Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief is a 2015 documentary film about Scientology directed by Alex Gibney, based on Lawrence Wright’s 2013 book, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief.

Watched Going Clear tonight. I first discovered that John Travolta would back out of American Gigolo, when Kit Carson said his ex-girlfriend Karen Black told her, that Travolta had said that he would not do the film in a Scientology session. I immediately devised a Plan B which resulted in Gere replacing him. – Paul Schrader

Produced by HBO, the film premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. It received widespread praise from critics for its deconstruction of the church’s claims through a combination of presenting a condensed history of Scientology and its founder, how celebrities interact with the church, the stories of a number of ex-members and the abuse and exploitation that they described seeing and experiencing.

Will Paramount attempt to counter spin the Tom Cruise negative image so brutal in Going Clear? – Paul Schrader

The church responded vehemently to the film, complaining to film critics about their reviews and denouncing the film-makers and their interviewees. Going Clear was released in a limited number of theaters on March 13, 2015 and aired on HBO on March 29, 2015.