Swordfish
Short description
Gabriel Shear, a spy who once worked for the American government and now operates as a criminal, wants to get hold of a large sum of money that was set aside years earlier for a discontinued anti-drug operation. The funds have grown enormously in the meantime and now sit in a secret government account protected by a complex encryption code. To break in, Shear needs a hacker of exceptional ability, and he finds one in Stanley Jobson, a skilled computer expert who has just been released from prison and is barred from using computers.
Stanley's life after prison is bleak; he has lost contact with his young daughter. Shear and his associate Ginger approach him with an offer: carry out one job, and he will receive what he needs to fight for custody. Stanley agrees, but as the operation proceeds he comes to see that he is being used in a larger scheme. John Travolta plays Shear, Hugh Jackman plays Stanley, and Halle Berry plays Ginger, with Don Cheadle, Vinnie Jones and Sam Shepard in supporting roles.
Swordfish was directed by Dominic Sena, his third feature after Kalifornia and Gone in Sixty Seconds, from a screenplay by Skip Woods. It was made for about 102 million dollars and took roughly 147 million worldwide. Ratings are moderate rather than strong: on IMDb it holds 6.5/10 from around 203,000 votes, on TMDB 6.3/10 from about 3,000 votes, while the critics' score is 4.9/10 from 139 reviews, lower than either audience figure.
What's left behind the scenes
- The protagonist hacks the theoretically unhackable Vernam cipher.
- On the door of the restroom where the scene of the protagonist kissing Ginger takes place, a sickle and hammer – a symbol of the USSR – is depicted. And the name of the club where the characters were located – 'Red Heat' – is by analogy with the film of the same name.
- The title of the film 'Swordfish' plays on the theme of cryptography, referencing the real encryption algorithms Blowfish and Twofish.
- The name of the Finnish hacker Aksel Torvalds is composed of the surname of Linus Torvalds (the “father” of the Linux OS) and the name of W. Axl Rose (the frontman of Guns’n’Roses).
- In trailers, television commercials, and in the press, the password 'Vernam' is given at the end of the film, allowing viewers to play a game on the film's official website.
- The name of the main character, Stanley Jobson, is similar to the name of Steve Jobs, one of the founders of Apple Corporation.
- Filming took place from September 18 to December 15, 2000.
- On the floor of Holly's room, you can see William Gibson's "Neuromancer," a classic work of the cyberpunk genre.
- In the scene where Travolta's character kills Senator Reisman, the water level constantly changes with each cut.
- The bomb on the hostage girl, when it exploded, riddled everything around with holes, so the holes in the metal should be directed outwards from the epicenter. However, in subsequent shots, it is visible that the holes in the cars are directed inwards from each car, upwards, and across the entire surface of the vehicle.
- In one scene of this film, Halle Berry appears topless for the first time. Following the film's release, rumors circulated in the press that the actress's fee was increased by two million dollars for appearing nude. Berry herself later stated that the filmmakers paid her $250,000 for each exposed breast.
- As in many other films about hackers, the process of creating the 'worm' is shown rather unrealistically – Stanley's computer has a three-dimensional interface, and even the 'worm' itself looks like a three-dimensional cube with running lines of code.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
