‹ All movies
Blackhat poster

Blackhat

year 2015decade 10sdirector Michael Manngenre Actiongenre Crime

133 minutes

Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Chris Hemsworth Nick Hathaway
Viola Davis Carol Barrett
Wei Tang Chen Lien
Leehom Wang Chen Dawai
Ritchie Coster Elias Kassar
Holt McCallany Mark Jessup

Blackhat | The Rewatchables

host Bill Simmonshost Chris Ryan
Explore episodeClose episode

Producer credits not yet identified.

Is There a Better Title for This Movie?

Cyber; Handsome Hacker; Ghostman, qualified

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 00:14:46Read transcript
  • “Handsome Hacker” is proposed as a more commercially inviting title.
  • The original title Cyber might have communicated the premise more clearly.
  • Handsome Hacker is reiterated; Ghostman is another possibility but risks sounding like a horror movie.

Most Rewatchable Scene

Car explosion and ensuing deaths; basement raid and shootout

In the discussion (13)
Approx. transcript time · 00:23:10Read transcript
  • The opening computer-hacking graphics are praised as riveting and compared with Fight Club’s credits, while explicitly not chosen as the most rewatchable scene.
  • The negotiation over Hathaway’s release is nominated for his Chicago accent and defiant bargaining, including “This isn’t a negotiation. I just made it one.”
  • The Korean restaurant sequence is where the film takes off: Lien challenges Hathaway’s prison mindset, and his philosophy recalls Thief.
  • The restaurant fight benefits from a space sized for close combat, surveillance-camera setup, and Hathaway’s Ghostman login.
  • Finding the transmitter by moving a phone around the plants is nominated.
  • The basement raid is praised for its tunnel to the pier, hidden explosives, gunfight sound and movement; Kassar becomes a formidable threat once he moves with a gun.
  • The car explosion that kills Lien’s brother is the favored scene for one participant, intensified by the subsequent deaths of Barrett and Jessup.
  • Dropping a car from a parking garage through the server company’s roof is praised as an unusually inventive break-in.
  • The phone confrontation with the hacker is nominated for the “glorified carder” insult and Hathaway’s leverage over the stolen money.
  • The final gun-and-knife battle amid a Jakarta procession is nominated, while improvised magazine armor and oblivious bystanders strain belief.
  • The basement raid and shootout is the other final choice; Kassar’s concern for his own crew gives the villains distinctive detail.
  • Barrett and Dawai pressuring financial official Gary is an additional nomination, especially her threats to trigger an investigation and news coverage.
  • Hathaway in the reactor core is nominated for its astonishing visual setting.

What’s Aged the Best?

Expert prisoner; investigative release; hacker reversal; Davis; McCallany; city view; riverbed revelation; Kassar; Black Widow; escape warning; Dawai; helicopters; cooking shot; magazine armor

In the discussion (13)
Approx. transcript time · 00:32:40Read transcript
  • A prisoner with unparalleled specialized skills is praised as a compelling premise.
  • Releasing a criminal because only he can solve the case is another favored trope.
  • A seemingly invulnerable hacker discovering that another hacker can foil him is praised.
  • Davis’s commanding persona and confrontation with Gary are praised; she has stronger chemistry with Hemsworth than his romantic partner does.
  • McCallany’s Jessup fills the reliable, forceful supporting role associated with Sizemore, a marshal willing to bend rules.
  • The couple looking out over Los Angeles before intimacy recalls an earlier De Niro–Eady scene.
  • Hathaway assembling the clues in a dry Indonesian riverbed recalls Mann’s recurring protagonist-revelation scenes.
  • Kassar’s bald, bearded, tattooed, shirtless, smoking villain image checks every box.
  • The Black Widow name for technology and the instruction that the hero must run are favored thriller devices.
  • Dawai’s coolness, bilingual dialogue, and performance are praised.
  • The large helicopters are admired.
  • A low-angle Hong Kong cooking shot gives the film a brief travel-food-show quality.
  • Improvised magazine body armor is another affirmative choice.

The Great Shot Gordo Award for Most Cinematic Shot

Barrett’s dying view of the tower

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 00:42:06Read transcript
  • The final fight’s crowd and colors and the distinctive opening graphics are nominated.
  • Barrett looking up toward the tower as she dies, after mentioning her husband’s death on 9/11, is the preferred shot.
  • Hathaway alone on the immense runway after release is another nomination.

What’s Aged the Worst?

Unrealism critiques; Hemsworth’s self-assessment and accent; good-man prison trope; repair-worker insult; dense plot and audio; thin final villain; Facebook grievance

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 00:45:49Read transcript
  • Criticisms that the cyberattack premise was unrealistic are considered to have aged poorly.
  • Hemsworth’s dismissal of his own performance is rejected; his accent is criticized, and simply retaining an Australian accent is proposed.
  • The stock action-film backstory of a good man imprisoned for injuring someone while protecting another person is criticized as too convenient.
  • The film insults television and garage-door repair workers through Hathaway’s dismissive dialogue.
  • The dense plot, jumpy explanatory dialogue, and inconsistent audio mix are criticized.
  • The final hacker villain arrives too late and lacks a developed biography or convincing motive beyond money as a scoreboard.
  • Publicly venting a professional grievance on Facebook is added as an aged-worst choice.

The Joey Pants “That Guy” Award

John Ortiz; William Mapother; Sadak’s actor; Coster sweep proposed

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:54:01Read transcript
  • John Ortiz is nominated.
  • William Mapother is nominated; his relationship to Tom Cruise is corrected from brother to cousin.
  • The actor playing Sadak is another nomination.
  • Kassar’s performer is proposed as a potential sweep of That Guy, Overacting, and Dion Waiters.

Apex Mountain

Hacking on screen, disputed; soy futures; Ham Ji Park

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:58:47Read transcript
  • Hacking on screen is affirmed but challenged with Sneakers as a comparison from an earlier technological era.
  • Soy futures and Ham Ji Park are affirmative choices.

Sequel, Prequel, Limited Series, or All-Black Remake

Prison prequel; retired-hacker sequel; prestige TV preferred

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:03:32Read transcript
  • A prison prequel could show Hathaway hacking commissary accounts, building equipment, and possibly unlocking doors to escape.
  • A sequel could bring a retired Hathaway back to confront another hacker.
  • Prestige television is preferred because it could develop the rushed material.

Just One Oscar

No selection

In the discussion (1)
Approx. transcript time · 01:05:58Read transcript
  • No recipient is settled; the possibility of leaving the category blank prompts a joke about the composer accepting an Oscar only to attack Mann.

Who Won the Movie?

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 01:12:15Read transcript
  • Viola Davis receives two explicit final choices because her performance lifts the movie beyond replacement level.
  • A hypothetical version keeps Davis alive instead of Lien, allowing her and Hathaway to finish the film together and perhaps develop a romance.
Podcast choices
Speaker not identified
Viola Davis
Speaker not identified
Viola Davis