The Ghost Writer (released as The Ghost in the United Kingdom and Ireland) is a 2010 neo-noir political thriller film directed by Roman Polanski. The film is an adaptation of a 2007 Robert Harris novel, The Ghost, with the screenplay written by Polanski and Harris. It stars Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan, Kim Cattrall, and Olivia Williams.
The film was a critical and commercial success, winning numerous cinematic awards, including Best Director for Polanski at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival and the 23rd European Film Awards in 2010.
A ghostwriter is hired by the publishing firm Rhinehart, Inc. to complete the autobiography of former British Prime Minister Adam Lang. The Ghost's predecessor and Lang's aide, Mike McAra, has recently died in a drowning accident. The Ghost travels to Old Haven on Martha's Vineyard, where Lang and his wife Ruth stay.
Former British Foreign Secretary Richard Rycart accuses Lang of authorising the extraordinary rendition of suspected terrorists. Lang faces prosecution by the International Criminal Court unless he stays in the United States. While Lang is in Washington, D.C., the Ghost finds an envelope containing photographs and a phone number in McAra's old room. The Ghost calls the number and discovers it belongs to Rycart.
Ruth reveals that Lang and McAra argued the night before the latter's death. Ruth and the Ghost have a one-night stand.
The Ghost takes McAra's car with the intent of returning to his hotel but follows the pre-programmed directions on the car's sat-nav instead. The vehicle takes the Ghost to the Belmont home of Professor Paul Emmett.
Despite several pictures of the pair together, Emmett denies anything more than a cursory acquaintance with Lang. When the Ghost tells Emmett the sat-nav proves McAra visited him the night he died, Emmett denies meeting McAra and becomes evasive.
Someone follows the Ghost on the way back to Martha's Vineyard. With no one else to turn to, the Ghost asks Rycart for help. The Ghost researches links between Emmett, a military contractor, and the CIA. Rycart reveals McAra gave him documents linking Lang to so-called "torture flights", in which terrorist suspects were placed on private jets to be tortured while airborne.
Rycart claims that McAra found new evidence, which he wrote about in the "beginnings" of the manuscript. The men cannot, however, find anything in the early pages. The Ghost discusses Emmett's relationship with Lang, while Rycart recounts how Lang's decisions as Prime Minister uniformly benefited US interests.
The Ghost confronts Lang and accuses him of being a CIA agent recruited by Emmett. Shortly after, Lang is assassinated by a man whose son died "in one of Lang's illegal wars". The assassin is shot dead by Lang's bodyguards. The Ghost is asked to complete the book for posthumous publication.
At the book's launch party in London, the Ghost learns that Emmett, who is in attendance, was Ruth's tutor when she was at Harvard. The Ghost discovers the message in the original manuscript: "Lang's wife Ruth was recruited as a CIA agent by Professor Paul Emmett of Harvard University." The Ghost passes a note to Ruth revealing his discovery. She unfolds the note and is devastated. She sees the Ghost raising a glass to her. The Ghost leaves the party, and as he crosses the street, a car accelerates in his direction, and a thud is heard. Witnesses react in horror, and the pages containing McAra's manuscript scatter in the wind.