of power. Citizenfour is revealed to be Edward Snowden who Poitras, along with Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill from The Guardian meet with in Hong Kong to conduct several days of interviews in order to break stories to the world about the top secret NSA files Snowden has taken in order to stop them from spying on private citizens globally.
During this sequence in Hong Kong Poitras has exterior shots of the hotel they are in. The shots are calm, still, as to say "all is well here." But once she cuts inside we find a man trapped by his decision to ensure government and its agencies are kept in check by the people, essentially preserving what he believes democracy to be. The story intensifies as the story breaks, then Snowden reveals his identity and claims responsibility. The feeling of fear and paranoia is increased as Snowden eventually must go into hiding in order not to be extradited to the U.S. Poitras then uses typed dialogue between her and Snowden to convey the reality of his inability to communicate with anyone in a traditional way, in person or by phone. In fact, we don't see him for an extended period of time until the end of the film. It creates suspense as to what will happen to this man, will he find asylum through the UN, or will he be taken back to the U.S., or worse tortured and killed?
Poitras cross cuts interviews with Snowden's revealing the truth of the spying scandal with Congressional hearings of NSA officials, including its Director lying to Congress about their spying illegally on private citizens. And, Glenn Greenwald's work with the Brazilian government brings into play the reality of the NSA's spying on foreign countries as well as domestically. We see the personal effect of Greenwald's commitment to the story when his partner is detained for 9 hours at Heathrow Airport in London under the terrorist act. We watch as this is a clear tactic to manipulate Greenwald and deter him from continuing. But, most poignantly we see Snowden and Greenwald in the final scene of the film discussing updates on what the journalist has uncovered. He writes on sheets of paper the sensitive information he wants to convey to Snowden. Why? He now knows the capabilities of the NSA, and does not want to risk them putting their finger on him. Greenwald is careful now, and he even rips the pieces of paper into shreds. We see one of those shreds says "POTUS" amongst a pile. The President of the United States has authority over all of this. And the pile of scraps represents lives that are being ruined, torn apart for the sake of national security agencies overstepping their power; and they have created a state of fear which people live in. A state of fear within a country of free citizens.
