Swordfish

SWORDFISH centers on mysterious bad guy Gabriel Shear (John Travolta), who wants the greatest hacker in the world, Stanley Jobson (Hugh Jackman) to help him steal a lot of money from a bank. We first see Gabriel talking about what's wrong with Hollywood movies and describing his objections to Dog Day Afternoon. It becomes apparent that (like the film Shear mentions), Shear is holding hostages. They're strapped in explosives and ball bearings, so that when one person explodes. Then a flashback: Ginger (Halle Berry) finds Stanley working as a maintenance man at an oil rig, under probation that will send him to jail immediately if he touches a computer keyboard. She tells Stanley that her employer will pay $100,000 just to meet him, and Stanley, whose goal is to regain custody of his daughter, accepts. Gabriel gives Stanley a rather unusual test -- 60 seconds to break into a Defense Department computer system while a gun is at his head, among other distractions. Many explosions and shoot-outs and car chases later, we are back at the hostage scene for action and predicable events.