Blackhat (2015)

A furloughed convict and his American and Chinese partners hunt a high-level cybercrime network from Chicago to Los Angeles to Hong Kong to Jakarta.

Director:

Michael Mann

Writer:

Morgan Davis Foehl

Stars:

Chris Hemsworth, Viola Davis, Wei Tang

1 win & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Chris Hemsworth	...	Nick Hathaway
Leehom Wang	...	Chen Dawai
Wei Tang	...	Chen Lien
Viola Davis	...	Carol Barrett
Holt McCallany	...	Mark Jessup
Andy On	...	Alex Trang
Ritchie Coster	...	Elias Kassar
Christian Borle	...	Jeff Robichaud
John Ortiz	...	Henry Pollack
Yorick van Wageningen	...	Sadak
Tyson Chak	...	Tech
Brandon Molale	...	Sort Guard
Danny Burstein	...	Associate Warden Jeffries
Archie Kao	...	Shum
Abhi Sinha	...	Daniels

Storyline

Nick Hathaway, an extremely talented hacker who has gone astray, finds his way out of a 15 year prison sentence when parts of a computer code he once wrote during his youth appears in a malware that triggered a terrorist attack in a nuclear power plant in China. This opportunity will reunite him with an old friend but will also put him in the middle of a power game between the American and Chinese government as well as an arch villain hacker whose identity he has to find if he wants to keep his freedom and his life.

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Plot Keywords:

hacker | chinese | computer | cybercrime | one word title | 

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Taglines:

We are no longer in control

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence and some language

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English Mandarin Spanish

Release Date:

16 January 2015 (USA)

Also Known As:

Blackhat

Filming Locations:

Hong Kong, China

Box Office

Budget:

$70,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$4,415,000, 18 January 2015, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$8,005,980, 31 December 2015

Company Credits

Production Co:

Forward Pass, Legendary Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

133 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital Datasat SDDS Dolby Surround 7.1 Dolby Atmos

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film was originally titled "Cyber".

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Goofs

When Hathaway is using keylogger software to capture Donahue's password to the NSA's Black Widow program, they show a view from under Donahue's keyboard, with him supposedly typing his old and new passwords. It clearly shows the space key being pressed a couple of times, even though the next screenshot shows no spaces in the passwords.

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Quotes

Chen Lien: I'm sorry for what happened to you.
Nicholas Hathaway: Well, don't be. I'm not fishing for sympathy, here. I did the crime, I'm doing the time. Time isn't doing me.
Chen Lien: What's that mean?
Nicholas Hathaway: I do my own time, not the institution's. See, to hold on to who you are in there, you dedicate yourself to your program. You work out on your body and your mind.

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Alternate Versions

In the European version of the film, the description of Lozano and his affiliation with the "Los Zapotecas" gang at approx. 26 minutes into the film is shortened.

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Connections

Featured in Blackhat: On Location Around the World (2015)

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Soundtracks

Let the Girls Out
from Elysium (2013)
Written and Produced by Ryan Amon
Courtesy of TriStar Pictures, Inc. and MRC II Distribution Company L.P.
Under License from Sony Pictures Music Group

User Reviews

Slow-Burn Suspense Thriller with Solid Cybercrime Technology

If you like taut, slow-burn suspense thrillers like Alfred Hitchcock's films and 'The Drop' in 2014 with James Gandolfini (which I thought was excellent), then please *go see this movie* in the theater; I think you will like it. (If the negative reviewers here thought they were getting a superhero movie like 'The Avengers', then they weren't paying attention to the previews :-) .) Blackhat features a computer hacker (Chris Hemsworth) who is furloughed from prison to counter-attack an elite cybercrime team. The cybercrime technology in the movie includes current techniques such as RATs (Remote Access Trojans) and keypad trackers. Following the movie plot is important -- the script is sparse (my only real objection); so it's important to track the plot developments. Michael Mann's camera-work is impressive during chase scenes, and his animations of cybercrime technology processes are inventive. I plan to see it a second time in the theater with other friends.