James Mitchell, a retired Air Force psychologist, sits down with VICE News reporter Kaj Larsen at a house in suburban Florida for what the film says is his first on-camera interview. Mitchell is the contractor identified by news reports, though not by name in the Senate's own findings, as the architect of the CIA's enhanced interrogation program, built around techniques like wall standing, sleep deprivation, and waterboarding. He is bound by a non-disclosure agreement with the CIA and talks around his role rather than confirming it, even as reporting has tied him directly to the interrogation of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged 9/11 planner. The conversation is set against the Senate Intelligence Committee's report, a five-year, $40 million study that reviewed more than 6 million pages of CIA documents and concluded the agency overstated what the program produced. Human rights advocates and watchdog groups appear alongside Mitchell to argue the tactics amounted to torture. The film closes without resolution, Mitchell defending the program's necessity while the paper trail behind him tells a different story.