Cypher (film)
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Promotional movie poster
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| Directed by | Vincenzo Natali |
| Produced by |
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| Written by | Brian King |
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| Music by | Michael Andrews |
| Cinematography | Derek Rogers |
| Edited by | Bert Kish |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Pandora Cinema |
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Release date
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Running time
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95 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $7 million |
Cypher (also known as Brainstorm), is a 2002 science fiction thriller film starring Jeremy Northam and Lucy Liu. It was written by Brian King and directed by Vincenzo Natali. Jeremy Northam plays an accountant whose hope for a career in corporate espionage takes an unexpected turn. The film was shown in limited release in theaters in the US and Australia, and released on DVD on August 2, 2005. The film received mixed reviews, and Northam received the Best Actor award at the Sitges Film Festival.
Morgan Sullivan (Northam), 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 position in corporate espionage. Digicorp's Head of Security, Finster (Bennett), 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 neck pain. When he meets Rita Foster (Liu) from a competing corporation, his life starts to become complicated.
Rita gives him pills to cure his pain and nightmares and tells him not to transmit at the next convention. After the convention, Digicorp confirms the receipt of his transmission, though Morgan had sent nothing. Sure that something strange is going on, Morgan takes the pills Rita gave him and finds that they work. Confused by what is going on, and intrigued by Rita, he arranges to meet with her again. At the meeting, she tells him about Digicorp's deception and offers him an antidote – a green liquid in a large syringe. Morgan hesitantly accepts. She 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, 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 (Webber), encourages Morgan to act as a double agent, feeding corrupted data to Digicorp. Morgan calls Rita, who warns him that Sunway is 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 Rita's help.
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