Open Road Films and Joseph Gordon-Levitt have released the first look at the actor as Edward Snowden in Oliver Stone's upcoming biopic about the NSA whistleblower.

"I was surprised when I first learned this about Snowden -- that he enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2004," Gordon-Levitt writes on his Facebook page. "He wanted to go fight in Iraq, but during basic training at Fort Benning, he broke both of his legs and received an administrative discharge. After that, he was still determined to serve his country (love him or hate him, you gotta admit the guy's strong-willed) and so he ended up getting a job at the CIA, which is where his career in Intelligence began.

"Today's scenes felt like a really good way to start this shoot," he continues. "It was hard, but of course, nowhere near as hard as real basic training. And me, I'm just honored and excited to be doing a soldier sequence with Oliver. I keep saying to myself: "fuck, this guy directed ;Platoon'!"

Opening Dec. 25, "Snowden" also stars Shailene Woodley, Nicolas Cage, Zachary Quinto, Scott Eastwood, Timothy Olyphant, Tom Wilkinson, Joely Richardson, Melissa Leo and Rhys Ifans.