History Film / Blackhat

* PostNineElevenTerrorismMovie: Set itself up as one as Carol's motivation for going after the terrorist at all costs is because she lost her husband in 9/11. [[spoiler:Rather fittingly, the last thing she sees before she dies is a tower]].

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

* CIAEvilFBIGood: "NSA Evil", actually. It's the NSA's stubbornness to refuse to expose any of their secret info-warfare defense programs to the Chinese, even if that means allowing a hacker that considers ''nuclear terrorism and demolishing trade markets'' simple "test runs" to his schemes to remain free, that leads Hathaway (with Barrett's blessing) to cross a major legal line to stop the bad guys. Then again, the frequency of cyber attacks by the Chinese on various American IT systems means [[JerkassHasAPoint they do have some justification for not wanting to grant access]] (as with most espionage methods, everyone does it to everyone else, not just the Chinese).

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

* OnlyInItForTheMoney: Discussed as a motivation as to why the hackers are doing what they do. [[spoiler: Turns out the villain's motive was to manipulate the stock market more than anyone ever had. Causing a meltdown on a Chinese nuclear reactor? Just practice. Probably causing wide-spread ecological damage and destroying villages that just happen to be close to some tin mines he wishes to flood? Collateral.]]

->'''Hathaway''': "You have any idea how much progress you're gonna make on a strike this complex without someone like me? Zero."
->'''Frank''': "This isn't a negotiation."
->'''Hathaway''': "Well, I just made it one."

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

* RealityEnsues: FBI agents with standard issue sidearms verses gang members with automatic weapons. [[spoiler:Both agents die without managing to stop the gang, though they do kill a few of them.]]

* CIAEvilFBIGood: "NSA Evil", actually. It's the NSA's stubbornness to refuse to expose any of their secret info-warfare defense programs to the Chinese, even if that means allowing a hacker that considers ''nuclear terrorism and demolishing trade markets'' simple "test runs" to his schemes to remain free, that leads Hathaway (with Barrett's blessing) to cross a major legal line to stop the bad guys.

* BadassCrew: Almost every character in their respective domains. Special points go to Barrett (who [[spoiler:manages to intimidate a chief of the Mercantile Trade Exchange into giving the private information of thousands of investors to the government and a foreign power in less than 15 seconds]]), Hathaway (for being a tough hacker all-around) and Jessup (who [[spoiler:manages to take down 4 of Kassar's men in the Quarry Bay's hit with a puny handgun before going down for good]]).

* PostNineElevenTerrorismMovie: Set itself up as one as Carol's motivation for going after the terrorist at all costs is because she lost her husband in 9/11. [spoiler:Rather fittingly, the last thing she sees before she dies is a tower]].

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

* CIAEvilFBIGood: "NSA Evil", actually. It's the NSA's stubbornness that leads Hathaway to cross a major legal line to stop the bad guys.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Hathaway and Lien foil Sadak's evil plans (he even manages to kill [[BigBad Sadak]] and [[TheDragon Kassar]] and live to tell about it), but Chen is dead--as are Carol Barrett and Mark Jessup, the FBI agents who would vouch for him. As such, he has to live in hiding from the NSA and China's agents for possibly the rest of his life, for hacking into [=BlackWidow=] and the death of Chen, who was a Chinese high-rank military official. And Lien also shares his fate, due to the fact that she was witness of the hack and part of the plan to kill Sadak and company. At least he's not back in prison.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Hathaway defeats the bad guy and foils his evil plans, but his best friend Chen is dead--as are the FBI agents who would vouch for him. As such, he and Chen's sister have to live in hiding from the NSA, for hacking into their system. At least he's not back in prison.]]

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

* CIAEvilFBIGood: "NSA Evil", actually. It's the NSA's stubbornness that leads Hathaway to cross a major legal line to stop the bad guys.

* OnlyInItForTheMoney: Discussed as a motivation as to why the hackers are doing what they do. [[spoiler: Turns out the villain's motive was to manipulate the stock market more than anyone ever had.]]

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

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

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

* ImprobableAimingSkills: In the final confrontation, Hathaway is very handy with a pistol for a hacker who has spent the last few years in jail. The film is silent on his previous firearms experience, but even if he was a shooter, he would have missed a lot of range time.