The Expatriate

Erased (released as The Expatriate outside of the US) is a 2012 Canadian-Belgian action thriller film directed by Philipp Stölzl, starring Aaron Eckhart and Olga Kurylenko. The story centers on Ben Logan (Aaron Eckhart) an ex-CIA agent and Amy (Liana Liberato), his estranged daughter who are forced on the run when his employers erase all records of his existence, and mark them both for termination as part of a wide-reaching international conspiracy. It was released in the US on 17 May 2013, following its acquisition by RaDiUS-TWC, the multiplatform distribution label of The Weinstein Company. It was retitled Erased for the US market. Plot Ben Logan is an American single parent who has recently moved to Belgium with Amy, his previously estranged teenaged daughter. He works for The Kohler Company, a subsidiary within the Halgate Group, a multinational technology corporation. He tests ways to breach security measures, such as locks and iris scanners. When one of his co-workers discovers that the company does not have a patent for one of its products, Logan brings it to the attention of his boss, Derek Kohler. Shortly afterward, he finds his entire office building is empty and no records exist of the Kohler Company nor his employment. Confused, Logan attempts to prove his employment by accessing bank records, but then he and Amy are kidnapped at gunpoint by Logan's coworker Floyd, who forces them into Logan's car. Logan crashes the car on purpose and then kills Floyd in front of a stunned Amy and the pair flee from the police. They break into an empty house and Amy demands to know Logan's background. Logan cryptically alludes to "getting people in and out of difficult situations". Logan soon discovers that the rest of his coworkers have all been killed, and he goes into hiding, aided by Amy's contacts among Moroccan undocumented immigrants she had befriended. Eventually, Logan uncovers documents proving a wide-ranging conspiracy involving illegal arms trafficking to African insurgents, meant to allow Halgate to access lithium mining rights when the insurgents take power. The Halgate shell company Logan was working for was using his security engineering skills to steal these documents from a CIA cache. Logan finally tells Amy that he is an ex-CIA operative.