Cypher (film)
| Cypher | |
|---|---|
 Promotional movie poster for the film | |
| Directed by | Vincenzo Natali |
| Written by | Brian King |
| Produced by | Richard J. Anobile Shebnem Askin Paul Federbush E.K. Gaylord II Wendy Grean Casey La Scala Hunt Lowry |
| Starring | Jeremy Northam Lucy Liu Nigel Bennett Timothy Webber |
| Cinematography | Derek Rogers |
| Edited by | Bert Kish |
| Music by | Michael Andrews |
| Distributed by | Pandora Cinema Buena Vista Home Video GAGA Communications Humax Pictures Inc. Miramax Films |
Release dates | Spain 7 October 2002 Japan 18 January 2003 France 26 March 2003 Australia 14 August 2003 UK 29 August 2003 |
Running time | 95 min |
| Countries | USA Canada |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $7,500,000 |
Cypher is a Canadian sci-fi thriller released in 2002, directed by Vincenzo Natali and written by Brian King. It stars Jeremy Northam and Lucy Liu.
Plot
Morgan Sullivan, a recently unemployed accountant, is bored with his suburban life. Pressured by his wife to take a job with her father's company, he instead pursues a role in corporate espionage. Digicorp's Head of Security, Finster, inducts Morgan, and assigns him a new identity. As Jack Thursby, he is sent to conventions to secretly record presentations and transmit them to headquarters. Sullivan is soon haunted by recurring nightmares and pain in the back of his neck. When he meets a mysterious woman, Rita Foster, from a competing corporation, his life starts to get complicated.
Rita gives him some pills to cure his pain and nightmares, and tells him not to transmit at the next convention. After the convention, Digicorp confirm the successful receipt of his transmission, though Morgan has not sent one. Now certain that something strange is going on, Morgan takes the pills Rita gave him. They work. Confused by what is going on, and intrigued by Rita, he arranges to meet with her again.
In a scene reminiscent of the Matrix, Rita advises Morgan of Digicorp's deception, and invites him to accept the antidote - a big syringe of green liquid. After some hesitation, Morgan accepts. She sternly warns him that no matter what happens at the next convention he must not react.
Morgan discovers that all the convention attendees are spies like him, and all thinking themselves individual spies working for Digicorp. While they are drugged from the served drinks, plastic-clad scientists probe, inject and brainwash them. Individual headsets reinforce their new identities, preparing them to be used, and then disposed of.
Morgan manages to convince Digicorp that he believes his new identity. He is then recruited by Sunway Systems, a rival of Digicorp. Sunway's Head of Security, Callaway, encourages Morgan to act as a double agent, feeding corrupted data to Digicorp.
Morgan calls Rita, who warns him the Sunway are equally ruthless, and that he is in fact being used by Rita's boss, Sebastian Rooks. Morgan manages to steal the required information from Sunway Systems' vault, escaping with the help of Rita.
Rita finally takes him to meet Rooks. When she temporarily leaves the room, a nervous Morgan calls Finster, and becomes even more distressed. He accidentally shoots Rita, who encourages him to ignore her and meet Rooks in the room next door. Morgan finds the room filled with objects which appear to be personal to him, including a photograph of him and Rita together. Realising that he is apparently Rooks, he turns to Rita in disbelief.
Before Rita can convince him, the apartment is invaded by armed men. Rita and Morgan escape to the roof of the skyscraper as the security teams of Digicorp and Sunway meet, led by Finster and Callaway. After a short Mexican standoff, both sides realise they are after the same person, Sebastian Rooks, and rush to the roof.
Morgan and Rita are onboard a helicopter - Rita is unable to fly it, but Sebastian can. Rita encourages Morgan to remember his past self, connecting through his love for her. He finally remembers, and lifts off in the middle of gunfire from the security teams. Finster and Callaway comment as the couple seem to have escaped:
- Callaway: "Did you get a look at him? Did you see Rooks' face?"
- Finster: "Just Morgan Sullivan, our pawn."
Looking up, they see the helicopter hovering above and realise, too late, the true identity of Morgan Sullivan. Sebastian triggers a bomb, causing the whole roof to explode.
On a boat in South Pacific Ocean, Sebastian reveals the content of the stolen disc to Rita. Marked "terminate with extreme prejudice", it is the last copy of Rita's identity (after the one in the vault was destroyed). Sebastian throws the disc into the sea, and the film closes: "Now there's no copy at all."
Cast
- Jeremy Northam - Morgan Sullivan
- Lucy Liu - Rita Foster
- Nigel Bennett - Finster
- Timothy Webber - Callaway
- Kari Matchett - Diane Thursby
- Kristina Nicoll - Amy Sullivan
Trivia
- The number 0 is featured prominently throughout the movie, such in the overhead shots of the suburbs in the beginning of the movie.
- 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.
- The reason for Sunways wanting to kill Rita is explained in the text that appears in her file in the closing scene. With no way of getting to Rooks, they believed killing someone so close and important to him would damage Rooks' ability to do damaging operations against them.