Syriana is a 2005 geopolitical thriller film written and directed by Stephen Gaghan, and executive produced by George Clooney, who also stars in the film with an ensemble cast. Gaghan's screenplay is loosely adapted from Robert Baer's memoir See No Evil. The film focuses on petroleum politics, and the global influence of the oil industry, whose political, economic, legal, and social effects are experienced by a CIA operative (George Clooney), an energy analyst (Matt Damon), a Washington attorney (Jeffrey Wright), and a young unemployed Pakistani migrant worker (Mazhar Munir) in an Arab country in the Persian Gulf.

As with Gaghan's screenplay for Traffic, Syriana uses multiple, parallel storylines, jumping from locations in Texas, Washington D.C., Switzerland, Spain, and the Middle East, leading film critic Roger Ebert to describe the film as hyperlink cinema.

Clooney won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Agent Bob Barnes, and Gaghan's script was nominated by the Academy for Best Original Screenplay. As of April 20, 2006, the film grossed a total of $50.82 million in the U.S. box office and $42.9 million in the rest of the world, for a total of $93.73 million.

Plot

American energy giant Connex is losing control of key Middle-East oil fields in a kingdom ruled by the al-Subaai family. The emirate's foreign minister, Prince Nasir (Alexander Siddig) has granted natural-gas drilling rights to a Chinese company, greatly upsetting the American oil industry and the energy interests of the U.S. government. To compensate for its decreased production capacity, Connex initiates a shady merger with Killen, a smaller oil company which recently won the drilling rights to key oil fields in Kazakhstan. Connex-Killen ranks as the world's twenty-third largest economy, and American antitrust regulators at the Department of Justice (DOJ) have misgivings. The Washington law firm headed by Dean Whiting (Christopher Plummer) is hired to smooth the way for the merger. Bennett Holiday (Jeffrey Wright) is assigned to promote the impression of due diligence to the DOJ, alleviating any allegations of corruption.

In reparation and out of sympathy for the loss of his son, Prince Nasir grants Woodman's company oil interests worth US$75 million, and invites Woodman to become his economic advisor. Prince Nasir is dedicated to the idea of progressive reform, and understands that oil dependency is not sustainable in the long term; Nasir desires to utilize his nation's oil profits to diversify the economy and introduce democratic reforms, in sharp contrast to his father's repressive government, which has been supported by American interests. Woodman and his wife drift apart as he becomes more involved in working with the Prince and she even questions whether he is trading on the tragedy that took their son's life. Nasir hopes to succeed his father as emir, but his younger brother is willing to continue the status quo and American military presence, and is chosen as the King's successor instead even though he's clearly unqualified to run a nation. Nasir plans a military coup, but American intelligence plans to assassinate him via a remote missile attack on his convoy.