Takedown (2000)

This film is based on the story of the capture of computer hacker "Kevin Mitnick".

Director:

Joe Chappelle

Writers:

Tsutomu Shimomura (book), John Markoff (book),

Stars:

Skeet Ulrich, Russell Wong, Angela Featherstone

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Skeet Ulrich	...	Kevin Mitnick
Russell Wong	...	Tsutomu Shimomura
Angela Featherstone	...	Julia
Donal Logue	...	Alex Lowe
Christopher McDonald	...	Mitch Gibson
Master P	...	Brad
Tom Berenger	...	McCoy Rollins
Jeremy Sisto	...	Lance 'Icebreaker' Petersen
Amanda Peet	...	Karen
Ethan Suplee	...	Dan Bradley
Dorit Sauer	...	Shelley
Mark Joy	...	Committee Chairman
Scott Cooper	...	Jake Cronin
Ned Bellamy	...	Tom Fiori
Sara Melson	...	Rachel

Storyline

Kevin Mitnick is quite possibly the best hacker in the world. Hunting for more and more information, seeking more and more cybertrophies every day, he constantly looks for bigger challenges. When he breaks into the computer of a security expert and an ex-hacker, he finds one - and much more than that...

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Plot Keywords:

computer | hacker | computer hacker | computer cracker | blacklist | 

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Taglines:

The world has a right to know.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and some sexual content

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 March 2000 (France)

Also Known As:

Hackers 2: Takedown

Filming Locations:

Wilmington, North Carolina, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Dimension Films, Millennium Films, Hacker Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Kevin Mitnick goes up against an FBI agent named Special Agent Mitch Gibson - a reference to the hacked computer system of the same name, Gibson, from the movie Hackers.

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Goofs

Alex Lowe states that 56 bit encryption allows for roughly 72 trillion combinations. He is off by 3 orders of magnitude. 56 bit encryption allows for roughly 72 quadrillion combinations.

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Connections

Referenced in Freedom Downtime (2001)

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Soundtracks

"Writer, Poet, Slut"
Performed & Written by Red Star Belgrade
Published by Mouthful Music /BMI)
Courtesy of Checkered Post Records

User Reviews

Better that I was expecting

From everything that I heard about the original script (which was "obtained" under mysterious circumstances and leaked to the world before shooting started), I was expecting this movie to be really, really awful. I was pleasantly surprised to see that either Miramax, the writers, and/or the producers took some of the hacker community's complaints seriously, and adjusted the script accordingly. The final script that was filmed is certainly more even-handed and fair to Kevin Mitnick than Shimomura and Markoff's horrible book "Takedown" was (for a much better treatment of the Kevin Mitnick story, read Jonathan Littman's 1996 book "The Fugitive Game"), and we should be grateful that this film didn't end up being the hatchet-job on Kevin that we all thought it was going to be.

I was glad to see that the "trashcan cover scene", for example, didn't make the final cut, but a little disappointed that we weren't shown how large of a role that John Markoff played during Shimo's "manhunt" for Kevin, and then afterward; according to their own book, Markoff was present for many of the events that took place in North Carolina, and should have at least been shown in the scenes at the cell site alongside Shimo, Julia and the FBI agents.

They also could have done more with the "Lance" character, who represented a real hacker calling himself "Agent Steal" that was working for the FBI, and who figured prominently in the arrest and conviction of another hacker named Kevin Poulsen. (Poulsen's story, done properly, would make for a great movie too, but I digress..) Another no-brainer, slam-dunk scene that should have been in the movie, but wasn't for some reason, was Kevin and Shimo's one and only face to face meeting, in a North Carolina courtroom shortly after his arrest, where Kevin uttered his now famous line "I respect your skills" to Shimo.

I mean, it's no "Saving Private Ryan" or "Godfather Part II", but it isn't bad, either; in fact, it is a much more realistic and enjoyable movie than "Hackers" or "Sneakers" (to its credit, "Hackers" did have the lovely Angelina Jolie going for it), though not as much fun as "War Games", which is truly the "Citizen Kane" of hacker movies, or "Pump Up The Volume", which was more of a hacker movie than people realize, even though the "hacking" is done with a pirate radio station instead of a computer.

As others have already recommended here, go find a copy of "Freedom Downtime", the excellent documentary about Kevin that was produced by Emmanuel Goldstein and the staff of 2600 Magazine, you won't be disappointed.