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 (as Chris McDonald)
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 virus | based on book | 

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Taglines:

The world has a right to know.

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Genres:

Biography | 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:

Track Down

Filming Locations:

Wilmington, North Carolina, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Dimension Films, Millennium Films, Hacker Productions

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When Kevin Mitnick flees Seattle and flips through his stack of false IDs, he shows Martin Bryce. Martin Brice (Bishop) was the name of the hacker character played by Robert Redford in Sneakers 1992.

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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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Quotes

Tsutomu Shimomura: I mean, how lame are you?

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Connections

Referenced in Freedom Downtime (2001)

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Soundtracks

(You Can Never Find A) Policeman In The Rain
Performed & Written by FibreHevy Brain
Published by Insidious Music (BMI)
Courtesy of FibreHevy Brain

User Reviews

horrible, innacurate, defamatory

This was a movie that deserved to tank. Kevin Mitnick, a genius with computers who was a little too inquisitive for the authorities liking, has been the victim of so many abuses that it can make one's stomach turn. "Takedown" was adapted from a book written by John Markoff and Tsutomu Shimomura who exploited Kevin, a man about whom neither of the authors had any direct knowledge, and pretended to be Mitnick experts when in fact they couldn't have been more clueless.

Markoff, a hack journalist who did everything that he could to portray Kevin a danger to society in order to keep writing articles about him, has claimed wild rumors about Mitnick to be fact (rumors such as Kevin hacking into NORAD computers, harassing Christie McNickle, and converting home phones into pay phones) with no regard for the fact that he was demonizing Kevin in the eyes of society and in the eyes of a justice system - a system that would eventually lock Kevin in solitary confinement for 8 months because they were afraid he would use prison phones to launch nuclear missiles if placed in general population. Tsutomu Shimomura is nothing but a smart-ass hacker wanna-be whose main contribution to the book "Takedown" was a list of his skateboarding and eating habits.

If anyone out there really wants to learn the true Kevin Mitnick story, please view "Freedom Downtime" by Emmanuel Goldstein. [http://us.imdb.com/Title?0309614]