Swordfish

Plot synopsis:
Stanley Jobson (Hugh Jackman) is a highly skilled computer hacker. Having served time for infecting the FBI's Carnivore program with a computer virus, he is now on parole but forbidden from using computers. His alcoholic ex-wife Melissa (Drea de Matteo), who married a rich porn producer and is currently a part-time porn actress, has sole custody over their daughter Holly and a restraining order preventing him from visiting their daughter. One day, he is solicited by Ginger Knowles (Halle Berry), speaking for her boss Gabriel Shear (John Travolta), for his hacking skills. He goes to meet Gabriel in Los Angeles, where he is put on the spot to crack a secure government server within a minute while simultaneously held at gunpoint and receiving fellatio. When he succeeds, Gabriel offers Stanley $10 million to program a multi-headed worm, a "hydra", to siphon $9.5 billion from several government slush funds.
Stanley begins work, learning that Gabriel leads Black Cell, a secret group created by J. Edgar Hoover to launch retaliatory attacks against terrorists that threaten the United States. He also privately discovers Ginger is a DEA agent working undercover, and further is surprised to discover a corpse that looks like Gabriel. He goes to see Holly home from school but finds he is being followed by FBI agent J.T. Roberts (Don Cheadle), who had previously caught Stanley. Roberts, though monitoring Stanley closely, is more interested in Gabriel as he does not appear on any government database, and after learning that another hacker, Axl Torvalds (Rudolf Martin), had been killed by Gabriel's men, warns Stanley to be cautious. Stanley opts to secretly code a back door in his hydra that reverses the money transfer after a short period. Meanwhile, Senator Reisman (Sam Shepard), who oversees Black Cell, learns the FBI has started tracking Gabriel and orders him to stand down. Gabriel refuses, and narrowly avoids an assassination attempt ordered by Reisman. Gabriel personally kills Reisman in revenge and continues his plan.
Stanley delivers the hydra to Gabriel and leaves to see Holly, only to find that Gabriel has killed Melissa and her husband and kidnapped Holly, framing Stanley. Stanley has no choice but to participate in the bank heist to get Holly back. Gabriel and his men storm a Worldbanc branch, and secure its employees and customers as hostages, fitting each with ball-bearing-based explosives similar to Claymore mines. When police and FBI surround the branch, Gabriel takes Stanley to the coffee shop across the street to meet with Roberts, but Gabriel spends the time to discuss the film Dog Day Afternoon and the nature of misdirection. Once back in the bank, Gabriel has one of his men escort a hostage to demonstrate the situation. A sniper kills the man, and other agents pull the hostage away from the bank, causing the bomb to detonate, ravaging the buildings and vehicles on the street and killing several people, a scene shown in medias res at the start of the film.
Gabriel instructs Stanley to launch the hydra, and turns Holly over to him once completed. However, Stanley's back door triggers before they can leave the bank, and Stanley is recaptured while Holly is rescued. Gabriel threatens to kill Ginger, who he knows is a DEA agent, unless Stanley re-siphons the money back to a Monte Carlo bank. Despite doing so, Gabriel shoots Ginger. Gabriel and his men load the hostages on a bus and demand a plane wait for them at the local airport, but while en route, the bus is lifted off by a S-64 Aircrane and deposited on the roof of a local skyscraper. Gabriel deactivates the bombs and departs with his surviving men on a waiting helicopter, which Stanley shoots down using a rocket-propelled grenade from the bus.
Roberts takes Stanley to verify the corpse they found, believing Gabriel was a Mossad agent while there was no record of a DEA agent named Ginger. Stanley recognizes the corpse as the one he discovered earlier and personally realizes that the whole scenario was misdirection. Gabriel had escaped a different route, and Ginger had been wearing a bulletproof vest and was working with Gabriel. Roberts arranges for Stanley to have full custody of Holly, and the two tour the US together. In Monte Carlo, Gabriel and Ginger withdraw the money, and later watch as a yacht at sea explodes. Over the film's credits, a news report describes the destruction of the yacht, carrying a known terrorist, as the third such incident in as many weeks.

Tags: murder, cult, violence, flashback, psychedelic, action, entertaining

Review:
(A Great Scene, Not Explict, just cool)Anyway, he is recruited by John Travolta to hack into a dormant DEA Fund worth 9.5 Billion Dollars to finance his terrorist activities.Full of Slick Dialogue, cool Direction and the simply gorgeous Halle Berry, this turns out to be a very enjoyable Thriller, with some clever twists (some of which don't quite work) but are forgivable anyway.Not a classic, but a good film none the less.
This movie can be summed up as: lots of very cool action scenes (fans of both bullet time and explosions will really enjoy this), a lot of style, and a standard implausible plot.
This movie is very entertaining if you like non-stop action in a cool high-tech environment.The ingredients are pretty standard.
But it's by far not as obnoxious as in "I, Robot".The filming is top-notch, unlike some other movies you can actually see what's happening in the action scenes (which is sometimes due to the amazing slow-down effects in some scenes).
The good guy (Jackman) didn't always do the right thing, and the bad guy (Travolta) could hardly be accused of sinister motives.The film starts off with a bang ...
The out-of-order editing was actually effective and interesting, rather than seeming like yet another failed attempt to mimic Pulp Fiction and those other movies that brought attention to the idea of showing a film out of chronological order.Jackman was great as computer hacker Stanley Jobson, devoted father who just happened to get brought down for computer-related felonies after hacking into and making public an FBI e-mail surveillance operation.
He can keep up with the smooth-talking, fast-moving Travolta as well as show enough emotion to make him seem like a real person and not just a run-of-the-mill action hero.The plot of the film is fantastic.
There are so many films in the action genre that result to dumbing down the smart villains, just so the hero of the story will look good when he comes up with a relatively weak solution to the complex plot.
Here's a film I really liked the first time, and was totally turned off on the second viewing as the Hollywood bias machine was in high gear again, and you can guess in what director (left or right).
Every script line is either wannabe-cool or plain stupid.To add some aggravation, the movie opens with a John Travolta's monologue in which he digresses about the unrealistic nature of Hollywood films.
No, for much of the film, "Swordfish" rocks, with plenty of action and two notable performances, Halle Berry and John Travolta.
And as for the hip techno-gadgetry that underlines the movie, I wonder whether the production team had any semblance of an idea of what goes on the hacking world, I mean can you imagine Kevin Mitnick hacking into the FBI mainframe in 60 seconds with a gun at his head and a blonde between his legs?When Travolta reveals the motive for his maniacal tendencies - to hit back hard at terrorists who threaten the good old US of A, I cringed at the prospect of American Neanderthals whooping in support.
I have  difficulty imagining why wealthy big-name stars like John Travolta, Halle Berry, Don Cheadle, and Hugh Jackman allow themselves to be involved in this sort of enterprise.
And later, rising to even greater heights of taste and intelligence, the head honcho, Gabriel - no angel, he, as we quickly discover - played by John Travolta, has a gun put to Stanley's head and forces him to hack into a government site in 60 seconds, or his brains will be moved someplace else on the business end of a heavy calibre slug.
The world's a complicated place, and it might actually help if movie-makers would divert some of those millions of production dollars to making intelligent films about complicated issues, rather than mindless trash like this..
Let's hope his next pairing with Halle Berry is much better.Now to some of the many incomprehensible situations in the movie:You detain a ostensibly "Finnish" but inexplicably German-speaking hacker but leave him alone and unguarded so that two Euro-trash thugs can trick you with a misleading phone call and prance into an federal interrogation area with guns brandished?!The hacking is so silly and unbelievable.
John Travolta plays off his roll as the villain of the film wonderfully although still running off his Pulp Fiction character, Sad though that the writers and producers thought not to support him with a worthy script.Apart from the dramatic opening sequences with its impressive cgi there is nothing else offered to keep you watching.
Even the most computer illiterate would expect the roll of top hacker to be more of an aged old man whose time is modestly spent whiling away the hours reading technical books and attending seminars as opposed to the hunky womanising Mr Smooth, Hugh Jackman.For a 14-year-old boy this film will be a first-rate movie, full of aimless action scenes, no plot to follow and the addition of the very provocative Halle Berry (especially as she appears topless).
Halle Berry plays the same character she did in Die Another Day, but this time she takes off her top and John Travolta plays the kind of bad guy who can't stop talking.
Most of the money probably went on getting decent actors like Don Cheadle and Vinnie Jones, (and the once great Travolta) because they certainly can't have been attracted by the god-awful screenplay.As it happens, Travolta is spectacularly awful in this, as his character is exactly the same slightly deranged fast talking megalomaniac we saw in Broken Arrow and Face/Off - and he was equally abonimable in those.Of the many painful and awful plot points, one of the worst was the theme of Hugh Jackoff trying to get his daughter back.
Done, and done, time and time again by Travolta.Don Cheadle is so solid, so good, and so competent, it breaks my heart to see him in this piece of tripe.Also, honorable mention must be given to Rudolph Martin as Axel Torvalds.That having been said, I will remark that Halle Berry's gratuitous semi-nudity, and excessive camped up performance as a manipulative sex goddess was so over the top in terms of bad acting, I was amazed enough by it to be able to stay awake 'til the bitter end.The transparency of her character was so offensively obvious, I guessed what she was about within seconds of her appearance.
This is the worst film I have "survived" in my life.Everything is wrong:The viewer feels no emotional attachment to any character in the entire film.The movie tries so hard to be hip and ends up being revolting and nauseating.Advice to John Travolta: retire.Advice to Dominic Sena: watch at least ten minutes of SEVEN SAMURAI before ever thinking of making another film.
But you'd be too young for this since there's sex and nudity (oh yeah, and lots of people getting blown away, but that's to be expected in an American action movie).In case you haven't guessed by now, the script is *incredibly* moronic.
As soon as we get done watching the opening logos, we immediately hear John Travolta's unintentionally funny dialogue in which he describes why he doesn't understand Hollywood and their films, specifically "Dog Day Afternoon." Soon after, he is taking people hostage and we see a "Matrix"-style Bullet Time effect, which is shown for no other reason other than to "impress" us.Personally, I think "The Matrix" was an overrated movie.
Decent premise and good visual effects make this movie worth seeing, but if you've ever touched a computer and give yourself any credit as a fan of these types of films, please try not to laugh too hard.
backs up a close to no suspense original script on cyper-terror-control-mechanisms by Skip Woods, when supreme Hollywood producer Joel Silver gives director Dominic Sena and his fellow cinematographer Paul Cameron another chance, after "Gone In Sixty Seconds" produced by Jerry Bruckheimer in season 1999/2000, to create an Hollywood instant-classic 100-Million-Dollar production starring John Travolta as terror-pushing Gabriel in reptitious Los Angeles live-action exterior environment, when co-starring up and coming Hugh Jackman, at age 32, fills in scene oblivion with charm and wits as high-end-hacker "Stanley" keeping close relations to scene-stealing just about to win an "Academy-Award" for best leading actress for "Monster's Ball" African-American Halle Berry, showing off topless, in eye-winking scene of slight action-comedy not too serious entertainment, when the only highlight remains a digital-enhanced 360° dregree-encircling shot within an tensión point-given L.A. heist opening sequence, letting "Swordfish" prevail to be revisited in its 90-Minute nevertheless descending editorial by surviving as capable Stephen E.
Being a big John Travolta fan i was very excited to see how he would perform in this (following his recent not-so-good movies!!), and i can safely say that i loved his performance in Swordfish (easily his best since Broken Arrow in 1996).
However it's not just his performance which carries this movie; other great cast include hugh jackman, halle berry and don cheadle.
There are some fantastic action sequences as well, like the opening scene or the car chase (which is fantastic, by the way, as you would expect from Dominic Sena) To sum it up, a fantastic action/techno thriller; if you liked John's other movies (like broken arrow, face off, pulp fiction) then you will probably really enjoy this.
I think the breast nudity scene with Berry and Jackman was interesting, because it kinda showed some of Ginger's characteristics, she definitely is a sexual character, and uses her sexuality to her advantage with different men.
Hugh Jackman is a great professional actor, and he for sure does not disappoint in this film, he is smart, focused, likable, and looks good while doing it ;) lol.
Even if John Travolta has come off the back of the biggest flop of his career with "Battlefield Earth" Hugh Jackman was following up his first stint as Wolverine in "X-Men" likewise Halle Berry was following up the same movie.
Where the movie works is Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry.
The cast are good, John Trvolta as ever is quality and Hugh Jackman as launched himself as a top action man, in that apart from being quite big he can actually act as well.
Shadowy government agent Travolta recruits Jackman to hack into a 9.5 billion dollar slush fund, to transfer the monies.The interplay between the two was excellent, the technology side of it wasn't utter BS for a change and Halle Berry was absolutely lovely as usual.Good fun, well scripted, acted and directed.
This was one of those highly anticipated summertime movies (of 2001) that turned out to be about as memorable as a fart in the wind.You'll be somewhat entertained (perhaps a lot less than somewhat) while watching it, but as soon as it's over, and you remember it's time to do homework, or walk the dog, or whatever else you need to do, it will fade from your memory because, despite having Hugh and Halle and John all looking good and well-photographed, and lots of quick action cuts and things that go boom, at it's core is nothing but a lot of forgettable fluff.I voted this movie a 2, not only because it deserved it, but basically because whenever this film is mentioned in the future of film history, it will be remembered for two reasons--as the first film that Halle Berry bared her (admittedly luscious) breasts...for a little extra cash..
Horrendous dialogue, appauling special effects, stupid and incomprendible plot, irrelevant scenes, bad casting, retarded cinematography....And don't think that just because it is directed by the 'Matrix people' it will automatically have top quality effects, because it doesnt, and in fact the action sequences are very badly done, and the explosions are almost cartoon-like.
"Swordfish" is a rock'em, sock'em action no-brainer with Travolta as a deliciously likeable villain, Berry as a deliciously topless DEA agent, Jackman as a the world's faster typist, and Cheadle as an FBI agent.
The guy who wrote the script either was bored, or just don't have imagination.I can line up countless series of films that are JUST like this one, that follow the same method of climax, same rapid dialogue with smart remarks, and the same "newthinking" way to end the movie.
Still, I think that it can be pretty cool for those of you who haven't experienced so great many movies, or just want to see some thin slender women in undies, listen to cool music, and watching highly explosive, yet unrealistic scenes follow eachother like an ocean over a beach.This really proves that Travolta was made large due to the directors Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction) and John Woo (Face/Off + Broken Arrow) NOT through his acting skills.
If you want to see a good John Travolta movie, sorry, there isn't any.
It's loaded with stars - Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry and John Travolta (of all people) take the leads, with supporting shots from Don Cheadle and Vinnie Jones - but abysmally acted and thoroughly stiff, narrow and postured.
Berry and Travolta didn't appear to have any character chemistry.If the plot was more developed there would have been more to talk about afterwards instead of guessing,"what the hell went on here."  Strong stories make for great movies that make you want to look at them again and again and again.Swordfish the Matrix?
The new film, Swordfish, opens with Travolta giving a direct to camera monologue about the lack of realism in Hollywood movies, and how just once he'd like to see the bad guy get away in the end.
Stanley doesn't know whether to do the deed, and use Gabriel's money to sue for custody of his daughter, or cooperate with over zealous FBI agent, Roberts (Don Cheadle) in order to stay out of prison.In the end, Swordfish is an action thriller of slightly above average intelligence, which makes it light years more intelligent than the recent crop of below average action flicks, such as Sena's last effort, Gone in Sixty Seconds.
You want to watch a movie with Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, and John Travolta, some silly 2001 hacking montage, and a fun thriller.
Obviously some criticms can be levelled at swordfish, true, Halle Berry's topless scene adds little to the plot and the car chase is a bit unrealistic, but let's be honest, it wouldn't be a particularly good film if the lead characters got killed halfway through (except pulp fiction!), because that would bring something of a halt to the action don't you think?
Swordfish is so expensive and cynical that Sena expects you to be impressed with its profundity, and if you are like me--see Halle Berry topless and say, "Nice"--and move on from what you just saw because you know that you're being played, you're going to find that this thing pegs the needle in the red for dumb and dull.Sena directed Gone in Sixty Seconds a couple years before, and before I realized it, I thought that this thing sure reminds me of GISS, only without the pleasing characters.
Unless you enjoy watching Travolta being ham-handed as an evil genius (read: imbecilic), Hugh Jackman being cardboard-like, and Halle Berry trying for sexy (and getting creepy instead), skip Swordfish..
Good Fun. The world's most dangerous spy (John Travolta) is hired by the CIA to coerce a computer hacker (Hugh Jackman) recently released from prison to help steal $6 billion in unused government funds.The film received a great deal of press initially because it featured Halle Berry's first topless scene.
Halle Berry and John Travolta spend most of the time patronising Hugh Jackman.
It is very amazing that a film is trashed by everyone and your expectations with the movie is very less still the movie performs above your expectations.Same thing happened with me while watching it.I am a fan of Hugh so i planned to see it but my friends told me that its bad.But this movie was superb.The plot was a little weak but its presentation was really cool.Right from the first scene it held my attention.Its screenplay was so crisp and fast.Some comic one liners were really funny.It gives you a feel of old fashioned action movies.If they have paid a little more attention to the script then the film would have been more entertaining.Hugh was great.He played his role with perfection.Halle berry was average and her topless scene was a forced one.I like John travolta but this time he completely missed the mark.He was too bad.Surprise twist in the end was good but not great.Overall a good action thriller.....
Hugh Jackman is well casted for the lead and Halle Berry is really good as well.
He is approached by Ginger Knowles (Halle Berry) with an invitation to work for the mysterious Gabriel (John Travolta), "What we only fantasise, he does".Gabriel wants Stanley to hack into a secret government bank account.
After watching X-men, I suddenly realised that there was this heaps cool movie that also starred Halle Berry and Hugh Jackman, namely this one.
Swordfish is an action/suspense movie that does not end the way that one would expect it to end, that is the good guy ends up beating the bad guy.
Pretty cool opening if I do say so myself.However, that is near the end of the movie, and immediately after that scene, we are transported four days earlier to see how Stanley Jobson (Hugh Jackman) landed up on the wrong side of a bank robbery (meaning that he was with the bank robbers rather than the hostages).
That movie was 'Swordfish', a high-gloss actioner from the people that brought you 'The Matrix' and 'Gone in 60 Seconds'.
I'm a fan of Hugh Jackman's, so I looked forward to seeing "Swordfish," which also stars another actor I like, John Travolta.
'Swordfish' is no exception to all these, on the other hand one can ask a few questions about credibility of many of the scenes, as well as about the moral values of the character played by John Travolta, but overall when you have Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry near Travolta in the cast you cannot go too wrong.