Blackhat

In Michael Mann’s 2015 cyber-thriller Blackhat, Chris Hemsworth trades Thor’s hammer for a keyboard as a jacked, brilliant hacker sprung from prison to hunt a mysterious “black hat” cyber-terrorist whose real-world-grade code has already triggered a nuclear-plant explosion and threatens global chaos. Despite a $70 million budget lavished on stunning global locations, hyper-authentic hacking sequences (vetted by ex-cons and NSA consultants), and Mann’s trademark razor-sharp visuals and brutal shootouts, the film bombed hard—making just $20 million worldwide—thanks to a thin script, Hemsworth’s eyebrow-raising casting as an MIT super-nerd, and a premise that felt too clinical and ahead-of-its-time for 2015 audiences; ten years later, with cyber threats now daily headlines, Mann’s prescient, gorgeous misfire is finally getting its vindication as a cult techno-thriller that looks better with every new data breach.

Creators and Guests

Host

Ryan Rebalkin

What is The Director's Chair Network?

Join Ryan and many featured guests and other hosts as they break down and review a variety of directors and their films!
So far, this podcast has featured films from Edward Zwick, John Hughes, Brian De Palma, and Michael Mann.
Soon, we will feature Edgar Wright, Sam Peckinpah, Paul Verhoeven, and David Fincher!

blackhat final.mov
Thank you.
Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the Director's Chair Network. I am the host of this season where we're covering Michael Mann. It's been a spell. It's been a spell just for context. I moved across Canada. I'm now back in my home. I don't want to dox myself for those two people that will listen to the show, but I'm back in Western Canada, above Seattle, if you want to get down to brass tacks. So it's back in the house that we own. I'm very excited. We were gone in Ottawa for a couple of years for a military post.
Or as you Americans call it, we were stationed there for a couple of years, but I'm back on the West Coast now. Probably going to finish my military career here, but I'm definitely retiring here because we own our home here. And I'm in my garage now. So the garage is, it's not messy. It's just busy.
You know, so there's no dirt. It's very organized in its own crazy way. But yeah, I don't have a studio background and I met the house in Ottawa. I had a little bit of a nicer aesthetic in the background, but if you're audio listening, you don't care. Also, you might notice I'm flying solo today.
It's okay. We had, I had a host lined up and bless, bless their heart that we, it was funny. We went back and forth on dates. They were sick. And then I had a busy things at work happen. And today was supposed to be, I think attempt four or five to record. And for some reason they're not here and it's okay.
Life is busy. Life gets complicated. So I just invited them onto a different podcast episode at a different time. Hopefully they'll be able to show up. So the show really kind of does have to go on because I, I don't mind pulling back the current a little bit. Just in a couple of days, I'm going to be recording the last film so far of Michael Mann's filmography that is released. Of course, at the time it's recording Ferrari. So I have to, I I'm really, how should I say?
I'm a stickler for recording within like the order of the films released. I don't like to record out of order. So I've recorded every episode in the order of I've watched the films and yeah. And I, I just got to get this done. I can't record in two days and not have this episode sort of recorded, give my thoughts on Michael Mann's filmography and the journey of me watching it. And again, for a tease, I will be giving a bonus episode or whatever you want to call it, where I will rank.
The filmographies of Michael Mann from least to greatest. I did the same with Edward Zwick. And I thought that was great. A fun little exercise to talk very, very briefly on each film and tell them or tell them you, the audience as to why I've ranked what I've ranked, where I've ranked it.
So yeah, Michael Mann released this film in 2015. It's called Black Hat. This is the first time I watched the film for this podcast recording. And for Michael Mann's films, I've done that a cut with a couple of them. I think it's been the recent ones like Miami Vice was the first time watch pocket public enemies was not.
Black Hat was, and this came out in 2015. I just looking back at the timeline of my life, I always do that. Like, where was I in my life at this time? Why didn't I watch this? I was certainly aware of this film when it came out.
And I think some of the criticism I have regarding this film is probably the same reason why I never saw it at the time or even 10 years later.
And I probably never would have seen this film had it not been for my Michael Mann journey.
Now, first off, Black Hat is a considered an action thriller. According to Wikipedia is what it's under.
A guy's in jail named Chris Hemsworth is the actor. He portrays a convicted hacker. Yeah. He's offered clemency for helping track down a dangerous cyber criminal.
The U.S. government would like your technical advice on this. In exchange for that, we're going to furlough you right out of here.
You sign that on the last page, and we'll get you processed.
You'll wear an ankle bracelet and be accompanied by a U.S. marshal. Your computer access will be restricted.
If you want to study the whole document, you can go right ahead.
I can come back in a month or two.
I'm done.
You didn't sign it.
Yeah, why would I sign it?
Why? Because of the generosity of the assistant U.S. attorney in granting you a furlough.
Both of you and the assistant U.S. attorney. Let's take that document up your ass.
I'm sorry.
Why are you sorry?
I insulted you. What are you sorry for? I'm not sorry.
Don't think you're going to...
You want to raise me up out of here, solve your trade exchange dilemma, and I get furloughed for a couple of weeks? You kidding me?
You have any idea how much progress you're going to make on a strike this complex without someone like me?
Zero.
This isn't a negotiation.
I just made a one.
You want me to pass this upstairs.
My assistance results in the identification and the apprehension of the guy you're after.
I want you to commute my sentence.
I come up empty and toss my ass back in the can.
Those are the terms.
Guardian.
Interview's over.
And that cyber criminal goes by the title Black Hat, which is...
It's like Black Hat, White Hat.
Yeah, exactly like that.
Like Westerns, Cowboys, right?
The Black Hat are the bad guys.
The White Hat are the good guys.
Okay.
The original title for the film was Cyber.
All right.
And remember there was that film that came out in 1995, I think, called The Net with Sandra Bullock.
And then there was the Angelina Jolie movie that came out in the 90s, too, called Hackers.
Those type of films, and this one, Black Hat, the idea of cyber security, cyber issues, it's kind of boring.
It's a boring premise.
Now, what cyber terrorism can do is crazy.
It's insane.
And this was 10 years ago.
So even in the last 10 years, the idea of what, you know, now with AI, of course, don't even get me started.
The idea of what cyber crime and infiltration can be and do is harrowing.
Harrowing?
Harrowing?
Is that the word?
So there is a lot that can be explored and digested.
I think when James Bond did a cyber film, did they not?
I can't remember which one that was.
So using cyber terrorism or cyber threats within a film, it's always going to happen.
I mean, the government agency has been hacked or hacking into it for information.
So making a whole movie about the idea that, hey, we've got this Hong Kong nuclear plant has gone into meltdown and the coolant pumps have exploded and overheated and this caused this big thing.
And it turns out the reason why the hacker, the black hat caused this Hong Kong explosion meltdown wasn't just to cause a radiation meltdown.
It was to test this virus.
It was to test this thing.
Within the Chinese government, it just so happens they have an officer who was partners with Chris Hemsworth's character that they were roommate colleges.
And they, and they, during their time at MIT and they created their own little codes or whatever.
And they're able to determine that, that this code that was used, they can work together on how to do this.
But Chris Hemsworth characters in jail for something that he did in the past.
And they bring him out of jail to give him clemency, of course, to say, hey, if you help us do this, we'll give you clemency.
And it's just like, what are the odds, right?
It's always those things like, what are the odds?
And of course, this, you know, MIT nerd is Chris Hemsworth.
Like this guy is like a, look, he's a Greek God of a guy, right?
He's good looking, handsome, strong, amazing.
But of course he's an MIT hacker.
So I'm not going to go through the plot by plot.
That's not what we do on the show.
And this won't be a very long episode because I don't have a co-host to bounce things off of.
So it is what it is.
That's just the nature of going solo on these things.
Like we always do.
We're going to go through, of course, you know, some of the actors and again, not a big list.
Cause I only talk about these sort of the actors that I sort of know by their names, you know, like who's in this film.
So I don't know if Michael Mandis didn't have a big budget regarding, Hey, can we get some big names?
The big name is Chris, but we'll end with him.
So here are some of the other names that you might know.
Now that John Ortiz is in this movie.
What the hell did you let go on there, Carol?
Pollock.
Do you know what your guy did?
What are you talking about?
Cut the crap.
I'm talking about calls I got from the goddamn NSA and defense.
Our guy blew a reactor at Chi-1.
Don't you watch CNN?
That's not the point.
That's not the point.
That's exactly the point.
The guy we're working will drop the big hammer and not think twice about it.
Come on, come on, come on.
Don't invoke 9-11 on me.
You didn't lose anyone there, Stanley.
Look, I'm under orders.
Now, so are you.
Bring him in, Carol.
Bring him in.
He's a great actor, but you'll remember that he was also in Miami Vice.
He played one of the main baddies.
So he did a great job.
He had a very small role in this film.
But again, you know, another Michael Mann regular coming back.
And then you go through all these other names, and I just don't really know who they are.
So there is a Chinese cast, which is fantastic.
But I just don't know who they are outside of American film very well.
So you go through it.
And the other name that we know is Holt McAllen.
I do know him.
I know him from Fight Club.
If you remember him, guys, his name is Robert Paulson.
He was that character in that film.
So he's a great actor.
He plays the deputy who's kind of old school in this film.
He's the last analog cop, so to speak.
He's like the Johnny come lately a little bit when it comes to...
What's going on?
Damn it, Hathaway's gone.
Hey, this says he's here.
He cut his bracelets?
He can't.
It signals an alarm.
This says it's working.
Check your settings.
He doesn't trust Chris Hemsworth's character.
He doesn't believe in him and believe in his mission.
But he ends up liking him.
And he ends up dying for it.
I'll give Michael Mann credit.
His character dies, and so does Viola Davis.
Now, Viola Davis, I know a lot more.
I enjoy her.
She's a very strong actress, an incredible actor.
My old correspondence with Donahue is here.
But there's no way that login is still active.
I'm not going to use that login.
Okay, Donahue, the NSA contact you just talked about.
If NSA discovers the intrusion, you sure you want to do this?
FBI can't explain after the fact.
You locate this guy, you're okay.
You get discovered, you're dead meat.
I started watching...
What was it called again?
The Secret of Murder or something?
Or How to Get Away with Murder?
I started watching that show.
It was really quite good.
Just life got in the way, and I stopped watching that.
I've always wanted to kind of go back and wrap it up, but she was great in that.
And she's great in this.
Again, she's playing an FBI special agent.
She's along for the ride as well.
And she ends up trusting and liking both Chris Hesworth's character and his partner from the Chinese Army guy.
And again, it's like a ragtag group of...
You've got the Chinese government wanting this issue.
You've got the American government wanting that issue.
And you've got this hacker out there causing chaos.
On paper, it doesn't sound too bad, but it's almost like they just had this idea of cyberterrorism.
But we insert these big shots, grandiose shots in locations.
And it's almost like they gave Michael Mann $70 million and just said,
Look, we're not going to give you a great script and not a great idea.
But boy, you've got a lot of money to blow.
Such a weird use of finances.
I'm surprised that they thought that this would grab people at the time.
And it was a box office failure.
It would cost $70 million just to make and then only made $20 million at the box office.
And it's ironic that this film was not shown in Australia because of its poor blockbuster in the U.S.
They didn't bother opening it up in Australia.
But you think they would get a couple million bucks out of Australia alone just because of Chris Hemsworth.
And I do have a theory, the reason why they get some of these bigger Chinese actors, nothing wrong with it, but there's a Chinese draw, right?
China has a huge Hollywood.
I don't know what it's called there.
China would.
I'm not sure.
I don't know what it's called in China.
I know because Bali was right.
India has their big studios.
But anyways, China has a big movie production companies and stuff.
It's huge there.
Their celebrities are huge there.
So we, well, I say we, I'm Canadian, but Americans or North America, we grab Chinese actors and workers because the crossover appeal, that's what you're hoping for, right?
I don't know these names, but they were great actors in the film.
We had Lee Hong Wang.
He's the one that plays Captain Chen DeWai, who's friends with Chris from their MIT days.
He was great.
I advocated getting you over here.
I pulled every string to get your convicted felon sprung, Mr. Chen.
Captain Chen.
And I didn't ask.
I offered partnership and equivalent, or we would do it on our own.
Well, I'll be happy to bust him back the cannon and put your ass on the first plane back to China.
He apologizes.
He was great.
And then you had the lovely Tang Wei, who played Chen Lian.
Open your eyes.
What'd you say?
You talk like you're still in prison, but you're not in prison.
Get your thinking to where you are, not where you've changed.
What do you know about where I've been?
No, nothing.
No, nothing.
But-
Okay, tell me, what is it I'm supposed to start seeing so fast?
Where you are?
What, Koreatown?
This restaurant, this table, what?
You'll be in the rapid stream of decision making.
Having to make intuitive choices.
People against you are high-speed, world-class, dangerous.
To be genius coder.
To outsmart.
I think Lamin Brada always said you could.
You have to think about it clear.
You have to think about it clear.
Not easy.
I know.
There's no transition time.
But I believe you're a very strong man.
Very smart man.
And a great actress.
And this was her first-ish American film.
I think this was her first American film.
She was in a film that I remember being curious about.
It was actually her first film called Lust, Caution, directed by Ang Lee.
And I remember this film kind of making waves at the time.
Because it's an erotic, what do you call it?
Thriller or mystery movie or whatever.
It's like the title Lust, Caution.
But anyway, she was in that.
That was her first film.
I don't think she did any American films until this one, Black Hat.
Which is interesting.
So apparently on the set for her, she had like three different translators.
From Madden to the Chinese to English, of course.
And she did great.
She was great though.
And in fact, so good.
I actually wanted to see her Chinese films.
But I just don't know how to watch them necessarily.
And then I saw Lust, Caution.
I'm like, oh yeah, Ang Lee.
He's an interesting director.
So put that in the ever-growing column of directors to add to the list.
Because he's done some great films that I really quite enjoyed that I would love to reinvestigate.
And then later films that I haven't seen.
So this is what I mean.
This is why I love doing this.
Kind of a side tangent.
The reason why I love doing this Director's Charity Network.
Because I'm picking directors that I've enjoyed over the years at times in my life.
Maybe not their whole careers.
I'm like, oh yeah.
There's a spread of films.
Like Michael Mann and Ed Zwick.
Both had kind of a spread of films in a certain timeline that I really enjoy.
But they did stuff before.
And they did stuff after that I didn't follow or go back to.
And that's what I'm doing with Terrence Malick.
It's the same idea.
There's films that I enjoyed of his.
Like in the spectrum.
But then I stop watching.
Not because I don't want to watch Terrence Malick films anymore.
But just life happens.
And you kind of just move on to other things.
And this sort of force feeds you.
Or forces you to watch their films.
Or watch their complete library.
So yeah.
This movie Black Hat is.
Again, I would not have seen it.
Had I not been doing this podcast.
Regarding Michael Mann and his films.
So the bad part is.
Is the script isn't very good.
The script's not very good.
It's not very strong.
And it's just.
I don't know if it's very engaging.
But the good news is.
Michael Mann again makes a good looking film.
So you're watching this film.
And it just looks good.
It's well shot.
He does the great close up of the face.
The things in the background shots happen throughout.
And then he has a shootout.
And the shootout is really good in this film.
I think I mentioned what the public enemies did.
The hot take.
I thought that shootout of public enemies.
Was actually better.
A better filmed one than the heat one.
Because the heat one was very confusing.
It was very loud.
Bang, bang, boom, boom.
Again, Michael Mann does it again.
He does it again with Black Hat.
So it's almost like.
Hey, I did it with public enemies.
I did it with heat.
He really likes his guns.
And he loves his shootouts.
And we get it here.
We got a terrible version of it in Miami Vice.
So if I was to rate the shootouts.
Miami Vice is the worst one.
Because it was kind of a rushed product.
But this one was really well done.
Again, it totally is what you call it.
Inserted.
It doesn't really feel like it belongs.
But it's there.
It's fun.
It's a good.
It's well shot.
It's cool.
Chris Hensworth, of course, is a great fighter.
Why not?
He's in jail.
Anyone that's in jail becomes a good fighter.
Isn't that the rule?
Anyway.
So yeah.
Oh, yeah.
I'm kind of low.
I'm all over the place, folks.
What do you want from me?
I'm sorry.
Because I didn't talk about Chris Hensworth.
But anyways, regarding the shootout of this film, it's actually really well done.
It's cool.
It's well done.
But it's almost like Michael Mann's like, boy, this movie is kind of boring.
It's about cyber terrorism.
We better throw in a shootout.
And he did.
And it's fun.
And you move on.
Okay.
Now, I will say, too, at the beginning of the film, it's like, apparently, it took 14.
I read this.
It took 14 months.
I can't believe this.
To film the opening.
What do you call it?
The opening, like a sequence of Black Hat.
It basically just shows you how a worm virus enters a computer system.
And apparently, it's all accurate.
In fact, Michael Mann said that with this film.
That every hacking thing that you see, every coding thing that you see, every way to get in, get out, all that stuff.
Apparently, it's all legit.
2015 legit, of course.
It's all legit on how to hack.
He had people, as per Michael Mann, he loves to have everything accurate.
So, he had actual hackers on the set who made everything accurate.
And even the actress who played, again, sorry, her name was Tang Wei.
Apparently, even her, she translated her hacking into Chinese to make it legit.
So, to the credit of Michael Mann, if you're into hacking and you know about that world, maybe this movie's for you.
Maybe you watch this movie 2015.
You go, wow, this is really cool.
They're really showing how to hack.
I don't care about hacking.
I don't know how to hack.
I barely know how to set up my microphone and podcast.
But I guess if you're in the world of hacking, maybe this movie's for you.
Maybe this movie's for you.
So, again, Michael Mann likes to use all of his, what do you call it?
Like when he did Thief at the very beginning, his first film, he had real thieves on the set on how to break into safes and stuff.
So, we see it here as well.
Okay, here's my thoughts on Chris Hemsworth.
Yes, he is known for playing Thor in the Marvel films.
And it's both good and bad for him, meaning like for any actor in those films.
It puts you on the Hollywood map, right?
If you're in these billion dollar films, they almost make like that much money per film.
It kind of puts you on, you know, you're Christopher Reeve, you're Superman, right?
It's almost like you've got to be careful because it can pigeonhole you into a role.
To his credit, Chris has done some films that I've actually enjoyed outside of the Marvel films.
Now, some of them came out before the Marvel films.
One of my favorite science fiction comedy horror films was one that came out in 2011 called Cabin in the Woods, a great film.
Actually, that came out after Thor.
So, he was in between Thor and the Avengers when that came out.
He was also, played Captain James T. Kirk's father in the original Star Trek, or not original, sorry, the 2009 Star Trek film directed by J.J. Abrams.
He did a great job playing that.
I thought he did a great job.
And other films that he did that I quite enjoyed.
I even enjoyed the Snow White and the Huntsman.
I thought that was fun.
I thought the remake of Red Dawn was just fun.
Yeah, don't at me, folks.
Okay.
I still haven't seen the movie Rush.
That's directed by Ron Howard, another director I probably will do on this network.
Because, again, I think he's a great director and interesting films.
He kind of had these films that were in between his Thor and Avengers, and they weren't great.
Like, again, the Snow White film and the Huntsman.
He plays Eric the Huntsman.
It's a fun film.
It's harmless.
Look, I'd rather watch that and the Black Hat again.
Spoiler alert.
I'd probably rather watch Red Dawn again than Black Hat again.
So he's in Black Hat.
And to Chris Hemsworth's own credit, he thought his acting could have been better.
He probably wasn't working with the best script.
Yeah, and then he did this other movie called In the Heart of the Sea.
It's like some sort of sailing one.
And then he did the sequel to the Huntsman movie, which I actually didn't see.
It's called Winter's War.
So funny enough, I never saw the sequel.
Then he played the kind of goofy secretary in the Ghostbusters film with the female cast.
I will probably...
The best part of that movie was him, the male...
Then, yeah, he did more Thor, Thor, Thor.
So I think for a while there, he kind of just started going back to a lot of Thor stuff.
Then he did a movie, which he's great in.
Now, here we go, folks.
If you haven't seen this movie, go see Bad Times at the El Royale.
That movie is so good.
So good.
It came out in 2018.
He plays the bad guy, I believe, in that one.
So Chris is a great actor.
He just has to get the right script.
Yeah.
And then I still haven't seen Extraction yet.
I haven't seen that one yet.
And there was a sequel that actually came out as well for that.
I am one of the few fans, but I love Furiosa.
A Mad Max saga, the prequel to the Mad Max film.
I loved it.
I thought it was great.
I thought he would...
Again, he plays a bad guy in that.
I think he should tackle more bad guy films or more bad guy characters because he did a great job in that playing...
I forget the name of his character, but he was so good in that.
Anya Taylor-Joy was great as well.
Boy, I love her too.
So anyways, I like Chris.
I do.
I'm man enough to say that he is a good-looking guy and handsome and strong.
And I think he's also a good actor.
But I think he was miscast for this film because he just doesn't look like an MIT guy.
No offense to my MIT nerds who listen to this podcast, but you probably aren't sitting across from him in your class.
He's just too darn good-looking, too darn strong, and just the idea that he's in jail and the way they pull him out of the cell.
It's all kind of hokey.
The way he makes him look like some sort of badass.
Like, this guy is dangerous.
Like, okay, he knows how to create code.
I don't know why he's so jacked, but he is.
Yeah, and he's like a super fighter.
He's like Jane Bond-esque.
I don't know.
I don't understand that part.
I don't understand why he's so good at fighting.
Great actor.
A slight miscast for the film.
I think Chris probably liked the idea that he was working with Michael Mann.
I think that was probably his draw.
He's like, look, I'm doing a film that's not Thor.
I'm doing a film that's not like an action per se type film.
It has a little bit more acting in it, more dialogue in it.
I think he probably thought he could flex, no pun intended, a little bit of his acting muscles a little bit more.
I mean, the whole movie poster literally says Chris Hemsworth, Black Hat.
And it's a bit of a miscast.
It's a bit of a mismarket.
People are like, what?
Is he a black hat?
Does he wear a black hat?
I don't get it.
Maybe they should have called it Cyber.
I wonder if that would have pulled in a couple more dollars.
Who knows?
It's kind of confusing.
But the idea, too, because the Marvel movies are so big.
I think there's the idea of the company, the movie company is like, yeah, we'll sell his face, which they do.
They put his face on the you look at the movie poster.
It just kind of looks.
I don't know, like I got I got things to solve.
I got a problem to take care of here.
Like you have no idea what's going on.
Really don't really know what the movie is about.
You got a silhouette of guys with weapons at the bottom, too.
So it might be some actions.
Is it a spy thriller?
Is it a no, not really.
OK.
All right.
So the plot itself was inspired by the Stuxnet worm in 2010 that damaged 20 percent of Iran's nuclear facility.
So that's pretty legit.
So, again, Michael Mann did address some real stuff that wasn't pulling out of his ass, so to speak.
He he was addressing some real threats.
Look, again, no newsflash.
Cyber crime is a real thing.
This one I thought was interesting.
So Harry Grakes and Williams, he was credited for the score, but most of the score was replaced by a guy named
Atticus Ross, Leopold Ross, and then they also reused Ryan Amon's themes from the movie Elysium.
Isn't that weird?
So Harry himself, he expressed that disappointment in the now deleted Facebook post, which I don't blame him.
But apparently he says to this day he gets royalties from the film for no music, which I thought was kind of funny.
Yeah, no surprise here.
This is the lowest grossing U.S. theatrical feature for man with the inflation adjusted, of course.
So, yeah, didn't do very well.
Thief.
Thief sold more tickets than this.
That's crazy because that was Michael Mann's first film.
Now, Michael Mann, he seems to have a really weird obsession with editing and post editing.
He's never like he has.
I think all those movies have this crazy director's cut versions, which is I think it's fine.
But it's just like make up your mind, man, because the audience doesn't know what to do with your movies.
Like, are you showing us what version when?
So he did have final cut on the theatrical version, but he has since presented alternative director's cut in 2016.
But I believe he's now has the ultimate ultimate cut in 2023, apparently, which he likes more.
And I wouldn't mind seeing it.
Be interesting to see.
But I guess I would have to buy it, which means I don't know if I'm going to see it.
Yeah, I've know we talked before, but those other films, a collateral Miami vice and public enemies.
You could tell certainly in those films when digital was used versus actual film.
This was his first film shot entirely with digital.
I don't mind it.
It's funny.
I don't mind the digital look.
And I think digital has gotten better over time.
And so if it's a cheaper way to go or more, you know, whatever, it's probably might be easier to edit is my guess.
Now, Michael Mann usually writes his films or he has like screenplay credits.
This is one of the first ones where he doesn't have it, even though originally did say it was written by him.
But they gave sole writing credit to Morgan Davis Fole.
Yeah, I mentioned before that this did skip theatrical releases in Australia, but also Belgium due to its poor office, US box office.
I went straight home to video.
That's going to sting.
I think this is Michael Mann's first straight home to video type film.
All the terms and the hacking terms or whatever, authentic.
Apparently, again, I'm not a hacker, so I don't know.
If you're a hacker, let me know in the comments.
How authentic was it?
But according to Michael Mann and others, it was authentic.
Now, if you remember at the end of this movie, if you've seen the movie, there's this big climax scene with it's called Niapi Day.
Those are like 3000 extras.
We might touch on that again, but they used 3000 extras and they weren't part of any sag or whatever.
They're like, quote unquote, real people at this event.
And they just use them for the filming, which is crazy.
So here's some things that Mann had to say about the film.
So this is, you know, the director's cut.
And I haven't I've done a terrible job regarding talking about what the director has said about the films with the other films.
But, you know, better late than never.
Because I did a really good with Edward's book, his filmography, because he actually released an audio book or a book about his film.
So I just drew literally from his words and in his voice.
So it was kind of nice.
Michael Mann doesn't have a book like that.
But I did a little bit more digging.
So I got some quotes here regarding Michael Mann's own words.
So as I speak, this is quoting.
I'm quoting Michael Mann.
Okay.
So he said that the core idea of this film was the film is about the fragility of the world we live in and how one line of code can change everything.
It's true.
It's kind of scary.
Again, that was 10 years ago.
Just think about where the power goes out in your home, how much it upsets the world that you're in.
Right.
Just we just had the power go out in our home the other day for five hours.
It's crazy.
And yes, everything's hooked up to quote unquote the internet and it just takes a line of code to wipe the power out of the city off the grid.
Right.
You can cause a lot of chaos.
Yeah.
I don't want to give any hints to our enemies out there.
He goes on to say regarding the hacking realism.
He said we had NSA level consultants, every keystroke, every line of code you see is authentic.
On Chris Hemsworth, he said, I needed someone who could be both a physical threat and intellectually credible.
Chris trained with MIT coders for six months.
Holy snooze fest.
Can you imagine doing that for six months training with coders?
So again, Chris put himself in there.
I like the idea that Michael Mann is saying we need someone who's both a physical threat and intellectually credible, which again, Chris fits that.
But I don't know if that's needed for the film.
But then again, they made the film be that way.
Yeah.
You get what I'm saying.
They didn't have to.
Yeah.
Michael Mann did say this on the theatrical cut, which I think is the one I saw.
I don't know.
I did see it from a speak of a pirating or whatever.
I did watch this on a wait.
Did I see this on some films?
Folks aren't available on my 20 streaming services that I own.
You know, that's so stupid.
Like we have like 20 streaming services, which ends up being more than our cable back in the day.
But you get the point.
I'm now just don't remember where I actually had no wait.
This was, I think I did see this on prime.
So don't at me, Michael Mann.
But this, but I don't know what cut it was is what I'm saying.
I just saw what was ever available in streaming.
But he said this goes about the theatrical cut.
Man says it's an aberration.
I made one major shift after test screenings, then changed my mind again.
See, he always changes his mind.
Then he talks about the director's cut pacing.
He goes, now he says that he opens with the soy hack instead of the reactor explosion, which gives the audience time to understand the stakes before the spectacle.
Interesting.
Now, yeah, this one's going to be interesting that for all the Michael Mann films that I've done, I've done like a snippet from the soundtrack from YouTube.
So I pull like a, you know, a song from the soundtrack from YouTube.
Then I put in the intro and outro of the episodes.
It adds a little bit of a panache to the episodes.
So there is no official soundtrack release for this film.
It'll be tricky when I edit this.
How do I do that?
Because Michael Mann says the score is a hybrid of four composers.
The company Legendary owns it.
And I didn't get a fight for a release.
So there is no official release.
He does talk about Tang Wang's role.
He said, Leanne is not the love interest to Chris Hemsworth's character.
She's the co-protagonist.
In the director's cut, which I saw, her agency is clearer.
Fair enough.
But guess what?
Two good looking people like her and Chris.
Guess what they do, folks?
They make love.
And we get to see a nice little love scene.
Nothing graphic, but a little bit of grinding.
A little bit of up and down, as they say.
Now, he did talk about the box office failure, Michael Mann.
He says, I don't make films for opening weekend.
Heat bomb two, he said.
Ten years from now, people will find Black Hat.
Hey, ten years from now is now, Mr. Mann.
It's 2025.
I found Black Hat again, so there you go.
Maybe it's true.
And our listeners might find Black Hat again.
Go watch it.
It's not a horrible film.
I should make that clear.
Again, if you're into hacking and you're into computers, this might be for you, right?
If you like Chris Hemsworth and just want to look at a good looking guy for two hours, this movie's for you.
If you like Beautiful Woman, then the co-protagonist is for you.
If you like a cool gunfight that's stuck in the middle of the scenes, then this movie's for you.
If you like the Viola Davis, if she's a good actress, this movie's for you.
So it's about hacking and finding out who is the hacker and who is the Black Hat, and they track him down, and they find out what the deal is.
So it's a bit of mystery and all that kind of stuff.
And then there's a one-on-one fight.
Again, we have two hacktivists fighting each other, hacking each other to pieces at the end of the film.
Get it?
Get how I threw all the hacks there?
So this film isn't a disaster.
It just didn't do well.
And there might be reasons why it didn't do well, word of mouth and what have you.
In fact, the CinemaScore, now you'll find this interesting.
So CinemaScore, what that is, is they actually rate people.
Not rate people.
They talk to people after they leave the movie, and they ask the people, hey, on a score of A plus to F, where do you rate this film?
So they're actually getting the initial audience response as they're walking out with their leftover popcorn still in their hand.
They're walking out to the theater and say, hey, before you leave, you just saw this movie.
What do you grade the movie?
Or maybe they give them a card.
I've never been approached by setting the score, but maybe some of my listeners have.
Guess what the score is?
Now, usually the scores are pretty like, it's usually people like, you know, I spent two hours watching the film.
It was decent.
It was fun.
I didn't have to think about work.
They got a babysitter.
They're on a date with a, you know, with a, with a, with a date.
I was going to say with a girl because I'm a guy, but you get what I'm saying.
They're on a date, whatever it is.
So they're having a good time.
So usually that affects the score.
Like, oh, I had fun.
It was a B.
I had fun.
It was a B plus.
It was really great.
A plus, right?
So usually people are a little bit more.
People walked out of this theater, not happy.
They gave it a C minus.
That's very telling.
So they walked out of this, like, I did not like this film.
Funny watching this 10 years later, maybe Michael Mann's right.
It's not a bad film.
It's, it's not, it's almost kind of interesting to watch these early hacking things, right?
To some degree and to see, you know, uh, what it's like.
So keep that in mind.
If you watch this film, I recommend it.
Cause I recommend all the films I review the YouTube and watch these and enjoy them or not enjoy them.
And also when I do my ranking, you can see how my ranking fits with your ranking at the end.
Chris Hemsworth had this to say.
Sorry.
He said he spent months with actual hackers and coders at MIT.
It was like learning a new language, intimidating, but fascinating.
He talked about the challenge of playing the hacker.
He said, Thor is all about the hammer.
Hammer.
Yeah.
This is all about the keyboard.
I had to convince audiences I could code under pressure.
All the trials of an actor.
This is what Chris had to say about Mann's directing style.
He said, Michael shoots like a machine gun, intense, precise.
Every take felt like it mattered.
All right.
There's some insight into Michael Mann's director.
On the film's realism.
Chris said, we didn't fake the hacks.
Every line of code you see is real.
Consultants made sure it was authentic.
There you go.
Some more on that.
I guess they really wanted to make sure this was authentic movie.
At least nobody could say, Hey, maybe that's the problem.
Maybe it was too real.
You know, people always complain about, Oh, it's so fake.
That would never happen, but they're entertained.
So maybe you have a little bit more entertainment and less real.
Maybe he talked about some of the action sequences.
He said, Chris said, the fights are raw.
There's no CGI.
So the training for those was brutal, but it grounded the character.
I guess it grounded the character.
I don't know.
I just never thought an MIT guy could kick so much ass, but this is what he had to say about working with Viola Davis.
He said, Viola brings this quiet intensity.
Our scenes together crackle because she's so real.
And then he talks about the love story with Tang Wei.
Chris says, it's not just romance.
It's two people navigating chaos.
Tang Wei made it effortless.
Yeah.
Of course she made it effortless.
She's gorgeous.
He talked about the box office disappointment, which now you can almost argue Chris isn't used to this yet.
Most of the movies he's been in, especially the Marvel films do quite well.
He said, it stings, but art isn't about weekends.
Black hat will age like fine wine.
All right.
I don't know if that's prophetic or not.
Maybe we've got to wait a little bit longer.
I don't know.
He said why he took the role.
He goes after Marvel.
I wanted something cerebral.
Hacking the world felt more dangerous than aliens.
All right.
I'm not sure if that's true, but yeah.
Talked about filming on the global locations.
He says shooting in Hong Kong, Indonesia, immersive.
The city pulses became a part of the film.
Yeah.
Again, that's what I mean.
Like they shot in great locations.
The shots look great.
Michael Mann made the film look great.
It looked amazing.
There's no issues regarding how the film looks.
He does talk about the score, which is interesting.
He goes, the music hits like a virus.
Ooh, look at that.
Using the word virus.
Subtle.
Then overwhelming.
It amplified the tension.
I don't, I don't remember any amplification, Chris.
I don't know.
He talks about the fans reactions to the film.
He goes, some love the tech.
Others wanted more explosions.
I think it's both brain and brawn.
I don't need more explosions necessarily.
And I don't know if I need more tech.
I don't know.
This film is weird, man.
It's weird, Chris.
He talks about the future of cyber film.
So here we go.
Again, this was 2015.
So he thinks there's a future in this genre.
He goes, if done right, this genre explodes.
Black Hat set the bar for authenticity.
Okay.
So he's right about that.
Again, we've established that this is the most real cyber film that could ever be made.
Move over Sandra Bullock, the net stand aside.
Angela Jolie hackers, black hats here to show you how authentic hacking can be.
But I don't know if cyber film, have they exploded?
Am I wrong?
I don't know.
I don't watch a lot of films.
Maybe has this genre exploded in 10 years?
If done right.
Maybe that's the problem.
Maybe you can't do this genre, right?
Maybe there's just no need to do it right or wrong.
Viola Davis on her role.
She goes, I play a US agent.
Who's not the comic relief or the psychic.
This woman is the muscle in the mind.
Yeah.
She was great.
She was good.
She was tough.
She also said regarding man, he doesn't direct scenes.
He orchestrates tension.
You feel hunted evil when you're off camera.
And she also talks about the box office.
She said box office doesn't define truth.
I'm proud of the work.
The rest is noise.
Yeah.
Well, that's one way of saying it.
The rest is noise.
And you could be proud of something that bombs.
Hey, look, I'm proud of my podcast.
Nobody listens.
You know, I'm proud of it.
The rest is just noise.
I wouldn't mind a little bit noise though.
All right.
Tang Wei talks about her language barrier.
She goes, I spoke Mandarin, English, and Cantonese on the set.
The crew used three translators just for me.
She also speaks on the love scene.
She goes, it's not erotic.
It's survival.
Two people clinging to humanity in a digital war.
No, it's two hot bodies slapping.
Okay.
Let's be honest.
I never once thought, hmm, as their bodies are slapping and their incredible physiques are naked together.
You know what?
This is two people clinging to humanity in a digital war.
No, it's a hot butts going up and down.
Let's be honest, guys.
Come on.
So the stunt coordinator, Buster Reeves, he said this about, again, about that Niapay parade.
They used 3,000 real Balinese extras.
No doubles.
One wrong move and it's a riot.
Wow.
That's pretty incredible.
And that's what I mean.
That's huge.
That was a huge.
Michael Mann.
He loves his visuals.
It looked great.
Very expensive, but it looked great.
I mean, you got Chris Hemsworth's character fighting the black hat guy at the end.
I don't want to give away who it is.
I don't want to spoil it.
I don't even name the actor.
You're going to watch the movie, but they fight each other.
Yeah, like literally hand-to-hand combat.
It's like screwdrivers are involved.
There's blood.
There's everything.
It's like fighting.
It's weird that they were able to get that together.
I'm not going to lie.
It's pretty, pretty crazy.
Now, this is, I found interesting.
Sound designer, Harry Cohen.
He said this, the NSA server room hum.
It was recorded inside a real skiff at Fort Meade with clearance.
So, of course, you need clearance.
Now, this is, I've worked in skiffs.
I'm in the military.
Skiff is just a.
Highly classified room.
So, the idea here is it does have a sound.
It has a hum.
All the computers and everything in there.
So, it's pretty authentic.
Again, they use authenticity.
So, they used the.
They brought in a recorder and this to get the sound of the skiff.
So, that's pretty cool.
I actually thought that was really neat.
This is interesting.
It gives you a little bit of insight how directors will tell the composers of the music to, you know, like the state of the film, whatever.
So, Atticus Ross, who was the replacement composer to Harry, he said this.
He goes, man sent me a three-hour voice memo at 2 a.m.
And in that memo, he said, make the score sound like a DDoS attack on the heart.
It's interesting.
Now, there was a hacker consultant.
He was an ex-convict, but he's now a consultant on the film.
His name is Kevin Polson.
He said, I taught Chris Hemsworth how to shoulder surf a root password in under eight seconds.
He nailed it on take two.
That's crazy.
What a shoulder surf is, I don't know.
Again, the hacking term.
If you're a hacker out there, this is the movie for you.
So, apparently, they actually did have an NSA liaison who was anonymous.
They actually vetted every frame of film.
And there's the RAT deployment scene.
It was too real.
They had to cut 30 seconds out to avoid classification.
The authentication was so real, they had to delete some stuff.
So, that's pretty cool.
There was a legendary picture executive.
He said, we lost $90 million on this film.
So, that's what I mean.
The film cost $70 million.
It made $20 million, but it shows you that there's a lot more involved with, you know,
advertisement and things like that, post-production and things like that.
So, they lost $90 million.
It's so crazy to me that Michael Mann even gets a movie after that.
His next movie is Ferrari.
It's crazy that they even give this guy money anymore.
I love Michael Mann.
I love his movies.
Like, I enjoy the looks and they're fun to watch.
But they just, like, Michael Mann just, he's like, I made a film and you're going to,
like, can you imagine pitching this?
Hey, I'm going to make a film about computers.
You're going to lose $90 million because of it.
So, Michael Mann wrote the execs a note.
A handwritten note goes, art is long, box office is short.
Interesting perspective, but oof, $90 million is a lot of money.
So, some of the scores came in.
Rotten Tomatoes gave this 33% approval rating.
4.9 out of 10 on IMDb.
Metacritic gave it mixed or average reviews.
The common criticisms were Hemsworth was miscast.
Hey, they're following me.
I thought that before I read the reviews, guys.
Chris later said about his own performance.
I didn't enjoy what I did.
It felt flat.
An attempt to do what people might want.
I don't think I'm good in that space.
So, yeah, Chris, you can't play computer nerd.
You're miscast.
There were some positive reviews.
New York Times said it's a spectacular work of unhinged movie making.
About bodies versus machines.
I don't know if it was unhinged.
I don't know who this person is.
Another positive review from the LA Times.
Satisfactions are surprisingly old school.
Despite high-tech premise.
Well, yeah, but that's Michael Mann's filmmaking.
He's really cool that way.
Again, it looks good.
It's like I give it an A of looks.
It's a movie you could almost watch quietly.
Finally, Michael Mann did say on the negative reception towards the film, he says,
It's my responsibility.
The script was not ready to shoot.
The subject was ahead of the curve.
Some thought it was fantasy.
Wrong.
Everything is stone-cold accurate.
So, there you go.
A little bit too smart for the audiences.
That could be a problem.
And maybe that's our own fault.
People always clamor and say,
We need more realism.
We need more realism.
And then when it comes down to it, they get that realism.
People are complaining it's too real.
It's too boring.
So, I don't know.
It's interesting that Michael Mann did get, I'll say this.
So, Michael Mann loses $90 million to Legendary Pictures.
And that was 2015.
Eight years goes by.
He did three movies with Universal.
That was Miami, Vice, Public Enemies, and Black Hat.
Now, Miami did okay.
Public Enemies did okay.
Black Hat lost a lot of money.
So, I guess there's probably a bit of like,
Let's put a pause on Michael Mann films.
Michael Mann probably couldn't find a company that wanted to invest in him.
Maybe.
Or maybe he just took a break.
Like, he needed to take a breather after that.
And he came out with Ferrari.
So, we'll talk about Ferrari on the next film.
Discussion.
Came out in 2023.
So, boy, we're almost to modern day.
How well did that movie do?
We'll talk about that.
Yeah, guys.
Thanks for hanging out with us.
This is great.
Again, Ferrari's next episode.
And then I'll be giving my rankings after that of the Michael Mann filmography.
And which one did I like the most?
Thanks, everyone.
Thanks for watching.
And we'll see you on the next episode.
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Thank you.