Fateful Findings (2013)

A computer scientist/novelist reunites with his childhood friend and hacks into government databases, while facing the dire and fateful consequences of his mystical actions obtained as a child.

Director:

Neil Breen

Writer:

Neil Breen

Stars:

Neil Breen, Klara Landrat, Jennifer Autry

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Neil Breen	...	Dylan
Klara Landrat	...	Emily
Jennifer Autry	...	Leah
Victoria Viveiros	...	Amy (as Victoria Valene)
David Silva	...	Jim
John Henry Hoffman	...	Dr. Lee
Gloria Hoffman	...	Dr. Andra
Danielle Andrade	...	Aly
David Scott	...	Dr. Rosen
Steven Nelson	...	Corporate CEO
Richard Hunsacker	...	Bank President
David Miranda	...	Senator
JR Thompson	...	Congresswoman
Ryan Collis	...	Wall Street broker
Jaime Reborn	...	Insurance President (as Jamie Reborn)

Storyline

A small boy discovers a mystical power as a child. He is then separated from his childhood girlfriend. He grows up to be a computer scientist who is hacking into the most secret national and international secrets, as well as being an acclaimed novel writer. His childhood 'finding' gives him amazing paranormal powers. He is reunited with the childhood girlfriend, mystically, on his hospital deathbed - as his relationship with his current drug addict girlfriend is deteriorating. The passions build between the threesome. Mystical, psychiatric and worldly forces rise to prevent him from revealing the hacked secrets. He attempts to reveal all in a Washington DC large press conference, with 'fateful' and dangerous consequences.

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Plot Keywords:

bad acting | kidnapping | rescue | assassination attempt | suicide by gunshot | 

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Genres:

Drama | Fantasy | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 January 2014 (USA)

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Although not acknowledged as such, this film is actually a remake of Double Down, Neil Breen's first feature film. Both feature Breen playing a super hacker tackling national and international corruption while pining for lost love.

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Goofs

The conference doctor and Doctor David S. Lee are played by the same actor, except their coat is a different color.

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Quotes

Dylan: I wanna be honest with all of you. I've been hacking into government and corporate systems all over the country. All over the world. I have discovered more information than any hacker ever has. Ever. What I have found will shock you. Here are the files and supporting documents. And supporting truths. The factual documents. I'm releasing these files to the public today.

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Crazy Credits

At the end of the credits, a disclaimer reveals that "any of the above listed companies in the credits with an 'N' or a 'B' in their name are fictitious. This work was actually done personally by 'Neil Breen'." The fictitious companies are NJN Sound Assoc. (sound editing), Casting N Entertainment, CNA (casting), Cine' N Collaboration, LLC (Set Design, Wardrobe, Props), Lighting N Films, LLC (Lighting Design), The BNB Effects Studio (Special Makeup Effects), BB Location Management (Locations), NNN Entertainment Partners (Administration & Accounting), Eats N' Eats Film. Inc. (Craft Services).

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Connections

Featured in The Cinema Snob: Fateful Findings (2018)

User Reviews

"Fateful Findings"- Right up there with the likes of "Birdemic" and "The Room" as one of the greatest "so-bad-it's-good" camp classics ever crafted!

I never know how to rate these types of films. You know... the so- bad-they're-good camp classics. The sort of films that are objectively so terrible in virtually every aspect, they suddenly become endlessly watchable and entertaining as a result. Enjoyable in the most ironic and subversive of ways. On one hand, there's the impulse to rate it based not on its quality, but rather on entertainment value. Then there's the thought that perhaps you should rate it only on its quality as a film while noting that it might still be worth seeing despite your low mark.

Me? Well, frankly I think there's no other way to vote for writer/director/editor/star Neil Breen's camp-classic "Fateful Findings" than to score it based on it's impeccable and constant high levels of entertainment. Everything about this film is so misjudged, so mind-boggling and so flat-out wrong that you'll be howling with laughter from the first line of dialog through the incompetent climax. This isn't just any other bad film... this is pure "Breen-ius" from start-to-finish and is right up there with the likes of "Birdemic" and "The Room" as one of the finest unintentionally-comedic camp classics ever made.

For the uninitiated, Neil Breen is an independent actor and filmmaker who for the past ten-or-so years has built a career out of self-producing and self-distributing a string of low-budget indie thrillers starring himself as the various leads. However, much like the cult god and Master of Disaster himself Tommy Wiseau, Breen... well, he just doesn't "get" how to make a movie. He seems to understand that movies have characters and story lines and involve the use of a camera and editing to put together a visual story... but that's about it. He doesn't seem to grasp things such as character development or motivation. He can't wrap his head around pacing or structure. His dialog is as robotic as it comes. And his sense of visual direction and image composition seems pretty much on par with a first-year middle school video-production class student. Breen also thinks very highly of himself, which is one of the first things you'll notice in each of his films! My lord, does Breen have a weird fetish for self-promotion!

"Fateful Findings" is one of his best (or rather "best-worst") works in my humble opinion. While some of his other films like "Double Down" or "Pass Thru" have had a greater leaning towards misguided action and intrigue, "Findings" is a straight-up Sci-Fi/Fantasy drama that is predicated more heavily on character and story... and it is wonderfully ridiculous.

Breen stars as "Dylan", a famous author (because of course Breen's character has to be popular and beloved) who as a young boy discovered a magical stone underneath a magical vanishing mushroom in the magical forest with his childhood sweetheart on a magical day. (And the film likes to remind us repeatedly just how magically magical this magical day was... my god, was it magical!) Years later, he's in a car accident, but is miraculously saved by the stone's power. And then... a series of barely tenuously-connected scenes plays out for the next 90 minutes, as Dylan hacks government files, his wife deals with her drug habits, his best-friend's teenaged daughter tries to sleep with him, he re-unites with his childhood squeeze and other assorted and inexplicable nonsense plays out. There's also a murder subplot in there somewhere, but the film keeps forgetting about it.

That's it. That's the plot. And it is amazing.

It's like the script was written backwards. Key point-points play out completely without establishment, and then are established later on. Character-arcs are resolved before they even begin. Events in the film blatantly contradict what came before. And the central storyline is only touched-on in infrequent and puzzling scenes. The camera-work is bizarre and sometimes unsettling, with a strange penchant to focus on character's feet instead of their faces. There's a lot of genuinely uncomfortable filler inserted constantly, such as an uproariously funny moment where we see Dylan awkwardly eating a salad while another character watches him and smiles like it's the greatest thing they've seen. And the effects work is extraordinary in how cheap it comes across.

Everything about this film is so wrong... and so right at the same time. Neil Breen's "Fateful Findings" is just brilliant in its insanity and constantly entertaining in its poor quality. While it might not be for the reasons he's intended, Breen has crafted a new classic with this film. A classic of unintentional comedy. It's well-worth seeking out for fans of low-budget B-movie schlock and those of us who see the value in bad movies. Take it from me, Breen is destined to become a legend in the world of film! And his movies are definitely going down in cinematic history.

For the constant (and I do mean "constant") laughs, "Fateful Findings" easily earns a perfect 10.