Swordfish (2001)

A secretive renegade counter-terrorist co-opts the world's greatest hacker (who is trying to stay clean) to steal billions in US Government dirty money.

Director:

Dominic Sena

Writer:

Skip Woods

Stars:

John Travolta, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry

4 wins & 6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
John Travolta	...	Gabriel Shear
Hugh Jackman	...	Stanley Jobson
Halle Berry	...	Ginger Knowles
Don Cheadle	...	Agent J.T. Roberts
Sam Shepard	...	Senator James Reisman
Vinnie Jones	...	Marco
Drea de Matteo	...	Melissa
Rudolf Martin	...	Axl Torvalds
Zach Grenier	...	Assistant Director Bill Joy
Camryn Grimes	...	Holly Jobson
Angelo Pagan	...	Torres (as Angelo Pagán)
Chic Daniel	...	SWAT Leader
Kirk B.R. Woller	...	Axel's Lawyer
Carmen Argenziano	...	Agent
Tim DeKay	...	Agent

Storyline

When the DEA shut down its dummy corporation operation codenamed SWORDFISH in 1986, they had generated $400 million which they let sit around; fifteen years of compound interest has swelled it to $9.5 billion. A covert counter-terrorist unit called Black Cell, headed by the duplicitious and suave Gabriel Shear, wants the money to help finance their raise-the-stakes vengeance war against international terrorism, but it's all locked away behind super-encryption. He brings in convicted hacker Stanley Jobson, who only wants to see his daughter Holly again but can't afford the legal fees, to slice into the government mainframes and get the money.

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Plot Keywords:

computer | terrorism | falling from height | lens flare | nonlinear timeline | 

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Taglines:

Once you know the password you can go anywhere.

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence, language and some sexuality/nudity

Details

Official Sites:

Official Site [United States]

Country:

USA Australia

Language:

English German

Release Date:

8 June 2001 (USA)

Also Known As:

Passwort: Swordfish

Filming Locations:

California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$80,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$220,064 (Austria) (2 November 2001)

Gross:

$30,393,888 (Europe) (16 November 2001)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Jonathan Krane Group, NPV Entertainment, Silver Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Halle Berry agreed to the topless scene - ostensibly for an extra fee of $500,000 - because she wanted to overcome her fear of doing nude scenes. This was on top of her initial fee of $2 million.

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Goofs

The Finnish hacker has is a mixture of different versions of German passports. There used to be green German passports, but that was before the time of computer-readable plastic-cards inside the passports. Since German passports have this card inside, they have always been red.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Gabriel: You know what the problem with Hollywood is? They make shit. Unbelievable, unremarkable shit. Now I'm not some grungy wannabe filmmaker that's searching for existentialism through a haze of bong smoke or something. No, it's easy to pick apart bad acting, short-sighted directing, and a purely moronic stringing together of words that many of the studios term as "prose". No, I'm talking about the lack of realism. Realism; not a pervasive element in today's modern American cinematic ...

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Crazy Credits

The last credit reads "Final Password: Vernam", which is part of the website game. (See Trivia). A Vernam cypher is a method of encrypting a message.

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Connections

References The Maltese Falcon (1941)

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Soundtracks

"Chase"
Written by Paul Oakenfold and Andy Gray
Performed by Paul Oakenfold and Christopher Young
Courtesy of London-Sire Records

User Reviews

A good time with this film.

SWORDFISH (2001) Rating: 7/10

Hell, I liked this movie. It's been a while since I've seen an enjoyable, mature action movie. With the slew of PG-13 action movies of recent years, it's refreshing to see one that at least acknowledges that many intense situations do involve language, sex, and mixed character reactions -- it wasn't just another black and white, good and bad movie where the good guy does only good things and the bad guy has only evil intentions. The good guy didn't always do the right thing, and the bad guy could hardly be accused of sinister motives.

I loved the three leads in this film. Hugh Jackman is officially a star with this movie. Hugh has proven himself once before in X-Men as a worthy actor, and he does it again in this film. He's the one that basically pulls you into this movie from the get-go and you actually feel for the poor guy. John Travolta, obviously, has a blast with yet another solid "bad guy" showing, redeeming himself after the lacklustre results of Battlefield Earth and Halle Berry must have enjoyed making this one, since it is a departure from her standard movie roles. Not to mention, she's sexier than ever.

There actually isn't as much action as you would expect in this film, but the opening and closing scenes in the film are some of the best action scenes I have ever seen and really hooks you into the film in the beginning and leaves you thoroughly entertained at the end. It's one of the first uses of "matrix-style camerawork" that I've seen that really adds to the film and isn't just something that "looks cool."

Overall, if you're looking for an "action popcorn" flick with lots of bad guys, gunplay, quick camera movements, fun action sequences and a surprisingly decent storyline that moves along at a quick pace, I'd recommend you rent this film.