Takedown (2000)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Joe Chappelle

Writers (WGA):

Tsutomu Shimomura (book) and
John Markoff (book) ...

Release Date:

15 March 2000 (France)

Genre:

Thriller | Action

Tagline:

The world has a right to know.

Plot:

This film is based on the story of the capture of computer hacker "Kevin Mitnick".

Plot Keywords:

Hacker | Computer | Computer Hacker | Female Nudity | Prison

Cast

Skeet Ulrich	...	Kevin Mitnick
Russell Wong	...	Tsutomu Shimomura
Angela Featherstone	...	Julia
Donal Logue	...	Alex Lowe
Christopher McDonald	...	Mitch Gibson
Master P	...	Brad
Tom Berenger	...	McCoy Rollins
Jeremy Sisto	...	Lance 'Icebreaker' Petersen
Amanda Peet	...	Karen
Ethan Suplee	...	Dan Bradley
Dorit Sauer	...	Shelley
Mark Joy	...	Committee Chairman
Scott Cooper	...	Jake Cronin
Ned Bellamy	...	Tom Fiori
Sara Melson	...	Rachel

Also Known As:

Hackers 2: Takedown (USA) (bootleg title)
Takedown: The Pursuit and Capture of Kevin Mitnick, America's Most Wanted Computer Outlaw (USA) (working title)
Track Down (USA) (DVD box title)

MPAA:

Rated R for language and some sexual content.

Runtime:

Germany:92 min | USA:96 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Finland:K-7 | Iceland:12 | Netherlands:16 (video rating) | Netherlands:6 (re-rating) | France:U | Germany:12 | USA:R | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Wilmington, North Carolina, USA

Company:

Dimension Films

Trivia:

Editors of 2600 magazine (a hacker publication) learned of this film early in its development and were at the time campaigning for Kevin Mitnick's release from prison. They filmed the documentary "Freedom Downtime" as they tried to correct many glaring errors and personal attacks on Mitnick's character in the film, protesting outside Miramax offices in New York among other things.

Movie Connections:

References Sneakers (1992)

Soundtrack:

Stutter

surprisingly good

Stumbled upon TAKEDOWN's listing here on IMDB.com and had to check it out: I'd read Markoff and Shimomura's book back in grad school and thought it was okay (digression: there's a lot of debate in the hacker community about which book covers the Mitnick case best, and many say Markoff and Shimomura's book is extremely one-sided; Mitnick is guilty of nothing more than breaking into several large corporation's servers and poking around, trying out their code, they say. Whether this is a real crime, I leave that up to you dear reader).

As for TAKEDOWN, the movie: most flicks about computers teeter on one end or the other of the Reality Scale: they are either boring -- afterall, it's just a person typing at a computer -- or way too fantastical for anyone who's used any flavor of Unix to take seriously (e.g., THE MATRIX or the last HACKERS movie). TAKEDOWN straddles the line somewhere in the middle -- and admirably so.

What TAKEDOWN does very well is show the process of social engineering, e.g., talking someone into thinking you're someone you're not to get information. Mitnick mastered this skill. The real crux of TAKEDOWN, though, is the showdown between the two egos of Mitnick and Shimomura (bravo to Russell Wong -- wow, if Shimo really is that much of an arrogant jerk, I can see why he got under Mitnick's skin so much).

Skeet Ulrich is often called the Poor Man's Johnny Depp, but here's a role that was made for him. Joe Chappelle's direction is crisp and keeps the action tense. Minor complaint: The editor should have chilled out a bit though -- man, do we really need all those quick, jarring cuts? I supposed they were trying to make using a computer look interesting, cool and non-boring.

Overall, if you're into hacking, subcultures, law enforcement and computer crime, you should check this one out. It's too bad no one's seen this -- it must have been released direct-to-video; I don't even remember seeing ads in the paper for it.

P.S. keep an eye out for a brief appearance by Amanda Peet in a telling scene that hints at the REAL source of Mitnick's problems: LACK OF SOCIAL SKILLS!