Untraceable

Untraceable
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Gregory Hoblit
Produced by	Steven Pearl Andy Cohen Tom Rosenberg Gary Lucchesi Hawk Koch
Screenplay by	Robert Fyvolent Mark Brinker Allison Burnett
Story by	Robert Fyvolent Mark Brinker
Starring	Diane Lane Colin Hanks Billy Burke Joseph Cross Mary Beth Hurt
Music by	Christopher Young
Cinematography	Anastas Michos
Editing by	David Rosenbloom
Studio	Lakeshore Entertainment
Distributed by	Screen Gems
Release date(s)	January 25, 2008
Running time	100 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$35 million
Box office	$52,659,594

Untraceable is a 2008 American thriller film starring Diane Lane, Colin Hanks, Billy Burke, and Joseph Cross. It was directed by Gregory Hoblit and distributed by Screen Gems. The film is a social commentary on Internet schadenfreude.

Set in Portland, Oregon, the film involves a serial killer who rigs contraptions that kill his victims based on the number of hits received by a website ("www.killwithme.com") that features a live streaming video of the victim. Millions of people log on, hastening the victims' deaths. Diane Lane plays the protagonist, a cybercop named Jennifer Marsh, who pieces the mystery together at great risk to herself and her family.

Plot

Special Agent Jennifer Marsh (Diane Lane) is a widowed single parent living in a suburban Portland home with her daughter, Annie Haskins (Perla Haney-Jardine). At night, she works in the FBI's cybercrime division with Griffin Dowd (Colin Hanks), fighting identity theft and similar crimes. One night, an anonymous tip leads them to a website called KillWithMe.com. The site features a streaming video of a kitten being tortured and killed. The site cannot be shut down, as whoever created it, knew that someone would try to shut it down, and built into it a fail-safe; every time the server is closed, a mirror server comes immediately up, in its place.

After the kitten's death, KillWithMe.com's webmaster (Joseph Cross) "graduates" to human victims and makes their deaths correlate directly with the number of hits the site receives. At a press conference, the public is urged to avoid KillWithMe.com, but as Jennifer feared, this only increases the site's popularity. The videos are recorded in the killer's basement and his various victims include a helicopter pilot (bled to death by injections of anticoagulant), a newscaster (burnt to death by heat lamps while cemented, up to his mid-thigh, into the floor of the basement), and Griffin Dowd (killed by slowly increasing the concentration of sulfuric acid solution in which he is submerged up to his neck).

At first it seems the victims were randomly chosen, but it is revealed to not be the case. The first two victims were chosen because they were part of filming or presenting the suicide of a junior college teacher. The teacher's unstable, techno-prodigy son, Owen Reilly, broke down and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. When released, he decided to prove a point, that the public is insatiable for the suffering of others, as well as wreak vengeance on those he felt had exploited his father's tragedy. Griffin was killed because he came close to the truth of who the murderer was. Marsh, who figures this out, is soon targeted as well.

Captured by Owen, Jennifer escapes her death by rotary tiller by swinging out of the way while dangling from the ceiling. She ends up breaking free and pinning down the murderer, and just as the other police officers show up, Jennifer fatally shoots Owen on his own website. As the film ends, Jennifer displays her FBI badge and the scene closes with a shot of the dwindling chatter in the website's chat room, and showing statements being made in the chatroom such as "a genius died today," as well as showing some users saying that they are glad the killer is dead, and a final comment, asking whether the video could be downloaded.

Cast

• Diane Lane as FBI Agent Jennifer Marsh
• Colin Hanks as FBI Agent Griffin Dowd
• Billy Burke as Detective Eric Box
• Joseph Cross as Owen Reilly
• Mary Beth Hurt as Stella Marsh
• Tyrone Giordano as Tim Wilkes
• Perla Haney-Jardine as Annie Haskins
• Christopher Cousins as David Williams
• Tim De Zarn as Herbert Miller
• Peter Lewis as Richard Brooks
• Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Arthur James Elmer
• John Breen as Richard Weymouth
• Brynn Baron as Mrs. Miller

Production

The film was shot in and around Portland, Oregon. A temporary studio was constructed in Clackamas, Oregon where all non-location photography was done, mostly interiors, including the FBI's cyber division, Jennifer Marsh's house, the FBI building elevator, several basements, etc. A scene set on the east end of the Broadway Bridge was shot both on the actual bridge as well as at the studio. A faux diner was built underneath the Broadway bridge, which was used in the movie. The birthday party for Perla Haney-Jardine's character Annie was filmed in the roller skating rink of Oaks Amusement Park.

Reception

Untraceable received mainly negative reviews, obtaining a 16% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 142 reviews. Several critics viewed the film as hypocritical for indulging in the "torture porn" it condemns. It also met criticism for its climax which was seen as devolving into horror film clichés. Lane, however, was praised for her performance in the film. Roger Ebert gave the film a favorable review, giving the film a 3 star rating. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave this film a strongly negative review giving it zero stars^{[citation needed]}.

The film opened poorly, with an opening weekend of $11.3 million, below the $35 million budget. It has so far made $51.8 million worldwide, on theatrical release.

DVD release

On May 13, 2008, Untraceable was released on both DVD and Blu-ray. The DVD included an audio commentary and four featurettes.

External links

• Untraceable
• Official DVD website
• Kill With Me website
• Untraceable at the Internet Movie Database
• Untraceable at AllRovi
• Untraceable at Box Office Mojo
• Untraceable at Rotten Tomatoes
• Untraceable at Metacritic