‘Midnight In The War Room’ And The Unsung Heroes Of Cybersecurity

If you ask Dr. Chase Cunningham whether we’re in a cyber war, he won’t hedge.
“We’ve already had our cyber Pearl Harbor,” he told me. “It just didn’t happen in a single day.”

That line lingered with me because it’s not hyperbole. Cunningham, one of the featured voices in Midnight in the War Room, knows what he’s talking about. The new documentary—produced by Semperis—offers an unfiltered look at the modern cyber battlefield and the people trying to hold the line. It’s raw, unscripted and, in Cunningham’s words, “deeply concerning.”

We tend to talk about cybersecurity as a technical problem: firewalls, zero trust and threat intel feeds. Cunningham sees it differently. He frames it as national defense, full stop. “I’m genuinely concerned about the way our infrastructure runs in this country,” he said. “On the cyber front, we are positioned for failure.”

It’s hard to disagree. For years, I’ve covered ransomware attacks that shut down hospitals, pipelines and entire cities. I’ve written about data theft on a scale that would’ve been unthinkable twenty years ago. But what Cunningham drives home is the human cost behind those headlines. “Nearly a hundred Americans died last year because ransomware hit hospitals and care facilities,” he said. “People are dying, and no one blinks an eye.”

That’s not a metaphor. When a healthcare network goes offline, chemotherapy stops, dialysis stops and surgeries get canceled. Those aren’t theoretical losses—they’re measurable. Cunningham calls it “kinetic cyber warfare,” and he’s right. We’ve crossed the line where cyberattacks affect real bodies, not just data.

A Film About the People Behind the Firewall

That human reality is what drew Thomas LeDuc to make Midnight in the War Room. A former filmmaker who spent the last decade in cybersecurity, LeDuc saw a gap between how the public imagines cyber defense and how it actually feels.

“Cybersecurity has all the ingredients of a blockbuster—heroes, high stakes—but it’s still not on most young people’s radar as a career,” he told me. “We joke about ‘making cyber sexy,’ but I mean it. We need to make this industry exciting and aspirational.”

LeDuc and co-director Bill Keeler interviewed dozens of CISOs, reformed hackers and national-security leaders to capture those emotional and moral dimensions. The film trades talking points for human honesty. CISOs describe long nights, burnout and guilt. Some, like one leader who drag races on weekends to blow off stress, admit they need physical danger just to balance the mental load.

This isn’t marketing; it’s therapy. Several participants told LeDuc the interview process felt like a release—a chance to talk openly about the weight of being responsible for so much that no one else understands.

A Real-World War With Invisible Casualties

Cunningham’s perspective gives the film its backbone. His blunt commentary connects those personal struggles to a bigger geopolitical story. “I go to Capitol Hill once a month,” he told me. “There are more than 400 members of Congress, and only two have a degree in technology. The rest have absolutely no clue.”

He’s not trying to score points—he’s frustrated. Cyber warfare is already shaping global power, yet the people setting policy often lack even a basic understanding of the technology involved. “There’s no Geneva Convention for cyber,” Cunningham said. “Everyone knows how powerful it is, and that’s why no one signs the accords.”

He’s right about that too. Nation-states, criminal gangs and mercenaries now fight on the same digital terrain. North Korea built a nuclear program on stolen cryptocurrency. China industrialized intellectual-property theft. Meanwhile, Western democracies are still debating definitions while their critical infrastructure quietly erodes.

Midnight in the War Room doesn’t sensationalize any of this. It shows what happens when the stakes are life-or-death and the people defending civilization do it from a keyboard instead of a cockpit.

No Spin, Just Truth

LeDuc told me Semperis CEO Mickey Bresman gave him one rule before production began: no product mentions, no branding, no sales pitch. “It had to be good and it had to be honest,” LeDuc said.

That creative freedom makes the film feel authentic. Viewers won’t see marketing slogans—they’ll see people. They’ll hear Jen Easterly explain the scale of cybercrime in the trillions. They’ll meet Marcus Hutchins, the hacker who stopped WannaCry and now jokes about being forever known for a “simple fix.” And they’ll hear CISOs and analysts describe the fatigue, purpose and sometimes loneliness of defending against invisible enemies.

As someone who’s written about cybersecurity for more than two decades, I found that focus refreshing. Most narratives about the field center on tools or threats. This one centers on humanity—the sleepless analysts, the ethical gray zones and the quiet moments when someone finally says out loud, “I’m tired.”

A Mirror for an Industry at War With Itself

What makes Midnight in the War Room powerful isn’t just who’s in it, but how it reframes the entire profession. It’s a mirror held up to an industry wrestling with burnout, bureaucracy and purpose.

Cunningham puts it plainly: “We’ve been in this war for over a decade. People just don’t want to call it what it is.” LeDuc hopes the film will change that narrative—and maybe recruit a few new defenders in the process. “If this film helps even one young person see cybersecurity as heroic and meaningful,” he said, “we’ve done our job.”

That sentiment captures the soul of the documentary. It isn’t selling fear. It’s showing courage—the kind that happens quietly, behind the firewall, every day.

A Story That Finally Feels Real

Midnight in the War Room gives cybersecurity the cinematic treatment it’s long deserved without losing the grit that makes the work authentic. It’s about humanity under pressure—the people who protect the modern world while most of us sleep.

Cybersecurity may never look glamorous, but thanks to LeDuc and voices like Cunningham’s, it finally feels real.

Midnight in the War Room is expected to premiere in early 2026. Click here to watch the first trailer at semperis.com/midnight-in-the-war-room.

Forbes