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| language = English
| language = English
| budget = $70 million<ref name="boxofficemojo.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=mann2015.htm|title=Blackhat (2015) - Box Office Mojo|work=boxofficemojo.com|accessdate=1 February 2015}}</ref>
| budget = $70 million<ref name="boxofficemojo.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=mann2015.htm|title=Blackhat (2015) - Box Office Mojo|work=boxofficemojo.com|accessdate=1 February 2015}}</ref>
| gross = $14.5 million<ref name="boxofficemojo.com"/>
| gross = $14.6 million<ref name="boxofficemojo.com"/>
}}
}}
'''''Blackhat''''' is a 2015 American [[action thriller]] [[mystery film]] co-written, co-produced and directed by [[Michael Mann (director)|Michael Mann]]. The film stars [[Chris Hemsworth]], [[Tang Wei]], [[Viola Davis]], [[Holt McCallany]], and [[Wang Leehom]]. The film premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on January 8, 2015, and was released in theaters on January 16.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2902929/Chris-Hemsworth-poses-stunning-screen-lover-Wei-Tang-Blackhat-premiere.html |title=Chris Hemsworth poses with stunning on-screen lover Wei Tang at Blackhat premiere
'''''Blackhat''''' is a 2015 American [[action thriller]] [[mystery film]] co-written, co-produced and directed by [[Michael Mann (director)|Michael Mann]]. The film stars [[Chris Hemsworth]], [[Tang Wei]], [[Viola Davis]], [[Holt McCallany]], and [[Wang Leehom]]. The film premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on January 8, 2015, and was released in theaters on January 16.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2902929/Chris-Hemsworth-poses-stunning-screen-lover-Wei-Tang-Blackhat-premiere.html |title=Chris Hemsworth poses with stunning on-screen lover Wei Tang at Blackhat premiere

Revision as of 20:34, 4 February 2015

Blackhat
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMichael Mann
Written by
  • Morgan Davis Foehl
  • Michael Mann
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyStuart Dryburgh
Edited by
Music by
Production
companies
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • January 16, 2015 (2015-01-16)
Running time
133 minutes[2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$70 million[3]
Box office$14.6 million[3]

Blackhat is a 2015 American action thriller mystery film co-written, co-produced and directed by Michael Mann. The film stars Chris Hemsworth, Tang Wei, Viola Davis, Holt McCallany, and Wang Leehom. The film premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on January 8, 2015, and was released in theaters on January 16.[4]

Plot

At a nuclear plant in Chai Wan, Hong Kong, a hacker causes the coolant pumps to overheat and explode. Not long after in Chicago, the Mercantile Trade Exchange gets hacked, causing soy futures to rise. The Chinese government and the FBI determine that the hack was caused by a Remote Access Tool (RAT). A military officer in China's cyber warfare unit, Captain Chen Dawai, is tasked to find the people responsible for the attacks, and enlists the aid of his sister Lien. He meets with Agent Carol Barrett of the FBI in Los Angeles and reveals the code in the RAT was written by himself and Nicholas Hathaway, his college roommate. Dawai asks that the FBI arrange for his release from prison, where he is serving a sentence for computer crimes. Hathaway is offered temporary release in exchange for his services, but he tells the warden that he will only provide help if his sentence is commuted. The FBI agrees, but if Hathaway fails, he will be sent back to prison immediately.

While looking into the hack at the trade exchange, the team discovers that an employee from the computer systems department who recently resigned, James Lozano, was in reality an ex-convict named Alonzo Reyes. Hathaway and Lien go to Reyes's apartment, where he is found dead from what appears to be a drug overdose. Hathaway sees an email on Reyes' computer arranging for a meeting that night, which Hathaway confirms.

That night, Hathaway and Lien go to the meeting location, a Korean restaurant. While they wait, Lien asks Hathaway what he went to prison for. He says that he first spent a little more than a year in prison for a bar fight, but his hacking landed him back in there for 13 years. They continue to wait for their suspect until Hathaway goes into the back of the restaurant and finds a security camera terminal. The camera is directed at where Hathaway and Lien were sitting and appears to be streaming its feed to another location. Hathaway manages to send a threat to the camera's operator via the terminal. Back in the restaurant, three Korean men enter and aggressively approach Hathaway. He promptly beats them all senseless.

The team returns to Hong Kong, where they learn the identities of three men who received large sums of money from the trade exchange hack and are presumably connected to a known paramilitary named Kassar. While several Hong Kong police officers stake out Kassar's hideout in Shek O, the money from the three bank accounts is transferred out. In the meantime, Lien and Hathaway become romantically involved. While Dawai does not object to the relationship, as his sister seems happier than she has been in a while, he is worried about what might happen if Hathaway gets sent back to jail. Dawai and his team lose contact with the stakeout team in Shek O and the Hong Kong police's SDU is activated to assault Kassar's hideout. They find the stakeout team murdered and get into a firefight with Kassar and his men, resulting in the deaths of several police officers, while the terrorists gets away.

The team then learns that the situation at the nuclear plant has stabilized and that it is now possible to enter the ruins to retrieve a data drive that may have information on the hacker's identity. While they retrieve the drive, the data is incomplete due to physical damage. Agent Barrett tries to get the NSA to allow them to use a data reconstruction system called Black Widow but is turned down due to the presence of Dawai, a member of a foreign military, and Hathaway, a convicted hacker. Regardless, Hathaway manages to hack his way into NSA and through Black Widow, learns that the hacker's server is based in Jakarta. While it is impossible to remotely hack the server due to heavy electronic protection, it is possible to get the data by breaking into the server physically. In the meantime, Lien finds out the hacker has been buying satellite photos of a remote site in Perak, Malaysia.

Hathaway's hack into the NSA does not go unnoticed and the US government demands his apprehension and return to prison. Dawai's superiors agree as they do not want to antagonize the US, while Barrett and her partner Agent Jessup receive orders to detain Hathaway. Dawai, Lien and Hathaway manage to elude their pursuers and make plans to leave Hong Kong and continue their investigation when they are attacked by Kassar and his men, who have been following them. Dawai is killed in a car bombing; shortly after, Barrett and Jessup, who have been tracking Hathaway using an ankle bracelet, arrive at the scene. While both Barrett and Jessup are killed in a firefight, they buy enough time for Lien and Hathaway to escape into the subway.

Hathaway and Lien travel to the location of the satellite photos in Malaysia to try and figure out the hacker's goal. Hathaway realizes that the hacker's attack at the nuclear plant was merely a rehearsal for a bigger plan to destroy several major tin mines in Malaysia, allowing the hacker to make a killing on the tin trading market, using the funds from the Mercantile Exchange hack to buy tin futures. The two then travel to Jakarta and manage to physically gain access to the hacker's server. They manage to steal the hacker's money from Hong Kong and force the hacker to contact them. The hacker and Hathaway agree to meet to negotiate the return of the money.

Hathaway insists the hacker and Kassar come alone but they bring their gang along. The meeting place is a crowded parade and Hathaway trails the hacker and Kassar from behind. Kassar pulls a gun on Hathaway but Hathaway manages to stab him with a hidden screwdriver. Two of the hacker's men catch up and wound Hathaway, who manages to kill them. Hathaway finally catches up with the hacker and manages to kill him despite getting stabbed. He hobbles back to the car where Lien is waiting with medical supplies and gets patched up. The film ends with Lien and Hathaway leaving Indonesia, with the hacker's money still in their bank account.

Cast

Production

Chris Hemsworth (left) and Michael Mann (right) at the 2014 San Diego Comic Con, promoting the film.

In an interview done at the LMU Film school, Michael Mann said he was inspired to make Blackhat after reading about the events surrounding Stuxnet, which was a computer worm that targeted and reportedly ruined almost one fifth of Iran's nuclear centrifuges.[5] In keeping with his high standard for authenticity, Mann brought in several technical advisors and consultants like former hackers Christopher McKinley and Kevin Poulsen (senior editor for Wired News), to make the film as authentic as possible.[6] McKinley was famous for hacking into the online dating site, OkCupid, in order to make his profile the most attractive to women. [7] Director Mann also met with Mike Rogers, who was Chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence until 2015. Parisa Tabriz, who manages Google's information security engineering team, said that "It's the most accurate information security film I've seen."[8]

The film was tentatively titled Cyber, however the final title was revealed on July 26, 2014 during a panel at San Diego Comic-Con International, and it was being estimated that it might qualify for the Oscars.[9] The first official trailer for the film was released on September 25, 2014.[10]

Filming began on May 17, 2013, in Los Angeles, California; Hong Kong; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and Jakarta, Indonesia.

Director Mann donated HK$300,000 (US$38,500) to The Community Chest of Hong Kong in the name of Hang Seng Bank, to thank the bank for allowing him to film Blackhat for five evenings in the bank's lobby area.[11]

In November 2013, Universal set the North American release date for January 16, 2015.[12] Shortly after the official premiere of the movie, composer Harry Gregson-Williams stated that although he is credited for the score the final film "contains almost none of my compositions".[13] He would later delete the status update containing this information.[13]

Soundtrack

The film score was composed by Harry Gregson-Williams[1] and Atticus Ross.[1] Upon viewing the film, however, Gregson-Williams posted a message on Facebook stating that his score went almost unused in the final edit, which included synthesized music not prepared by him or Ross.[14] He went on to say that, "I therefore reluctantly join the long list of composers who have had their scores either sliced and diced mercilessly or ignored completely by Michael Mann."[15]

Release

Blackhat was a box office bomb, opening at #11 and earning only $1.7 million on its opening day. It made just $3.9 for the weekend against its $70 million budget.[16] This made the movie one of the worst debuts ever for a movie playing in over 2,500 locations.[17]

After only two weeks, Universal decided to yank the film basically from all but 236 theaters. It had been in 2,568 theaters, making it the 6th biggest drop in history for a third week film.[18]

Internationally, the film played below expectations in all major markets, including Denmark, Greece, Poland, Taiwan, Turkey and Vietnam. This drew ire, especially in Taiwan, as the casting of Lee Hom Wang and Tang Wei was directed towards the Chinese speaking market.[19]

Due to the less-than-stellar numbers at the American and Asian box-office, Universal Pictures International opted not to release Blackhat theatrically in Australia.[20]

Reception

Blackhat has received negative reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a rating of 30%, based on 126 reviews, with an average rating of 4.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Thematically timely but dramatically inert, Blackhat strands Chris Hemsworth in a muddled misfire from director Michael Mann."[21] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 49 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[22] In a screening for security specialists, the film received positive responses.[23]

References

  1. ^ a b c d "WIRED January 2015: Q&A With Director Michael Mann". WIRED January 2015. Retrieved January 18, 2015.
  2. ^ "BLACKHAT (15)". British Board of Film Classification. January 19, 2015. Retrieved January 19, 2015.
  3. ^ a b "Blackhat (2015) - Box Office Mojo". boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved February 1, 2015.
  4. ^ "Chris Hemsworth poses with stunning on-screen lover Wei Tang at Blackhat premiere". Daily Mail. January 9, 2015. Retrieved January 16, 2015.
  5. ^ "The Hollywood Masters - Michael Mann - Blackhat". YouTube. September 29, 2014.
  6. ^ "What Blackhat Gets Right: A Chat With Former Hacker Kevin Poulsen". Gizmodo. January 16, 2015.
  7. ^ "How a Math Genius Hacked OkCupid to Find True Love". Wired. January 21, 2014.
  8. ^ "Hackers on Blackhat: Hollywood finally gets internet right". www.bbc.com. January 16, 2015.
  9. ^ Fleming, Mike, Jr. (July 26, 2014). "Comic-Con: Michael Mann's Cyberthriller Movie Titled 'Blackhat', Will Qualify For Oscar Run". Deadline.com. Retrieved July 26, 2014.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. ^ Anderton, Ethan (September 25, 2014). "Chris Hemsworth Hunts Cybercriminals in First Trailer for 'Blackhat'". firstshowing.net. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
  11. ^ 中環在線：感激恒生 米高曼捐30萬畀公益金. Apple Daily (in Chinese). August 20, 2013.
  12. ^ "Universal Dates 'The Mummy' Reboot For April 2016, Pushes 'Warcraft' Out Of 2015 Holiday Slot". Deadline.com. November 27, 2013.
  13. ^ a b Yamato, Jen. "'Blackhat' Composer Backs Down After Slamming Michael Mann Over Score". Deadline. Retrieved January 15, 2015.
  14. ^ Jen Yamato. "'Blackhat' Composer Backs Down After Slamming Michael Mann Over Score - Deadline". Deadline. Retrieved January 18, 2015.
  15. ^ "Blackhat composer accuses director Michael Mann of 'slicing and dicing' his score". International Business Times UK. Retrieved January 18, 2015.
  16. ^ http://deadline.com/2015/01/blackhat-michael-mann-chris-hemsworth-universal-legendary-box-office-bomb-1201353487/
  17. ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=4004&p=.htm
  18. ^ http://www.showbiz411.com/2015/01/31/movies-universal-basically-pulls-blackhat-from-circulation-johnny-depps-mortdecai-mia/
  19. ^ http://deadline.com/2015/01/blackhat-michael-mann-chris-hemsworth-universal-legendary-box-office-bomb-1201353487/
  20. ^ http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/movies/chris-hemsworths-movie-blackhat-flops-at-the-box-office-while-american-sniper-smashes-records/story-fnk853hr-1227189448959/
  21. ^ "Blackhat". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved January 30, 2015.
  22. ^ "Blackhat". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved February 3, 2015.
  23. ^ "Is Blackhat the best Cyber movie'". Wired. Retrieved January 16, 2015.
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