A covert counter-terrorist unit called Black Cell led by Gabriel Shear wants the money to help finance their war against international terrorism, but it's all locked away. Gabriel brings in ... Read allA covert counter-terrorist unit called Black Cell led by Gabriel Shear wants the money to help finance their war against international terrorism, but it's all locked away. Gabriel brings in convicted hacker Stanley Jobson to help him.A covert counter-terrorist unit called Black Cell led by Gabriel Shear wants the money to help finance their war against international terrorism, but it's all locked away. Gabriel brings in convicted hacker Stanley Jobson to help him.
- Awards
- 5 wins & 10 nominations
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThomas Jefferson did NOT shoot a man on the White house lawn for treason. This movie is the source of that rumor.
- GoofsIn the film's opening speech, Gabriel Shear discusses Dog Day Afternoon (1975) as being a "1976" work of "fiction" that didn't "push the envelope" and showed Hollywood's "lack of realism." Dog Day Afternoon was a true story, not fiction, depicted realistically. While the film didn't adhere to every detail of the true story, the ending was accurate. It was released in 1975, and the film's action takes place in 1972.
- 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 vision. Take Dog Day Afternoon, for example. Arguably Pacino's best work, short of Scarface and Godfather Part 1, of course. Masterpiece of directing, easily Lumet's best. The cinematography, the acting, the screenplay, all top-notch. But... they didn't push the envelope. Now what if in Dog Day, Sonny wanted to get away with it, REALLY wanted to get away with it? What if - now here's the tricky part - what if he started killing hostages right away? No mercy, no quarter. "Meet our demands or the pretty blonde in the bellbottoms gets it the back of the head." Bam, splat! What, still no bus? Come on! How many innocent victims splattered across a window would it take to have the city reverse its policy on hostage situations? And this is 1976; there's no CNN, there's no CNBC, there's no internet! Now fast forward to today, present time, same situation. How quickly would the modern media make a frenzy over this? In a matter of hours, it'd be biggest story from Boston to Budapest! Ten hostages die, twenty, thirty; bam bam, right after another, all caught in high-def, computer-enhanced, color corrected. You can practically taste the brain matter. All for what? A bus, a plane? A couple of million dollars that's federally insured? I don't think so. Just a thought. I mean, it's not within the realm of conventional cinema... but what if?
- Crazy creditsThe 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.
- Alternate versionsAlternate television takes were shot for the scene with Ginger at the pool (she wears a bikini) and where Stanley hacks into the main frame of the Departement of Defense (Helga is not there).
- ConnectionsFeatured in Conversations with Jerry Bruckheimer (2000)
- SoundtracksDark Machine
Written by Paul Oakenfold and Andy Gray
Performed by Paul Oakenfold and Christopher Young
Courtesy of London-Sire Records
Travolta plays this incredibly ruthless man, someone committed to keeping the country safe from terrorists, who offers a hacker with child custody issues (Jackman) a chance to make a fortune, enabling him to hire a top attorney and get custody of his daughter. He needs the code cracked to a bank and account holding $9 billion in government money, and the money disseminated to various accounts.
The beginning of the film is fascinating - it's Travolta discussing the film Dog Day Afternoon - but alas, it's downhill from there. I'm normally not the most technically observant person when I'm watching a movie, but even I could tell that computerized images and miniatures did a lot of the work.
Hallie Berry gets to show off most of her beautiful body and there's plenty of action. Young men, I'm sure, love this film. Unfortunately I'm not a young man. And after seeing "Swordfish," I was 1 hour and 39 minutes older.
- How long is Swordfish?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official sites
- Languages
- Also known as
- Swordfish_
- Filming locations
- Ventura, California, USA(Location)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $102,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $69,772,969
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $18,145,632
- Jun 10, 2001
- Gross worldwide
- $147,080,413
- Runtime1 hour 39 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1