The Net (1995 film)

The Net
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Irwin Winkler
Produced by	Rob Cowan Irwin Winkler
Written by	John Brancato and Michael Ferris
Starring	Sandra Bullock Jeremy Northam Dennis Miller
Music by	Mark Isham Jeff Rona
Editing by	Richard Halsey
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	July 28, 1995 (1995-07-28)
Running time	114 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$22 million
Box office	$110,627,965 (Worldwide)

The Net is a 1995 cyber thriller film directed by Irwin Winkler and featuring Sandra Bullock, Jeremy Northam and Dennis Miller.

Plot

The film opens with United States Undersecretary of Defense Michael Bergstrom (Ken Howard), who commits suicide after discovering that he has tested positive for HIV.

Angela Bennett (Sandra Bullock) is a Venice, California systems analyst who telecommutes to Cathedral Software in San Francisco. Her interpersonal relationships are completely online and on the phone, limiting interactions with neighbors, and her mother (Diane Baker) who is institutionalized with Alzheimer's disease. Bennett's coworker Dale sends her a floppy disk with a backdoor, labeled with "π", to a commonly used computer security system called "Gatekeeper" sold by Gregg Microsystems. Dale and Bennett agree to meet, but his private plane's navigation system malfunctions and it crashes, killing him.

Bennett travels to Cozumel, Mexico on vacation, where she meets Jack Devlin (Jeremy Northam). Devlin pays a mugger to steal Bennett's purse with the disk, then shoots the thief. He seduces Bennett on his speedboat, but she finds his gun and confronts him. While fleeing with the disk and Devlin's wallet Bennett's dinghy collides with rocks, destroying the disk and hospitalizing her, unconscious, for three days.

When Bennett wakes up, she finds that all records of her life have been deleted: She was checked out of her hotel room, her car is no longer at the LAX parking lot, and her credit cards are invalid. Bennett's home is empty and listed for sale and, because none of the neighbors ever saw her, they cannot confirm her identity. Bennett's Social Security number is now assigned to a "Ruth Marx", who has an arrest record. Another woman has taken her identity at Cathedral; the impostor offers Bennett her old life back in exchange for the disk. She contacts the only other person who knows her by sight, psychiatrist and former lover Alan Champion (Dennis Miller). He checks her into a hotel, offers to contact a friend at the FBI, and arranges to have her mother moved for her safety.

Using her knowledge of the backdoor and a password found in Devlin's wallet, Bennett logs into the Bethesda Naval Hospital's computers and learns that Bergstrom, who had opposed Gatekeeper's use by the federal government, was misdiagnosed. Fellow hacker "Cyberbob" identifies π with the "Praetorians", a notorious group of cyberterrorists linked to recent computer failures around the country. They plan to meet at Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier, but the Praetorians intercept their online chat. Bennett escapes from Devlin—a contract killer for the cyberterrorists—at the park, but the Praetorians kill Champion by tampering with pharmacy and hospital computer records. After Bennett is arrested by the California Highway Patrol a man identifying himself as Champion's FBI friend frees her from jail, but she discovers he is an impostor after he asks her if she made a copy of the disk before it was ruined in Mexico (something that she only told Devlin) and escapes again.

Now wanted for murder, Bennett hitchhikes from Los Angeles to Cathedral's office in San Francisco where, using her impostor's computer, she connects the terrorists to Gregg Microsystems and uncovers their scheme; once the Praetorians sabotage an organization's computer system, Gregg sells his Gatekeeper product to them and gains unlimited access through the backdoor. Bennett emails evidence of the backdoor to the FBI from the Moscone Center and tricks Devlin into releasing a virus into Gregg's mainframe, undoing the erasing of her identity. They battle on the convention center's catwalks, where Devlin accidentally shoots and kills Marx. Bennett then ambushes Devlin with a fire extinguisher, causing him to fall to his death. The film closes with Bennett reunited with her mother and the conspiracy exposed.

Cast

• Sandra Bullock as Angela Bennett
• Jeremy Northam as Jack Devlin
• Dennis Miller as Dr. Alan Champion
• Wendy Gazelle as Ruth Marx
• Ken Howard as Michael Bergstrom

Production

In October 1994, Bullock committed to filming The Net from mid-January through April 10 1995. The Net was filmed in San Francisco's Moscone Center and Macworld on January 5, 1995, as well as Washington, D.C., locations in April 1995.

Reception

Box Office

With an estimated budget of $22 million and a release date of 28 July 1995, The Net earned $50,727,965 in domestic box office. Including foreign markets, the film grossed $110,627,965 worldwide. and an additional $23,771,600 in rentals (USA).

Critics

Critical reaction to the film was mixed. Based on 47 reviews, it has an average score of 5.1 out of 10 on Rotten Tomatoes with 36% of critics giving a positive review. Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars. Owen Gleiberman, writing for Entertainment Weekly, complimented Sandra Bullock's performance, saying "Bullock pulls you into the movie. Her overripe smile and clear, imploring eyes are sometimes evocative of Julia Roberts".

Spinoff TV series and sequel

The film spawned a spinoff TV series starring Brooke Langton as Angela Bennett.

A sequel named The Net 2.0, starring Nikki DeLoach as Hope Cassidy and directed by Charles Winkler, son of Irwin Winkler, was announced in February 2005. It was released direct-to-video in 2006, and was about a young systems analyst who arrives in Istanbul for her new job to find that her identity has been stolen.

See also

• List of films featuring surveillance

External links

• The Net at the Internet Movie Database
• The Net at AllRovi
• The Net at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Net at Box Office Mojo