Swordfish (2001)

The beginning of the movie starts with Gabriel, the lead "bad guy", discussing movies. The topic: realism. The idea that the bad guy never gets away with his crime is, according to him, unrealistic. This concept will play a major role in how the viewer expects the movie to conclude, and how it actually does.



I like this next scene because it demonstrates thoroughly the destructive nature of a bomb. These days we hear about bombs and we think "big fiery explosion" with stuff pushed out. But not all explosions have that effect, which is shown by the bomb which explodes in this scene. Many pounds of C4 explosive and canisters of ball bearings have been strapped to hostages. The bombs are controlled by a proxy sensor which will detonate the explosives should a hostage wander too far. As is evident from this scene, one of the hostages strays. The scene itself is a slow-motion "matrix-style" sort of thing. As the explosion occurs, the camera slows down the speed of the film while simultaneously panning in an arc around the bank containing the criminals and remaining hostages. This method lets the viewer take in all the details.



This last scene is another example of foreshadowing. Here, Gabriel (bad guy) queries Stanley (hacker) about how Houdini became such a successful magician. The key is misdirection, which also provides a key element in the direction of the plot of this film.