Reality ending explained: Why did Reality Winner leak classified information?

HBO’s Reality, starring Sydney Sweeney in the titular role, is an uncomfortable and at times awkward look into the day Reality Winner was questioned and then arrested by FBI agents on June 3, 2017 at her home.

While the film is a fictionalized account of a real life event, it draws from the transcribed recording that took place in the afternoon as Winner’s motives were slowly revealed. In fact, the dialogue is ripped straight from the recording.

At the time, Winner was 25 years old and had been working as an intelligence specialist. She, however, was flagged due to material she’d leaked to the press which landed her on the FBI’s radar and triggered an investigation.

In the movie, we learned that the information Winner sent to the publication, The Intercept, confirmed that Russia had attempted to interfere with the 2016 presidential election through a phishing email scam sent to over 100 local election officials ahead of election day in November. The report the publication was sent by Winner stated that the cyber attack was conducted by the Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU). Their efforts were concentrated on the voter registration process and the voter rolls and not vote tallying.

The driving force of Reality centers on why Winner chose to leak classified information to the press despite knowing the consequences of her actions. Here’s what we know.

Why did Reality Winner leak classified information?

In the film, after Winner realizes her lies are no longer holding up, she explains that she couldn’t sit back and listen to the truth being buried. At her job, Fox News ran throughout the work day. She’d asked them to change the channel and filed complaints to no avail so she often had to listen to the never ending loop of propaganda, conspiracies, disinformation, and lies.

Her clearance allowed her to view material that’s considered secret and need to know. So sometimes she’d access the portal at work to read interesting documents. One day she read one on Russian interference into the election, but there was no indication that it was going to be declassified and shared with the general public.

Winner decided that people had the right to know and should know that the Russians had launched a cyber attack against the United States in an attempt to undermine the election process. While the NSA’s analysis didn’t conclude that the interference affected the outcome of the 2016 election, it did concede that the extent to which the hacker’s accomplished their objectives was unknown.

The real life Reality Winner had the following to say about her decision: “I knew it was secret … but I also knew that I had pledged service to the American people.” So she did it because of a sense duty and a need for transparency about a credible threat to the country’s democracy.

By the end of the movie, Winner is arrested for actions and we’re treated to a look into the days, weeks, and months after her indictment and imprisonment. The Intercept were heavily criticized for her handling as a source, members of Congress were using the leaked report in their talking points but she was still dealing with the aftermath of the leak, and there was still denial from far right conservatives who refused to believe Russia interfered in the election.

Viewers are also provided with an update about the real Winner, she’d been released from prison in 2021 for good behavior, and is on probation until November 2024.