Swordfish (2001)

• Year: 2001
• Released: 08 Jun 2001
• Country: United States
• Adwords: 5 wins & 10 nominations
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0244244/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/Swordfish
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/swordfish
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English, German
• MPA Rating: R
• Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller
• Runtime: 99 min
• Writer: Skip Woods
• Director: Dominic Sena
• Cast: John Travolta, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry
• Keywords: aftercreditsstinger, hostage, bank robbery, secret agent, terrorism,

	6.5/10
	32/100
	25% – Critics
	59% – Audience

Swordfish Storyline

When the DEA shut down its dummy corporation operation codenamed SWORDFISH in 1986, they had generated $400 million which they let sit around; fifteen years of compound interest has swelled it to $9.5 billion. A covert counter-terrorist unit called Black Cell, headed by the duplicitious and suave Gabriel Shear, wants the money to help finance their raise-the-stakes vengeance war against international terrorism, but it’s all locked away behind super-encryption. He brings in convicted hacker Stanley Jobson, who only wants to see his daughter Holly again but can’t afford the legal fees, to slice into the government mainframes and get the money.

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Swordfish Movie Reviews

All of the right ingredients for your usual Hollywood thriller

Dominic Sena’s follow-up to GONE IN SIXTY SECONDS is a film that looks very much like its predecessor, mainly because the two movies share the same greenish filter. There’s a pulse-pounding gratuitous car-chase that also belongs in GONE, but being so stylishly portrayed I couldn’t complain. The difference between the two movies is that SWORDFISH has a slightly more complex plot, and that it’s certainly a film with more of an adult nature – expect sexual situations, mucho profanity and nudity (a famous topless scene with recent Oscar-winner Halle Berry, which received much publicity at the time) and even a little bit of nasty violence here and there.

Whilst the plot is nothing new, the film adds intrigue by murkying the characters and backgrounds of the typical bad guys, so that you never know who really is who. In this day and age, there’s the expected twist-upon-a-twist-upon-a-twist ending to keep you guessing. As for the action scenes, well they are pretty impressive, done in an over the top style. There’s a sequence at the end involving a flying bus (!) which is very ludicrous, but makes for great screen entertainment and is a lot of fun. The opening special effect, slowing a bomb blast in 360-degree slow motion, is also great and a real show-stopper.

Hugh Jackman is just about passable in the bland leading role part, but doesn’t make an impression as in his previous X-MEN movie: he’s just there, the straight man, and not very charismatic. John Travolta gives us the obnoxious helium-sniffing villainous routine as done before in FACE/OFF, except he’s a little bit more layered and restrained this time around. Halle Berry contributes certain assets to the production in a mysterious role, whilst Don Cheadle and Vinnie Jones are as good as they ever have been in minor supporting roles. SWORDFISH is one of those modern blockbusters done in a snazzy, different, modern, way but still offering the same old goods underneath: action, computers, sex, comedy, violence, and races against the clock. Not a masterpiece, but probably worth a watch.

Look Ma! Boobs!

Gabriel Shear (John Travolta) has taken 22 hostages and rigged them with explosives. One hostage is pulled away by some police on the ground and explodes. Four days earlier, criminal Axel Torvalds is arrested at LAX but he’s actually working for Senator James Reisman (Sam Shepard). In Texas, Ginger Knowles (Halle Berry) approaches convicted hacker Stanley Jobson (Hugh Jackman). His hard partying ex Melissa (Drea de Matteo) with a porn king as her new man won’t let him see his daughter Holly. He accepts $100k from Ginger to meet Shear. He helps hack into DEA dummy corporations that was codenamed Swordfish that had been shut down. Agent Roberts (Don Cheadle) used to head a large cyber security team but burned out. He interrogates Axel but hit-man Marco (Vinnie Jones) skillfully kills the suspect.

The story is a mess. The characters are all over the top. Travolta is ridiculous but I’m willing to buy into this cartoon villain. On the other hand, I can’t really buy Jackman as a hacker. Does he hack in between squats? Halle Berry has a special purpose in this movie. She flashes us her boobs in the most blatant way possible. Everything is played to its most ridiculous version. One must give director Dominic Sena credit for throwing everything at the screen. Jobson’s audition is definitely memorable. The movie never lets a good explanation or compelling acting get into the way of some absurd flashiness.

Sword Play

I wonder how this film would had mapped out if it was released after 9/11 rather then several months before it?

Hugh Jackman is a computer hacker who wants access to his daughter but his porn star wife will not allow him access. I presume being a hacker is worse than appearing in porn films.

John Travolta plays a ruthless criminal with an intelligence background who wants him to hack into a government bank and steal billions of dollars locked in by the DEA.

During all too yellow scenes (not sure why there was so much yellow filter) we have car chases, dodgy politicians, explosions, pyrotechnics and Halle Berry’s boobs which are more preferable to Travolta’s.

Jackman tries to keep up with all the cat and mouse play and Don Cheadle is the FBI agent rather flummoxed as to what is going on.

John Travolta plays Gabriel a film freak who is obsessed with keeping terrorism out of America. He wants to combat force with even more force. Something Donald Rumsfeld might had approved of.

Gabriel comes across as an ethically bankrupt man, in an amoral story where we are supposed to root for a dubious good guy who wants to cause havoc against people and nations he views as villains.

When in the early part of the movie we see another computer hacker taken out by a hit-man who also shoots his lawyer for some reason, you know this film is going to have a suspect morality.