enemy of the state

A person who expresses or holds ideas or actions that the currently ruling power feels are dangerous. The degree of intolerance and paranoia at the time will determine the how sensetive the ruling power will be to criticism and what it feels are revolutionary or threatening actions. Once branded this, many things may be done to a person that violate their usual rights in the name of protecting interests of the state. See thought police.

A 1998 action/espionage movie directed by Tony Scott. It stars Will Smith as a DC labor lawyer who unwittingly holds key evidence to a crime that was committed by a high-ranking NSA official. Gene Hackman plays Brill, an ultra-paranoid and skilled ex-NSA spook who works from a copper wire mesh shielded HQ. Good stuff.

(Smith): What the hell is happening?
Brill: I blew up the building.
(Smith): Why?!
Brill: Because you made a phone call!

Enemy is basically a more modern North By Northwest. It also reminds me of Coppola's The Conversation (1974), in which Gene Hackman plays a quiet surveillance expert who becomes obsessed with the couple he is tracking.