Review

Swordfish:

Combining cyber and fire power

by Dilshan Boange

Featuring the dynamic acting talents of Jon Travolta and Hugh Jackman and the alluring Halle Berry Swordfish is a 2001 American action crime thriller film which will thrill you without disappointments.

The story centres on Stanley Jobson (played by Jackman), superlative computer hacker who did time cyber crimes who is targeted for recruitment into a bank robbery conspiracy because of his unmatched hacking skills.

Stanley Jobson who infected the FBI’s cyber security system with a potent computer virus, is a man cyber criminal. He was arrested by Agent Roberts and convicted of computer crimes and spent two years in prison. One of the conditions of his parole is that he is forbidden from touching, much less using, a computer. His ex-wife, Melissa, has sole custody over their daughter Holly and a restraining order against Stanley from seeing Holly.

While Stanley is at home practising his golf swing, Ginger Knowles, (played by Halle Berry) shows up to solicit his hacking skills for her boss Gabriel Shear played brilliantly by John Travolta. For an initial fee of $100,000, Stanley agrees to meet with Gabriel.

He and Ginger fly to Los Angeles and meet Gabriel in a night club. Gabriel pressures Stanley right then and there to hack a government system in 60 seconds while simultaneously being held at gunpoint by Gabriel’s henchman, Marco and receiving fellatio from a young woman. Stanley’s succeeded in hacking the system, passing Gabriel’s test.

At his house Gabriel offers Stanley $10 million to write a computer program called a worm that steals money from a secret government slush fund to the order of $9.5 billion. Gabriel reveals to Stanley that he works for an organisation called the Black Cell that was set up by J. Edgar Hoover in the 1950s, which is responsible for retaliatory attacks against terrorists who have attacked Americans.It is currently headed by Senator Reisman (Sam Shepard), who found that the FBI has caught on to Gabriel and attempts to pull the plug. After Gabriel refuses to terminate his plans, Reisman attempts to have Gabriel killed, which fails. Gabriel tracks the Senator down while he is fly fishing in Bend, Oregon and kills him.

Gabriel proceeds with his plan and raids the local branch of the WorldBanc. He takes hostages, puts explosives on them and deploys Stanley’s worm.

After stealing the $9.5 billion he boards the hostages and his crew on a bus out of the WorldBanc. Gabriel demands a plane at the local airport but it was a diversion. An an Aircrane swoops down, lifts the bus and releases it on the rooftop of a skyscraper.

From the rooftop, Gabriel seemingly departs with his team in a helicopter, which Stanley shoots down with a rocket-propelled grenade. At the morgue, Stanley and Agent Roberts learn that the body recovered from the helicopter is that of a former Mossad agent named Gabriel Shear. The end of the film shows Ginger and Gabriel in Monte Carlo transferring the $9.5 billion into other accounts. The final scene shows a yacht being destroyed while Ginger and Gabriel look on in a smaller boat while a news anchor voice narrates that a suspected terrorist died on that yacht.