Swordfish is a 2001 crime thriller film, directed by Dominic Sena and starring John Travolta, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Don Cheadle and Vinnie Jones.
Plot
Stanley Jobson (Jackman) is an elite hacker who infected the FBI's Carnivore program with a potent computer virus, delaying its deployment by several years. For this, he was arrested by Agent Roberts (Cheadle), convicted of computer crimes and spent two years in Leavenworth. A condition of his parole is that he is forbidden from touching, much less using, a computer. His ex-wife, Melissa, has sole custody over their daughter Holly and some form of a permanent restraining order against Stanley from seeing Holly.
While Stanley is at home in rural Texas practicing his golf swing, a woman named Ginger Knowles (Berry) shows up to solicit his hacking skills for her boss Gabriel Shear (John Travolta). For an initial $100,000 he agrees to meet with Gabriel. He and Ginger fly to Los Angeles, California and meet Gabriel in a night club. Gabriel pressures Stanley right then and there to hack a government system in 60 seconds while simultaneously being held at gun point and having fellatio performed on him by a young woman. Although it was just a test (the gun was not loaded) Stanley succeeded in hacking the system, a feat that Gabriel had not anticipated.
At Gabriel's house he convinces Stanley to write a worm for $10 million that steals money from a secret government slush fund on the order of $9.5 billion. Gabriel reveals to Stanley that he works for an organization called the Black Cell that was started by J. Edgar Hoover in the 1950s, which is responsible for retaliatory attacks against terrorists who have attacked Americans. It is currently headed by Senator Reisman (Sam Shepard). Reisman discovers that the FBI has caught onto Gabriel and attempts to pull the plug. After Gabriel refuses to terminate plans Reisman attempts to have Gabriel killed, which fails. Gabriel tracks the Senator down while he is fly fishing in Bend, Oregon and kills him.
Gabriel proceeds with his plan and raids the local branch of the WORLDBANC. He takes hostages and deploys Stanley's worm. After stealing the $9.5B he boards the hostages and his crew on a bus out of the bank. Gabriel demands a plane at the local airport (a hostage negotiation cliché) but it was a diversion. An S-64 Aircrane swoops down, lifts the bus and releases it on the rooftop of a skyscraper. From the rooftop, Gabriel departs with his team in a helicopter which is shot down by Stanley with a rocket-propelled grenade. At the morgue, Stanley realizes it was more misdirection and Gabriel was not on the helicopter and "Gabriel Shear" is an alias.
The end of the film shows Ginger and "Gabriel" in Monte Carlo transferring that $9.5B into other accounts. The final scene shows a yacht being destroyed and a news anchor voice narrating that a suspected terrorist died on that yacht, although the DVD version contains an alternate ending wherein Ginger is told in the bank that the account is already empty, alluding to the possibility that Stanley has played one final trick on them and taken the money himself. In a companion scene to the alternate ending, Stanley is shown on a trip with his daughter in a brand new RV. While eating at a diner, Stanley is shown transferring many billion dollars to various charities before continuing his trip.
Cast
Reception
This film received a great deal of press initially because it featured Halle Berry's first nude scene. She was paid extra to appear topless in this film. Critics said the scene looked forced, thrown into the film just to garner press, but Berry said she did it just to overcome the fear of appearing nude onscreen.[4]
Only a quarter of the Rotten Tomatoes critics gave the film a positive review; the website's "Cream of the Crop" reviewers were even less positive.[5] In a review for The New York Times, Stephen Holden wrote:[6]
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With its blasé blend of bogus international intrigue and action-for-action's-sake, Swordfish suggests a James Bond movie stripped of humor. True, there are a few moments of wit, like the opening sequence. But the dominant tone masquerading as humor is a snide, rancid nihilism devoid of laughs, unless wholesale destruction and gloating stupidity are what tickle your funny bone. |
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According to Box Office Mojo, the film grossed over $147 million in worldwide box office receipts on a production budget of $102 million.[1]
Trivia
- The Finnish hacker (played by German actor Rudolf Martin), who is arrested at the Los Angeles airport, speaks German instead of Finnish and his passport is a German one as well.
- The British automaker TVR received about fifty inquiries a day about where its Tuscan Speed Six sports car, driven by Gabriel in the film, could be purchased in the United States. However, the car was not offered for sale in the USA due to its high CO2 emissions.
- In the year 1986 there are 400 million US-Dollars on the account that Gabriel wants to rob, 15 years later it is 9.5 billion US-Dollars. That would be equivalent to an interest rate of more than 23% p.a.
- In the scenes including computers one can see IP-addresses that are higher than 315.*.*.*. , but the highest possible IP-address is 255.255.255.255.
- In another scene there is a DES-128-bit-code included. In reality, DES just has 56 bit.
- The bank at the end of the movie is, according to the movie's plot, in Monaco. However, one can see a French and a European flag at the bank.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack for Swordfish was produced by Paul Oakenfold, under Village Roadshow and Warner Bros. and distributed through London Sire Records, Inc. It contains 15 tracks.
The film's orchestral score was written by Christopher Young with several electronic additions by Paul Oakenfold. Fragments from the score were added to the official soundtrack, but were remixed by Oakenfold. A more complete release was issued as an award promo, which it's known for it's rarity.[7]
See also
References
External links
