Cypher (2002)

Director:

Vincenzo Natali

Writer (WGA):

Brian King (written by)

Release Date:

18 January 2003 (Japan)

Genre:

Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

Never forget who you are.

Plot:

An unsuspecting, disenchanted man finds himself working as a spy in the dangerous, high-stakes world of corporate espionage. Quickly getting way over-his-head, he teams up with a mysterious femme fatale.

Plot Keywords:

Spy | Brainwashing | Future | New Identity | Corporate Espionage

Awards:

5 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Jeremy Northam	...	Morgan Sullivan
Lucy Liu	...	Rita Foster
Nigel Bennett	...	Finster
Timothy Webber	...	Callaway
David Hewlett	...	Virgil C. Dunn
Kari Matchett	...	Diane
Kristina Nicoll	...	Amy
Joseph Scoren	...	Digicorp Technician #1
Stephen Brown	...	Digicorp Technician #2
Arnold Pinnock	...	Pilot In Mensroom
Jocelyn Snowdon	...	Stewardess to Buffalo
Boyd Banks	...	Fred Garfield
Steve Jackson	...	Waiter Buffalo
Dan Duran	...	Buffalo Speaker #1
Valerie Buhagiar	...	Buffalo Speaker #2

Also Known As:

Brainstorm (International: English title)
Company Man (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for some language.

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Netherlands:12 | Australia:M | Finland:K-11 | France:U | Germany:12 | Ireland:15 | Singapore:PG | UK:15 | Portugal:M/16 | Italy:T | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Company:

Pandora Cinema

Trivia:

The phone number encoded using Job 13:17 is 436-726-3993, which uses the apparently unused area code 436, and does not comply with the convention to use 555 as a prefix for fictional phone numbers.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Morgan Sullivan's fake California Driver's License expires on 05-30-03. His birth date is listed as 08-13-65. An actual CDL would expire on the same day as the licensee's birth date. Even the cheapest of fake ID's wouldn't overlook this important point.

Movie Connections:

References Johnny Mnemonic (1995)

Clever, visually tight movie

Cypher was a movie I was looking forward to after I had read some comments here about it's story being like the works Philip K. Dick, an author whose paranoid tales I love to read.

As far as plot twists go Cypher never disappointed me, even though the last plot twist was a bit out there, it had a very cool ending that was very satisfying. The level of suspense was ok, this movie was not a nailbiter but it has really nice atmosphere at times with the opening music theme and the many shady operatives. A thinking man's movie as well, you need to pay attention throughout the movie or you will lose track. No problem in the DVD-age I would say. Overall it was acted very well. Jeremy Northam and Lucy Liu definitely deserve movies as good as this, although they don't seem to have found that many in their careers.

Visually the movie is stunning, it is filmed very tight and stylish, with a few well-dosed effects. This movie probably had a relatively modest budget but it looks awesome. Overall this was a very pleasant movie experience.

8 out of 10