In the 2018 biographical film "Vice", directed by Adam McKay, the unitary executive theory is explored in some detail and dramatized. Dick Cheney, the film's subject, his lawyer David Addington, Deputy Assistant US Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel John Yoo, and Scalia figure prominently in the theory's development and promotion. They brought it to the foreground of modern discussions on the topic of executive power beginning in 2001, continuing throughout the Bush administration and beyond. The application of this legal doctrine has implications for the prosecution of the war on terror, the subsequent 2003 invasion of Iraq, the use of enhanced interrogation techniques at sites like Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, and mass surveillance. These are highlighted in the narrative.