Takedown (2000)

Director:

Joe Chappelle

Writers (WGA):

Tsutomu Shimomura (book) and
John Markoff (book) ...

Release Date:

15 March 2000 (France)

Genre:

Thriller | Action

Tagline:

The world has a right to know.

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Hacker | Computer | Computer Hacker | Female Nudity | Prison

Cast

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

Also Known As:

Hackers 2: Takedown (USA) (bootleg title)
Takedown: The Pursuit and Capture of Kevin Mitnick, America's Most Wanted Computer Outlaw (USA) (working title)
Track Down (USA) (DVD box title)

MPAA:

Rated R for language and some sexual content.

Runtime:

Germany:92 min | USA:96 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Finland:K-7 | Iceland:12 | Netherlands:16 (video rating) | Netherlands:6 (re-rating) | France:U | Germany:12 | USA:R | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Wilmington, North Carolina, USA

Company:

Dimension Films

Trivia:

Editors of 2600 magazine (a hacker publication) learned of this film early in its development and were at the time campaigning for Kevin Mitnick's release from prison. They filmed the documentary "Freedom Downtime" as they tried to correct many glaring errors and personal attacks on Mitnick's character in the film, protesting outside Miramax offices in New York among other things.

Movie Connections:

References Sneakers (1992)

Soundtrack:

Hasben?

Much better than it was planned to be.

I believe many people started watching this movie expecting it to be very bad - and I hope many will be as pleasantly surprised as I was. It isn't bad. In fact, it's quite good. Yes, it oversimplifies a lot (though compared with "Hackers", it seems ultrarealistic...) and, as far as Kevin's real story goes, it makes up some things that never happened (for instance, Kevin and Shimomura did not meet in life) - but overall, it's definitely worth watching. Those who followed the way its script had been changing over the years, certainly remember how bad and unfair it was in the beginning - it portrayed Kevin as a criminal of no feelings, and was extremely one-sided, based only on Shimomura's and Markoff's book and relations, and shown from their point of view. Hiring a new writer and looking for sources in a book other than that by M&S helped, however, and the result is a pretty fair, objective movie that shows Kevin as a human, not as a monster. The only thing that should be severely criticized is throwing in the scene with Kevin attempting to distribute Shimomura's nonexistent S.A.T.A.N.-like utility, but other than that, the script treats things fair. See this movie... and while watching it, remember that although at this moment Kevin is already free, he is not allowed to access any kind of computer - which means that he cannot even use a cell phone or a cash register... Perhaps a new movie, "Kevin Free", might portrait his life nowadays.