Untraceable
Encyclopedia
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.
) is a widow
ed single parent
living in a suburb
an 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.
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 construction of this set took fewer than twelve hours. The birthday party for Perla Haney-Jardine's character Annie was filmed in the roller skating rink of Oaks Amusement Park
.
based on 106 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.
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.
and Blu-Ray. The DVD included an audio commentary
and four featurettes.
Diane Lane
Diane Lane is an American film actress.Born and raised in New York City, Lane made her screen debut at the age of 13 in George Roy Hill's 1979 film A Little Romance, starring opposite Sir Laurence Olivier. Soon after, she was featured on the cover of Time magazine...
, Colin Hanks
Colin Hanks
Colin Lewes Hanks is an American actor who is best known for his work as Shaun Brumder in the film Orange County and as Alex Whitman in Roswell. He also portrayed the role of Henry Jones in Band of Brothers and is currently on the sixth season of the Showtime crime drama Dexter...
, Billy Burke
Billy Burke (actor)
William Albert "Billy" Burke is an American actor. He is known for his role as Charlie Swan in Twilight, The Twilight Saga: New Moon and the 2010 film The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. He is also known for his role as Gary Matheson in the second season of 24.-Life and career:Burke was born in...
, and Joseph Cross. It was directed by Gregory Hoblit
Gregory Hoblit
Gregory King Hoblit is an American Hollywood film director and TV producer.Hoblit was born in Abilene, Texas, the son of Elizabeth Hubbard King and Harold Foster Hoblit, an FBI agent. Much of Hoblit's work is oriented towards police, attorneys, and legal cases...
and distributed by Screen Gems
Screen Gems
Screen Gems is an American movie production company and subsidiary company of Sony Pictures Entertainment's Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group that has served several different purposes for its parent companies over the decades since its incorporation....
. The film is a social commentary
Social commentary
Social commentary is the act of rebelling against an individual, or a group of people by rhetorical means, or commentary on social issues or society...
on Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
schadenfreude
Schadenfreude
Schadenfreude is pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others. This German word is used as a loanword in English and some other languages, and has been calqued in Danish and Norwegian as skadefryd and Swedish as skadeglädje....
.
Set in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, the film involves a serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
who rigs contraptions that kill his victims based on the number of hits received by a website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
("www.killwithme.com") that features a live streaming video
Streaming media
Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a streaming provider.The term "presented" is used in this article in a general sense that includes audio or video playback. The name refers to the delivery method of the medium rather...
of the victim. Millions of people log on, hastening the victims' deaths. Diane Lane plays the protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
, a cybercop
Cybercop
The U.S. "Report to the President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection" stated, "Cybercops are law enforcement personnel whose beat is cyberspace." According to Microsoft's Justice and Public Safety Division Marketing Manager Ken Reeves, over 2,000 law enforcement organizations had...
named Jennifer Marsh, who pieces the mystery together at great risk to herself and her family.
Plot
Special Agent Jennifer Marsh (Diane LaneDiane Lane
Diane Lane is an American film actress.Born and raised in New York City, Lane made her screen debut at the age of 13 in George Roy Hill's 1979 film A Little Romance, starring opposite Sir Laurence Olivier. Soon after, she was featured on the cover of Time magazine...
) is a widow
Widow
A widow is a woman whose spouse has died, while a widower is a man whose spouse has died. The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed widowhood or occasionally viduity. The adjective form is widowed...
ed single parent
Single parent
Single parent is a term that is mostly used to suggest that one parent has most of the day to day responsibilities in the raising of the child or children, which would categorize them as the dominant caregiver...
living in a suburb
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
an Portland
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
home with her daughter, Annie Haskins (Perla Haney-Jardine
Perla Haney-Jardine
Perla Haney-Jardine is an Brazilian-born American actress. She is best known for her role in Kill Bill Vol. 2 as B.B., the four-year-old daughter of Beatrix "The Bride" Kiddo and Bill.-Personal life:...
). At night, she works in the FBI's cybercrime
CyberCrime
CyberCrime was an innovative, weekly America television program on TechTV that focused on the dangers facing computer users. Filmed in San Francisco, California, the show was hosted by Alex Wellen and Jennifer London...
division with Griffin Dowd (Colin Hanks
Colin Hanks
Colin Lewes Hanks is an American actor who is best known for his work as Shaun Brumder in the film Orange County and as Alex Whitman in Roswell. He also portrayed the role of Henry Jones in Band of Brothers and is currently on the sixth season of the Showtime crime drama Dexter...
), fighting identity theft
Identity theft
Identity theft is a form of stealing another person's identity in which someone pretends to be someone else by assuming that person's identity, typically in order to access resources or obtain credit and other benefits in that person's name...
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
Kitten
A kitten is a juvenile domesticated cat.The young of big cats are called cubs rather than kittens. Either term may be used for the young of smaller wild felids such as ocelots, caracals, and lynx, but "kitten" is usually more common for these species....
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
Mirror (computing)
In computing, a mirror is an exact copy of a data set. On the Internet, a mirror site is an exact copy of another Internet site.Mirror sites are most commonly used to provide multiple sources of the same information, and are of particular value as a way of providing reliable access to large downloads...
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
News conference
A news conference or press conference is a media event in which newsmakers invite journalists to hear them speak and, most often, ask questions. A joint press conference instead is held between two or more talking sides.-Practice:...
, the public is urged to avoid KillWithMe.com, but as Jennifer feared, this only increases the site's popularity
Streisand effect
The Streisand effect is a primarily online phenomenon in which an attempt to hide or remove a piece of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely...
. The videos are recorded in the killer's basement and his various victims include a helicopter pilot (bled to death by injections of anticoagulant
Anticoagulant
An anticoagulant is a substance that prevents coagulation of blood. A group of pharmaceuticals called anticoagulants can be used in vivo as a medication for thrombotic disorders. Some anticoagulants are used in medical equipment, such as test tubes, blood transfusion bags, and renal dialysis...
), 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
Sulfuric acid
Sulfuric acid is a strong mineral acid with the molecular formula . Its historical name is oil of vitriol. Pure sulfuric acid is a highly corrosive, colorless, viscous liquid. The salts of sulfuric acid are called sulfates...
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
Chat room
The term chat room, or chatroom, is primarily used by mass media to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing...
, 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 LaneDiane LaneDiane Lane is an American film actress.Born and raised in New York City, Lane made her screen debut at the age of 13 in George Roy Hill's 1979 film A Little Romance, starring opposite Sir Laurence Olivier. Soon after, she was featured on the cover of Time magazine...
as FBI Agent Jennifer Marsh - Colin HanksColin HanksColin Lewes Hanks is an American actor who is best known for his work as Shaun Brumder in the film Orange County and as Alex Whitman in Roswell. He also portrayed the role of Henry Jones in Band of Brothers and is currently on the sixth season of the Showtime crime drama Dexter...
as FBI Agent Griffin Dowd - Billy BurkeBilly Burke (actor)William Albert "Billy" Burke is an American actor. He is known for his role as Charlie Swan in Twilight, The Twilight Saga: New Moon and the 2010 film The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. He is also known for his role as Gary Matheson in the second season of 24.-Life and career:Burke was born in...
as Detective Eric Box - Joseph Cross as Owen Reilly
- Mary Beth HurtMary Beth HurtMary Beth Hurt is an American actress of stage and screen.-Personal life:Hurt was born Mary Supinger in 1946 in Marshalltown, Iowa, the daughter of Delores Lenore and Forrest Clayton Supinger. Her childhood babysitter was actress Jean Seberg, also a Marshalltown native...
as Stella Marsh - Tyrone GiordanoTyrone GiordanoTyrone Giordano is a deaf American actor.An alumnus of Montgomery Blair High School and Gallaudet University, he began acting in Washington, DC in 1999...
as Tim Wilkes - Perla Haney-JardinePerla Haney-JardinePerla Haney-Jardine is an Brazilian-born American actress. She is best known for her role in Kill Bill Vol. 2 as B.B., the four-year-old daughter of Beatrix "The Bride" Kiddo and Bill.-Personal life:...
as Annie Haskins - Christopher Cousins as David Williams
- Tim De Zarn as Herbert Miller
- Peter LewisPeter LewisPeter B. Lewis is the Cleveland, Ohio-area based chairman of Progressive Insurance Companies.Lewis currently resides in Coconut Grove, Florida.-Biography:...
as Richard Brooks - Jesse Tyler FergusonJesse Tyler FergusonJesse Tyler Ferguson is an American actor who portrays Mitchell Pritchett on the ABC sitcom Modern Family. Previously he played the role of Richie Velch in the CBS sitcom The Class. He is openly gay.-Life and career:...
as Arthur James Elmer - Brynn Baron as Mrs. Miller
- John BreenJohn BreenJohn Breen is a playwright from Limerick, Ireland. He is famous for his play Alone it Stands which tells the tale of Munster Rugby Team's legendary victory over New Zealand's mighty All Blacks in Thomond Park, Limerick in 1978...
as Richard Weymouth
Production
The film was shot in and around Portland, Oregon. A temporary studio was constructed in Clackamas, OregonClackamas, Oregon
Clackamas was a census-designated place in Clackamas County, Oregon, United States. The population was 5,177 at the 2000 census. It is a suburb of Portland, Oregon.It is the location of Camp Withycombe, a military base...
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
Broadway Bridge (Portland)
The Broadway Bridge is a bascule bridge that spans the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, U.S. It was the first bascule bridge built in Portland and the longest in the world at the time of its completion. It is the longest Rall-type bascule bridge still in existence.-History and description:The...
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 construction of this set took fewer than twelve hours. The birthday party for Perla Haney-Jardine's character Annie was filmed in the roller skating rink of Oaks Amusement Park
Oaks Amusement Park
Oaks Park is a small amusement park located south of downtown Portland, Oregon USA, near the Sellwood Bridge. The park includes midway games, about two dozen rides that operate seasonally, a skating rink that is open all-year, and picnic grounds.- Rides :...
.
Reception
Untraceable opened on January 25, 2008, to generally negative reviews, receiving a 15% rating on Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
based on 106 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
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
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.
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 DVDDVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
and Blu-Ray. The DVD included an audio commentary
Audio commentary
On disc-based video formats, an audio commentary is an additional audio track consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with video...
and four featurettes.