G-Man: The Making of an FBI Agent (2002)

What's it like to run the famed "Yellow Brick Road" or switch from handgun to automatic rifle on the weapons range at the FBI Training Academy in Quantico, Virginia? This film takes you inside with the 40 members of a training class as they endure 16 grueling weeks in the classroom, on the weapons range, in the gym, the pool, the aforementioned Yellow Brick Road obstacle course and even the moot courtroom. Since screening for the academy is so selective, most trainees make it all the way to become FBI special agents. You'll see how they enter the program, some a bit cocky and others very wary. They stumble along the way, some tripped up by the physical demands, others by the precision of the weapons instruction, still others by the academic rigor of the classroom or the exacting standards of a court hearing with real lawyers and a judge. Midway through the program, you begin to see a change and in the last week or so, you can tell these people are ready to join the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The film features intimate access to the students in every setting, including the dorms as they process another full day. You get a sense of why, on graduation day, the members of this class feel as if they earned their diplomas and the title "special agent."