Firewall (film)

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Firewall

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Richard Loncraine
Produced by Armyan Bernstein
Basil Iwanyk
Written by Joe Forte
Starring Harrison Ford
Paul Bettany
Virginia Madsen
Mary Lynn Rajskub
Robert Patrick
Robert Forster
Alan Arkin
Music by Alexandre Desplat
Cinematography Marco Pontecorvo
Editing by Jim Page
Studio Village Roadshow Pictures
Beacon Pictures
Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
Release dates February 10, 2006
Running time 100 minutes
Language English
Budget $50 million
Box office $82,751,189[1]

Firewall is a 2006 British-American thriller film directed by Richard Loncraine and written by Joe Forte. Harrison Ford stars as a banker who is forced by criminals to help them steal $100 million.

Plot

The film opens with Jack Stanfield (Harrison Ford) leaving his house, loving wife Beth (Virginia Madsen) and two children, to his job at Landrock Pacific Bank in downtown Seattle. The day goes smoothly until Jack is visited by a collection agency, claiming that he owes $95,000 in debts to their online gambling site. He trusts a colleague to take care of it (as he is convinced of some form of identity theft, which is later found out to be true and used to later set up Jack with a motive for robbing the bank) and goes out for dinner with colleague Harry Romano (Robert Forster) and potential employer, Bill Cox (Paul Bettany). After the meal, Harry leaves in a taxi and Jack gets in his car. Unexpectedly, Bill follows him into the back seat. Bill then goes on to tell Jack that his family is being held hostage at their home to ensure Jack's cooperation. He then points a gun to Jack's head and forces him to drive home.

Upon their arrival, Jack sees that, although his family is unharmed, they are under heavy watch by Bill's henchmen. Jack is not told what to do until the next morning, when he is told that he must give Bill $10,000 each from the bank's 10,000 largest depositors ($100 million total). He is outfitted with audio and video devices in the form of a pen and a body microphone, making any intentions to resist useless.

Once at work, Bill makes a surprise visit, reintroducing himself as Bill Redmond to Jack's secretary, Janet Stone (Mary Lynn Rajskub). Next, Jack gives him a tour of the facilities and security system. On the way back home, Jack attempts to bribe Willy, a henchman, into betraying Bill, yet this only results in Bill killing Willy. The Stanfields attempt an escape, but the plan fails just barely. In retaliation, Bill tricks the Stanfields' son Andy with a cookie containing nut products. Because he's allergic, Andy goes into anaphylactic shock. Bill withholds the treatment (an EpiPen), until Jack acquiesces to their plan.

The next day, Bill forces Jack to fire his secretary Janet fearing that she is growing suspicious. Jack downloads the files for the $100 million onto his daughter Sarah's iPod mini hard drive and then initiates a wire transfer to send the money to Bill's offshore accounts. Before leaving, Jack uses an employee's camera phone to take a picture of the account information on the screen. Bill then sets about wiping his tracks clean, forcing Jack to delete security data and surveillance tapes and using a virus to put the network on the entire building into disarray, setting Jack up to take the fall for the embezzlement. Returning home, Jack finds the house empty except for Liam, one of Bill's men.

Realizing Liam is still around for no reason other than to kill him, he pushes Liam over a chair, grabs a heavy glass blender, and viciously beats him in the head with three blows, killing him. Jack realizes that Bill has been lying all along and had no intention of letting Jack's family or even himself live regardless of having the money. Jack tries to call Harry using Liam's unmonitored cell phone but cannot reach his friend. Instead, he sneaks into Harry's apartment to wait for his friend's return. Both Bill and Harry enter. Bill suddenly shoots Harry from behind, using the gun he had earlier confiscated from Jack. Because of this, along with a message planted on Harry's answering machine by Beth as she was held at gunpoint, it appears that Jack killed Harry in a jealous rage over Beth and would be used to set up Jack for the police.

Jack runs to the only ally he has left: his "fired" secretary Janet. He asks her for help, and she provides him with transportation to receive the phone from the employee which Jack had took a picture of Bill's account information and to a late-night branch of the bank at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. There, he uses the picture from the phone he took earlier to get access to Bill's account and calls him. Jack tells him that there’s been a change of plans: he has hacked into his Cayman Island accounts and is stripping five accounts, $20,000,000 apiece. Bill tries forcing Jack to put the money back, but it is a futile threat. Jack informs the criminal that he will get his money when he gets his family. Next, Jack tells Bill that he will call him when the banks open to make the exchange before hanging up on him. During the conversation, Jack hears the family dog, Rusty in the background, and realizes that the family can be located and followed by the GPS tracking unit in Rusty's collar. This leads him and Janet to an abandoned house. He leaves Janet on the road to call the police.

Bill shoots one of his henchmen (Vel) who had compassion for the hostages after intervening with Bill and the hostages. Another henchman, Pim (Vince Vieluf), chases after Sarah who manages to escape and Jack runs into Pim with Janet's car, hurling him into an RV, which then explodes, burning the RV, killing him and destroying Janet's car. Bill, seeing that the tide is turning against him, panics and takes Beth and Andy to the upper level of the house. Jack scales the side of the house, destroys a window and comes to rescue his wife and son, tackling Bill to the floor and forcing him to a final showdown. Bill, now enraged, attends to strangle Jack with force, but Jack grabs a pickaxe, impaling him through the back and leaves him to die in a pitch hole, winning his family's freedom.

Cast

Reception

Costing $60 million, Firewall grossed $82,751,189. It opened at No 4 on February 10, 2006 with a total first weekend gross of $13,635,463 in 2,840 theatres for an average per theatre gross of $4,801.[1] The critical reception of the movie was widely negative. According to Rotten Tomatoes, only 19% of movie critics were positive.[2] The critic's consensus states that "Harrison Ford's rote performance brings little to this uninspired techno-heist film whose formulaic plot is befuddled with tedious and improbable twists." However, it was nominated for two awards, the Taurus World Stunt Award for Best Fight, and the Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Feature Film - Young Actor Age Ten or Younger (Jimmy Bennett).[3]

Home media sales

Firewall was released on DVD on June 6, 2006 and opened at #2 at the DVD sales chart, grossing $10.8 million off 596,000 units. As per the latest figures, 1,286,600 units have been sold translating to $21.1 million in revenue.[4]

Awards and nominations

Award Year Category Result Cast/Crew
World Stunt Awards
2007
 Best Fight Nominated Jason Calder
Mike Carpenter
Young Artist Award Best Performance in a Feature Film - Young Actor Age Ten or Younger Nominated Jimmy Bennett

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Firewall (2006). Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2010-11-20.
  2. ↑ Firewall Movie Reviews, Pictures. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2010-11-20.
  3. ↑ Firewall (2006) - Awards. IMDb. Retrieved 2010-11-20.
  4. ↑ Movie Firewall - DVD Sales. The Numbers. Retrieved 2010-11-20.

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Firewall
Films directed by Richard Loncraine
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