Cypher (2002)

Director:

Vincenzo Natali

Writer (WGA):

Brian King (written by)

Release Date:

18 January 2003 (Japan)

Genre:

Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

Never forget who you are.

Plot:

An unsuspecting, disenchanted man finds himself working as a spy in the dangerous, high-stakes world of corporate espionage. Quickly getting way over-his-head, he teams up with a mysterious femme fatale.

Plot Keywords:

Spy | Brainwashing | Future | New Identity | Corporate Espionage

Awards:

5 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Jeremy Northam	...	Morgan Sullivan
Lucy Liu	...	Rita Foster
Nigel Bennett	...	Finster
Timothy Webber	...	Callaway
David Hewlett	...	Virgil C. Dunn
Kari Matchett	...	Diane
Kristina Nicoll	...	Amy
Joseph Scoren	...	Digicorp Technician #1
Stephen Brown	...	Digicorp Technician #2
Arnold Pinnock	...	Pilot In Mensroom
Jocelyn Snowdon	...	Stewardess to Buffalo
Boyd Banks	...	Fred Garfield
Steve Jackson	...	Waiter Buffalo
Dan Duran	...	Buffalo Speaker #1
Valerie Buhagiar	...	Buffalo Speaker #2
Roberta Angelica	...	Stewardess to Omaha
George Santino	...	Rita's Agent #1
Nelson Tynes	...	Rita's Agent #2
Dennis Akayama	...	Speaker Omaha (as Denis Akiyama)
Vickie Papavs	...	Desk Clerk Boise
Murray Furrow	...	Hotel Janitor Boise
Scott McLaren	...	Convention Waiter Boise
David Bolt	...	Speaker #1 Boise
Len Carlson	...	Speaker #3 Boise
Les Porter	...	Man In White Coat Boise
Bruce McFee	...	Businessman Boise
Judy Sinclair	...	Elderly Woman In Elevator
Shanly Trinidad	...	Gate 15 Clerk Boise
Anne Marie Scheffler	...	Stewardess Boise
Mike O'Shea	...	Sunways Security Guard
Andrew Moodie	...	Sunways Neuro Technician
Malcolm Xerxes	...	Sunways Technician #1
Matthew Sharp	...	Sunways Technician #2
Peter Mensah	...	Vault Security
David Bryant	...	Pilot #2 In Washroom
Alec Stockwell	...	Digicorp Technician #2
Matt Cooke	...	Digicorp Technician #3
Marcus Hutchings	...	Jamison
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Sevaan Franks	...	Tomas Street (uncredited)

Directed by
Vincenzo Natali

Writing credits (WGA)
Brian King		(written by)

Produced by
Richard J. Anobile	....	associate producer
Shebnem Askin	....	executive producer
Paul Federbush	....	producer
E.K. Gaylord II	....	executive producer
Wendy Grean	....	producer
Casey La Scala	....	producer (as Casey LaScala)
Hunt Lowry	....	producer

Original Music by
Michael Andrews

Cinematography by
Derek Rogers		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Bert Kish

Casting by
John Buchan
Junie Lowry-Johnson		(as Junie Lowry Johnson)

Production Design by
Jasna Stefanovic

Art Direction by
James Phillips		(as Jim Phillips)

Set Decoration by
Megan Less

Costume Design by
Robin Bigglestone		(as Robin Biggleston)
Tamara Winston

Makeup Department
Julia Carter	....	makeup artist
Katarina Chovanec	....	key hair stylist
Debi Drennan	....	key makeup artist
Leslie Dumbleton	....	makeup artist
Danielle Goldschlager	....	hair stylist (as Daniele Goldschlager)
Paul Jones	....	special makeup effects artist
Mira Lee	....	makeup artist
Tony Mastropietro	....	hair stylist (as Toni Mastropietro)
Ron Rhodda	....	hair stylist (as Ron Rodda)
Shawn Smandych	....	hair stylist

Production Management
Lynn Mallay	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Gregory Besky	....	third assistant director
Ray Elias	....	first assistant director: second unit
Jeremy Graham	....	second assistant director: second unit
Jennifer Kiefaber	....	trainee assistant director
Cameron Kuc	....	trainee assistant director
William Phillips	....	second unit director
Eric J. Robertson	....	second assistant director
William Spahic	....	first assistant director (as Bill Spahic)
Graham Tallman	....	assistant director
Sean Watson	....	daily trainee assistant director
Greg Sigurdson	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department
Jean Brophey	....	set dresser
Todd Cherniawsky	....	conceptual illustrator
Simon Corton	....	assistant property master
Dwight Doerksen	....	construction coordinator
Emerson Doerksen	....	props
Craig Grant	....	props: second unit
Brad Greaves	....	assistant art director
Craig Harris	....	set dresser
Rob Hepburn	....	assistant decorator
Jason Herriott	....	key scenic
Dan Norton	....	set designer

Sound Department
Stephen Barden	....	supervising sound editor
Steve Bourne	....	sound mixer (as Stephen Bourne)
Joe Bracciale	....	sound editor
Alex Bullick	....	trainee assistant sound editor
Christian Carruthers	....	sound re-recording mixer
Kate Cripps	....	trainee assistant sound editor
J.R. Fountain	....	first assistant sound editor
Rose Gregoris	....	assistant sound editor
Craig Henighan	....	supervising sound editor
Jorge Muniz	....	boom operator
Peter Persaud	....	foley recordist
Jill Purdy	....	sound editor
John Sievert	....	foley artist
Andrew Tay	....	sound re-recording mixer
Todd Warren	....	sound re-recording mixer
Larry Winer	....	adr mixer

Special Effects by
Jon Davis	....	special effects technician
Brock Jolliffe	....	special effects supervisor
Rudy Rivas	....	key special effects

Visual Effects by
Michael Alkan	....	technical director
Paul Anderson	....	visual effects artist: C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures
Jesse Bradstreet	....	visual effects
Lisa Carr-Harris	....	digital effects artist
Bret Culp	....	visual effects director
Paul DeOliveira	....	digital compositor
Mark Goldberg	....	digital effects artist
Maria A. Gordon	....	visual effects
Dipankar Goswamy	....	lead animator
Dipankar Goswamy	....	technical director
Rob Gyorgy	....	digital effects artist
Nick Hsieh	....	digital compositor
Kelvin Kanagaraj	....	visual effects animator
Chad Malbon	....	digital film producer
Bob Munroe	....	visual effects supervisor
David E. Nunez	....	3D animator
Ken Ouellette	....	compositor
Ken Ouellette	....	technical director
Sarah Ruddle	....	visual effects production manager
Laurel A. Smith	....	digital artist
Jay Stanners	....	digital effects artist
Tracey Vaz	....	digital paint artist
Kurt D. Williams	....	3D animator
Alphonso Young	....	digital compositor

Stunts
Tom Farr	....	stunts
Sandra Feldman	....	stunts (as Sandy Feldman)
Jamie Jones	....	stunts
John MacDonald	....	stunt double: Jeremy Northam
Alison Reid	....	stunt coordinator
Alison Reid	....	stunts

Camera and Electrical Department
Jordan Cushing	....	second assistant camera
Dave Erlichman	....	key rigging grip
Michael Fylyshtan	....	Steadicam operator
Neil Kilpatrick	....	camera trainee
Tim Merkle	....	Steadicam operator
Robert Mountjoy	....	first assistant camera
Brooke Palmer	....	still photographer
Derek Porter	....	best boy electric
Derek Rogers	....	camera operator
James Tamblyn	....	video playback operator
Christopher J. Toudy	....	key grip: second unit
Scott Tremblay	....	electrician
David Watts	....	electrician
Greg Whiteside	....	video playback operator
David Perkins	....	camera operator: "b" camera (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Frances Cabezas Miller	....	wardrobe buyer (as Frances Cabezas-Miller)
Darci Cheyne	....	seamstress (as Darcy Cheyne)
Laura Wentzell	....	wardrobe
Kafi Wilson	....	seamstress

Editorial Department
Kenn Elliott	....	digital intermediate colorist
Colin Kish	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Debra Baum	....	executive music producer (as Debra A. Baum)

Transportation Department
Rick Anglin	....	production driver

Other crew
Dave Asling	....	model shop supervisor
Louis Berger	....	assistant: Mr. Federbush
Dan Brooks	....	key model maker
Lisa Burling	....	script supervisor
Koreann Ciandre	....	set supervisor
Peter Edmonds	....	key electronics technician
Gabe Fallus	....	location manager
Peter Gmehling	....	assistant video playback operator
Katharine Gray	....	assistant production coordinator (as Katherine Gray)
Amy Green	....	head of production: Headspace Films
Pamela Hackwell	....	contact lens technician
Sacha Hindle	....	assistant video playback operator (as Sasha Hindle)
Michael Joffe	....	intern
Hal Kay	....	assistant video playback operator
Aileen Kiernan	....	assistant: Hunt Lowry
Darron Leiren-Young	....	assistant production coordinator
Linda Lockett	....	production coordinator
Andrei Natali	....	assistant: Vincenzo Natali
Marie A. Nazar	....	publicist
Peter Olczak	....	assistant set supervisor
Shannon Ratcliffe	....	assistant: Ms. Liu
Kiri Stenberg	....	assistant video playback operator
Charles Taylor	....	armorer
Charles Taylor	....	gun handler
Dave Tommasini	....	helicopter pilot
Vanessa Brustolin	....	production coordinator (uncredited)
George Ploszczansky	....	assistant location manager (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Pandora Cinema (presents) (as Pandora)
• Miramax Films (in association with)
• Gaylord Films
• Headspace

Distributors

• Pandora Cinema (2002) (worldwide) (all media)
• GAGA (2003) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Humax Pictures (2003) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Manga Films (2004) (Spain) (theatrical)
• Mediafilm (2004) (Italy) (theatrical)
• Metropolitan Filmexport (2003) (France) (theatrical)
• PCV (2003) (Greece) (theatrical)
• Pathé Distribution (2003) (UK) (theatrical)
• Ascot Elite Home Entertainment (2003) (Germany) (DVD)
• GAGA (2003) (Japan) (all media)
• Media Cooperation One (MC-One) (2003) (Germany) (DVD)
• Miramax Home Entertainment (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• Odeon (200?) (Greece) (DVD)
• Paradise Group (2002) (Russia) (all media)
• Paradiso Home Entertainment (2004) (Netherlands) (DVD) (VHS)
• RTL Entertainment (2008) (Netherlands) (TV) (first national airing) (RTL7)

Special Effects

• C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures

Other Companies

• Deluxe Post-Production  post-production facilities
• Film Effects  titles
• Movie Armaments Group  firearms supplied by

Also Known As:

Brainstorm (International: English title)
Company Man (USA) (working title)
Apokryptografisi (Greece) (festival title) [el]
Brainstorm (Finland) (video title) [fi]
Brainstorm (Sweden) [sv]
Company Man (Japan) (DVD title) [ja]
Cypher (Spain) [es]
Cypher (France) [fr]
Cypher (Italy) [it]
Kodikos: Cypher (Greece) [el]

MPAA:

Rated R for some language.

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Netherlands:12 | Australia:M | Finland:K-11 | France:U | Germany:12 | Ireland:15 | Singapore:PG | UK:15 | Portugal:M/16 | Italy:T | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Company:

Pandora Cinema

Trivia:

Was shot in 35 days.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Morgan Sullivan's fake California Driver's License expires on 05-30-03. His birth date is listed as 08-13-65. An actual CDL would expire on the same day as the licensee's birth date. Even the cheapest of fake ID's wouldn't overlook this important point.

Movie Connections:

References Johnny Mnemonic (1995)

Requires major belief suspension but is engaging, slick and quite exciting

Morgan Sullivan is a businessman who, rather than work for his father-in-law, takes a strange job working as a corporate spy for a company called Digicore. His assignments are simple and boring; attend a conference and use a covert device to transmit the speeches back to HQ. At one conference he meets a mysterious woman called Rita and flirts with her. On his flights and during his sleep he is bothered by vivid dreams and voices in his head; he thinks nothing of it but then his next meeting with Rita reveals something much more sinister than the basic assignments he thought he was getting and he soon finds himself in deep.

I had never heard of this film at all before watching it, nor did I even know anything about it whatsoever and I only ended up watching it because I had FilmFour free one weekend and this was one of the few films that they showed that was worth seeing. I'm glad I came to it with nothing because I found myself engaged from the start and the twisty plot was great fun even if the final five minutes could never have hoped to have delivered above and beyond what had come before. There are those that complain about the ending being "terrible" are perhaps being too harsh although I will acknowledge that it is a bit too tidy for its own good. The plot requires a lot of suspension of belief (and I mean a lot) but once you get into it it moves along really well and does keep you watching to see where it goes. It is helped by the way that it starts out in a "normal" world that many of us will relate to – boring business presentations and conferences that you wonder why you bothered. If you can keep up with it from here on then it is enjoyable even if logic and sense.

Visually the film really works even if the budget constraints are clear here and there. Director Natali injects a lot of style and imagination into it and also delivers a real sense of urgency and paranoia that helps the material work. The cast are a mixed bunch, although in this sort of film the characters tend not to be that well developed in all parts. Northam takes the lead role and does it well, making his character a drag little everyman but also convincingly changing him gradually across the film. Lucy Liu is not as good; she is a bit flat but fortunately she has limited screen time and was only what I'd call really bad one time. The support cast are all OK, delivering the required mix of the ordinary and the sinister to good effect even if they are all pretty straightforward.

Overall this is a nice little thriller in the style of things like Usual Suspects, Memento and the like. You do need to suspend belief and, if you can, it is enjoyably twisty and slick and is pretty exciting. Of course if you dislike the genre (the sort that has to keep moving for fear of getting caught by its own lack of logic) then you'll hate it but everyone else should at least get a fun 90 minutes from it.