History Film / Blackhat

->''"Blackhat was like reading my own slash fiction: it's basically Creator/MichaelMann making out with GhostInTheShell for two hours."''

->''"Blackhat was like reading my own slash fiction: it's basically Michael Mann making out with Ghost in the Shell for two hours."''
-->--'''Robbie Collin's thoughts on the movie as chief film critic for "The Telegraph" in his [[https://twitter.com/robbiereviews/status/567385611821387776 Twitter post]].'''

[[quoteright:476:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/c8b7a0a5ad9c2aa669d0a89d7953183f.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:476:A very chilling message.]]

* PostNineElevenTerrorismMovie: Set itself up as one as Viola's motivation for going after the terrorist at all costs is because she lost her husband in 9/11.

* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Viola allows Nicholas to hack NSA because it's the best shot at finding the bad guy.

* ShownTheirWork: Michael Mann hired computer security experts and white hat hackers to ensure realism of the scenes where it mattered. This includes actual (if fake) source code, disassembly dumps, usage of real commands, and highly plausible techniques where "drops" happen. Mann even considered making Hemsworth take coding classes.

* BavarianFireDrill: Chris uses this to sneak into a server farm.

* DuelingHackers: Chris and the hacker that instigated the nuclear power plant failure.

* HollywoodEncryption: Averted. Encrypted data comes across the team but both Chris and Shum nearly give up on the lead as it's using GPG encryption with a 512-bit key.

* NonActionBigBad: Befitting a film where the main villain is a hacker, [[spoiler: it turns out that the guy responsible for all this trouble is, essentially, a fat Dutch guy with a pen knife who lasts all of about five seconds once Hathaway gets close to him]].

* PostNineElevenTerrorismMovie: Set itself up as one as Barrett's motivation for going after the terrorist at all costs is because she lost her husband in 9/11.

* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Barrett allows Hathaway to hack NSA because it's the best shot at finding the bad guy.

* ViewerFriendlyInterface: Some extra elements were added for the viewer's benefit. For example, a scene where Hathaway issues a copy command from the command-line pops up a graphic (the command normally doesn't display anything).

* MoneyDearBoy: [[spoiler: Turns out the villain's motive was to manipulate the stock market more than anyone ever had.]]

* CIAEvilFBIGood: "NSA Evil", actually.

* FBIGoodCIAEvil: "NSA Evil", actually.

* FBIGoodCIABad: "NSA Bad", actually.

* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Barrett allows him to hack NSA because it's the best shot at finding the bad guy.

* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Hathaway's handlers allow him to hack NSA because it's the best shot at finding the bad guy.

* ViewerFriendlyInterface: Some extra elements were added for the viewer's benefit. For example, a scene where Chris issues a copy command from the command-line pops up a graphic (the command normally doesn't display anything).

''Blackhat'' is an action/thriller directed by Creator/MichaelMann that stars Creator/ChrisHemsworth and Tang Wei, with supporting roles from Viola Davis and Archie Kao.

A nuclear power plant in China is hacked and its coolant pumps are destroyed without the systems notifying the workers. The Chinese government finds out that the hack was possible by using a Remote Access Tool (RAT) to create a backdoor and that the US also suffered an attack with a similar tool without ill effect. Hesitantly, the FBI cooperates with Chief of Chinese cyber security Shum (Kao) and his sister (Wei) and gives into Shum's request to release convicted hacker Nicholas Hathaway (Hemsworth) to investigate who's behind the attacks as the RAT was his tool.

* ProductPlacement: The Android mobile OS is the only product that is said by name.

* NonActionBigBad: Befitting a film where the main villain is a hacker, [[spoiler: it turns out that the guy responsible for all this trouble is, essentially, a fat Dutch guy with a pen knife]].

* NonActionBigBad: Befitting a film where the main villain is a hacker, [[spoiler: it turns out that the guy responsible for all this trouble, essentially, a fat Dutch guy with a pen knife]].

* HollywoodHacking: Mostly averted. Michael Mann hired a whitehat hacker to ensure that the hacking scenes were kept realistic. This includes the commands the characters used and text that appeared on screen.

* MoneyDearBoy: Discussed as a motivation as to why the hackers are doing what they do.

* HollywoodEncryption: Averted. Encrypted data comes across the team but both Chris and Shum give up on the lead as it's using GPG encryption with a 512-bit key.

* MoneyDearBoy: Discussed as a motivation as to why the hackers are doing their thing.

''Blackhat'' is an action/thriller directed by ''Creator/MichaelMann'' that stars ''Creator/ChrisHemsworth'' and Tang Wei, with supporting roles from Viola Davis and Archie Kao.