Blackhat (2015) Released For Film Shot In Malaysia – Trailers & Plot

So the January release of “Blackhat,” the latest film from a major American director, Michael Mann (“Heat,” “The Last of the Mohicans”) was a real mystery. The film stars Chris Hemsworth, Tang Wei, Viola Davis, Holt McCallany, and Wang Leehom. It is set for release on January 16, 2015.

“Blackhat” is a film about cybercrime that is, at first, difficult to follow, and later, perfectly clear and preposterous. A hacker or a team of hackers causes a Chinese nuclear reactor to blow, and China and the United States team up to stop them before they can strike again. That means springing from prison the one genius hacker smart enough to beat the hackers at their own game. He’s played by Chris Hemsworth, because that’s what computer geniuses look like in the movies.

The film was tentatively titled Cyber, however the final title was revealed on July 26, 2014 during a panel at San Diego Comic-Con International, and it was being estimated that it might qualify for the Oscars. The first official trailer for the film was released on September 25, 2014.

Filming began on May 17, 2013, in Los Angeles, California; Hong Kong; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and Jakarta, Indonesia.

The first half of “Blackhat” is numbing — it takes an act of will to stay awake. It’s just a lot of people looking at computer screens and talking about fragments of malware and IP addresses. Nicholas (Hemsworth) strikes up a romance with his friend’s sister (Tei Wang), and that’s very nice, though for them, not us.

If the second half is better, it’s only in the sense that silly is less awful than boring. Consider this: Here is a computer genius in whom two governments are investing their hopes. Here is this mind that must be preserved and nurtured, lest all civilization spiral into chaos and darkness. Yet even so, his FBI minder (Viola Davis) lets him shoot it out in the streets of Hong Kong with the cybercriminal’s henchmen.

Director Michael Mann donated HK$300,000 (US$38,500) to The Community Chest of Hong Kong in the name of Hang Seng Bank, to thank the bank for allowing him to film Blackhat for five evenings in the bank's lobby area.

In November 2013, Universal Pictures set North American release date for January 16, 2015. Shortly after the official premiere of the movie, composer Henry Gregson-Williams stated that although he is credited for the score the final film "contains almost none of my compositions" He would later delete the status update containing this information.