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Blackhat | 2015 | R | - 5.6.5

The American government releases a convicted hacker (Chris Hemsworth) from prison to collaborate with the Chinese in a manhunt for a notorious international cybercriminal. The chase takes the crime fighters through major world capitals and mayhem. Also with Tang Wei, Wang Leehom, Viola Davis, Holt McCallany, William Mapother, Ritchie Costar and Manny Montana. Directed by Michael Mann. Several scenes include Chinese dialogue with English subtitles. [2:13]

SEX/NUDITY 5 - A man and a woman stare at each other for several seconds on a balcony and kiss passionately; he lifts her and she wraps her legs around his waist as we see her bare legs to the top of the thighs, and the camera cuts to a close-up of their faces as they lie in bed (clothed) and we see some kissing and thrusting as they gasp quietly; we then see them in the morning with her bare shoulder and arm above a blanket and his bare chest, arms and lower leg as he sits in bed.
 A man and a woman lie in bed (she is clothed and he is bare-chested) and she lies on his chest and kisses him as the scene ends (we see her bare leg). A man and a woman are seen in bed. A man and a woman are shown in bed with their bare backs and the bare lower legs visible.
 A man and a woman kiss briefly; later, he kisses her on the forehead while standing on a sidewalk. Two men hug for several seconds (nothing sexual is implied). While a woman drives a male passenger stares at her throat, face, lips and bare arm that we see in close-up.
 A woman wears a sleeveless, knee-length dresses that is clingy and outlines her bosom. Several dancers wear long dresses that show some cleavage in a long shot. Several men wear sleeveless undershirts and a few show tattoos on their shoulders. A man in prison is seen shirtless and covered front and back with what we later hear are gang related tattoos. A man with many tattoos lies shirtless on a mattress on a floor (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). A few men wear long sleeved shirts open in front and we see their bare upper chest.

VIOLENCE/GORE 6 - During a street festival, criminals and an agent pursue one another through a large cadre of marching men carrying tall ceremonial torches; the opponents push several of the marchers down or aside and the marchers shout in pain while gunfire erupts and three marchers fall below screen (we do not see blood or bodies) as other marchers run away; the agent shoots and kills two criminals and we see some blood as the leader pulls a knife and attacks the agent who turns, breaks the other man's arm in close-up, stabs him in the chest and belly a dozen times as we hear metallic "pings," and then stabs a screw driver into the man's eye as we see some blood flow (the criminal drops to the ground on his face and bleeds out into a spreading pool). A man is attacked in a small restaurant by three other men and during the fight the first man attacks the others by using a table, broken bear bottles and a chair as weapons; he breaks the arm of one man and the neck of another as they scream, then takes a broken bottle away from the last man and slices his face several times (we see some blood flow) before escaping with a woman.
 In three extended shootouts between criminals and a task force, dozens of men and one woman shoot automatic handguns and rifles at each other and several criminals fall dead, with a little blood on their chests and faces while two others fall, with blood on their lower back, but stand and limp off screen together; the woman is struck several times and we see bloody shots to the chest in close-up as she falls backwards, dead (with her eyes open, tears streaking her face and blood on her chest and the pavement); a man is struck several times in the chest and legs and we see him shaking as he falls backward off screen, apparently dead; another man dies in close-up, lying face up on a loading dock with blood spreading underneath his head as he gags (no spittle is seen).
 During a chase scene a SWAT-type team with automatic rifles pursues criminals through underground corridors in a big city, both sides shooting and loud echoes resulting while people above ground feel and hear the shooting, which sounds like a minor earthquake shaking the sidewalks as explosive devices are detonated and many SWAT members fall dead.
 We see a dead man lying on his back, his face reddened and badly peeled, his eyes staring upwards in a darkened nuclear plant. Agents search two homes for criminals and find two agents lying dead with bloody chest and face in one and nothing in the other. Agents find a dead man on a mattress in an apartment.
 Two men argue in a tent hospital set up outside a nuclear plant where burn victims show reddened faces and hands and some wear bandages around their heads; one male patient appears lifeless, staring and unmoving and doctors wear heavy protective overalls and masks. After a knife fight, a man lies on a bed as a woman pulls a heavy cardboard shield off his abdomen to reveal a long curving slash on his abdomen, covered in dried blood; the woman pours disinfectant over it and bandages it as the man grimaces and yelps and she holds an IV bag and line of saline in the frame and apparently connects it to his arm below the frame (we do not see his arm and he does not react). Criminals carry an injured member of their party in the bottom of a motor boat and we see streaks of blood on the bottom of the boat as the injured man lies unmoving. One scene includes a car chase with rifles fired between cars and no injuries.
 Three men wearing Hazmat suits investigate a nuclear plant's control room after a meltdown while a nurse tells them they have only eight minutes inside before they receive fatal doses of radiation; one man collapses inside the control room and another man tells the third member to take the first man and leave; the last man uses an axe handle to break apart a server panel and we see chunks of debris fall amid clouds of dust beyond the control room window, where a thick liquid churns in a large reservoir as the man punches switches inside the server panel and escapes (all three men are unharmed).
 A man and a woman stand several yards from a car containing another man as an explosive device under the car is detonated lifting the car off the pavement in flames and smoke before landing back on the ground demolished and charred (we later see a gurney with a covered body being wheeled away); the man and the woman are thrown into the air and land behind a metal pillar unharmed, but a car full of criminals pass by and shoot at them (they escape unharmed).
 A nuclear meltdown occurs in China and the camera moves into a set of circuits with flashing lights and sparks of electricity moving as we hear loud sparking noises; outside the circuitry, we see copper tubing glow red-hot, steam rises outside a control room window and a thick liquid begins to boil and churn while alarms sound and the camera cuts to a TV screen with a headline "Catastrophe in China"; the top of a nuclear silo has a burned out hole in with steam rising from it and we hear that the plant was evacuated and is still "hot" (irradiated).
 Several scenes feature men wearing bulletproof vests and one woman without a vest wearing handguns in visible holsters or running and chasing a criminal with handguns drawn and pointed ahead of them through long winding streets and across a loading dock near a river; one scene shows a lot of loud rifle and handgun fire and we see bullet holes open in metal cargo containers and a wooden fence.
 On the top floor of a parking garage, a man backs his car into a minivan, sending the van over the edge, crumbling the short wall of the top floor and loudly crashing onto the roof of the building below, where it sticks a few feet into a computer lab; the man driving the car enters the lab during the influx of police vehicles with flashing lights and loud sirens and downloads material from the server. Three computers tracking cyber crimes in Asia screech loudly in alarm and agents shout and run out the door to chase the criminals. A convict wears a tracking ankle bracelet on a special mission, but has it cut off in close-up with hand tools that spark and whine. A man pounds a computer screen with a stylus and throws the stylus loudly onto the desk.
 Several guards pull a man from a prison cell, push him to the floor during a struggle and carry him to the warden's office and after a short argument with the warden he is sent to solitary confinement. A woman argues with two men in several scenes, angry at the way an investigative mission is unfolding and she cries briefly in two scenes. A man argues loudly with his military supervisors. A woman loudly argues with her supervisor over the phone. A man argues briefly with a cyber criminal over the phone. A criminal plans to flood five large river valleys in Indonesia, killing the villagers that live in and near them. A man tells a woman that he served two prison terms: one 18 months for assault and the other 13 years for computer hacking. A woman tells a man that her husband died in the 9/11 disaster in NYC.

LANGUAGE 5 - About 2 F-words, 3 scatological terms, 3 anatomical terms, 5 mild obscenities, name-calling (carder, Chica, skinhead, damaged goods, bagman), stereotypical references to men, women, the Chinese, Americans, Hispanics, criminals, convicts, MIT students, heroes, hackers, government agents, 1 religious profanities (GD), 2 religious exclamations (Jesus).

SUBSTANCE USE - A man enters an apartment and finds a dead person on the floor with a hypodermic needle still stuck in a vein suggesting drug overdose. A man and a woman drink glasses of wine and hold martinis in a club, partial glasses of wine are seen on tables in a restaurant and a man has a short glass of whiskey in front of him but does not drink it, a man and a woman receive bottles of beer in a restaurant and we see the woman sip from a glass of beer while other men and women drink from beer bottles in the background, men drink glasses of beer in a cafe as they watch horse races on a TV, and bottles of wine are seen sit on a cabinet in a home. A man holds a cigarette in his mouth in a photo (no smoke is seen), two older men smoke cigarettes on a street (one cigarette is short and triangular), a man smokes a cigarette on a sidewalk, and a man smokes a cigarette in a computer room.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Cyber crime, prison, FBI/NSA tactics, the Chinese government, money, power, greed, influence, danger, murder, courage, determination, developing resourcefulness.

MESSAGE - Cyber crime is dangerous, devastating, and international.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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