Swordfish (2001)

Directed by: Dominic Sena | 96 minutes | action, crime, thriller | Actors: John Travolta, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Don Cheadle, Sam Shepard, Vinnie Jones, Drea de Mateo, Rudolf Martin, Zach Grenier, Camryn Grimes, Angelo Pagan, Chic Daniel, Kirk BR Woller, Carmen Argenziano, Tim DeKay

Anyone who has ever been hacked can have a say in it: hackers must be the most pathetic, annoying and above all the biggest nerds on this planet. People who are stuck at their computer day and night, have no social contacts and try to make their move through the digital network out of boredom or madness. Well, maybe it’s all true. But Dominic Sena’s ‘Swordfish’ shows something completely different. Stanley Jobson (Hugh Jackman) does not fit the profile of such a hacker at all. He was once the biggest, but after being arrested and losing everything, he has resigned himself to a dull and monotonous life, knowing that one finger on a keyboard could kill him. And John Travolta wouldn’t be John Travolta if he didn’t act on that.

Although it is the beautiful Halle Berry who initially comes to make a proposal to Stanley, she is delegated by the extravagant criminal Gabriel Shear. Gabriel wants to take a big hit by letting a hacker break into a bank through the computer network and transfer everything into his accounts. The hacker he asks for is caught at the airport and liquidated by Gabriel’s men, and Gabriel ends up with Stanley. At least, Stanley with Gabriel. Because director Sena surprises us in a sublime way with the bizarre world of criminal Gabriel. Big clubs, liters of expensive champagne, underground techno music and a lot of scantily clad ladies. And once Stanley sets foot in there, there’s no turning back: while getting oral sex and having a gun to his head, he must crack a code in a time that seems impossible. As a simple test.

It is therefore the glimpse into that world that makes ‘Swordfish’ worthwhile. Nothing is too much or too crazy for Gabriel. The action in ‘Swordfish’ is completely in line with that. A chase turns Gabriel’s race car into a moving tank when he retrieves a huge machine gun from the trunk. You just have to make it up. Yet Gabriel is certainly not portrayed as crazy, like Jack Nicholson for example in ‘The Departed’. Despite all his charm and charisma, his wealth and expensive toys, he is a driven, tenacious and calculating machine, something that becomes clear in the first few scenes in a conversation with FBI agent Roberts (Don Cheadle). Throughout the film, John Travolta is at his strongest verbally. A great script with very strong statements and dialogue. When Stanley first meets him, he says, “Look, I flew 1500 miles for this meeting, how about we get to the point?” Doodleuk replies Gabriel: ‘No, actually, you flew 1500 miles for a hundred grand. But that’s not the point.’ That arrogance and know-it-all is pre-eminently reserved for Travolta.

It is a pity that Sena does not continue that line, because after the first hour there is little left of that high level. Major scenes, such as the explosion at the bank that creates a huge visual spectacle, are left out and ‘Swordfish’ falls from one plot twist to the next. The film leaned on Travolta and Jackman, but the strong characters they portray may have raised too many expectations. ‘Swordfish’ gets long-winded and maybe a bit over the top, especially when the monkey comes out of the sleeve. Gabriel turns out to be working for the government and tasked with making the American response to terrorism so terrible that no one will ever dare to attack American soil again. That makes the ending of ‘Swordfish’ a bit exaggerated. Although that is fortunately done with a lot of flair and action, and the strong roles of Travolta and Jackman save the film for the most part, there is little realism to be found. And comically, that’s exactly what bothers Gabriel about the film industry in the first scenes. Well, a better world starts with you…