This intriguing thriller sees computer hacker Chris Hemsworth sprung from jail to help a Chinese-US task force catch a deadly cyber terrorist
This intriguing thriller sees computer hacker Chris Hemsworth sprung from jail to help a Chinese-US task force catch a deadly cyber terrorist.
Writer-director Michael Mann's clever thriller is stylish and the labyrinthine plot keeps us gripped.
Hemsworth is brought in after a terrorist sabotages a nuclear reactor in Hong Kong and triggers a run on the New York Stock Exchange. What mayhem will this foe trigger next?
Headed by Chinese agent Wang Leehom, Hemsworth’s former college roommate at MIT, the team also comprises his network engineer sister (Tang Wei) and hard-nosed FBI agent Viola Davis.
As they jet from LA to Hong Kong to Malaysia and Jakarta in pursuit of the elusive and very deadly crook, there are devious cat-and-mouse games conducted on computer screens, interspersed with blistering shootouts.
Mann's signature flourishes are out in force, such as the reverence for nuts-and-bolts professionalism and the slick and enthralling depiction of the modern world, from glittering cityscapes to the microscopic but no less imposing vistas visible through fibre-optic cables and on the surface of silicon chips. And the streak of melancholy romanticism running through the film - another Mann hallmark - is quietly compelling, too.
