During the month of March, 2019th, I checked out the movie “The Girl In The Spider’s Web,” which is about Lisbeth Salander, a hacker, and Mikael Blomkvist, a magazine editor. Mostly, this flick revolves around Lisbeth’s struggles with her estrangled Russian crime family. Also, the story deals with national security issues. This film is the fourth installment in a series of movies, which are based on novels.
At the beginning of this film, Lisbeth Sander is wanted by the police. A Local news station reports witness accounts about a string of attacks, reporting, “A string of vigilantee attacks has rocked the city of Stockholm… ‘I don’t know her name. I never seen her before. If my daughter and I had a message for her, i just want to say thank you?’ Here, the news is talking about Lisbeth Solander.
Mikael Blomkvist, editor of Millenium magazine and friend of Lisbeth, returns in “The Girl In the Spider’s Web. Once again, he’s the side-kick of Lisbeth. However, he’s not the head editor in this segment.
Also, Erika Berger, a Millenium board member and still having an affair with Mikael, is back in this movie. In one scene from the movie, Erika informs Mikhail of the magazines new boss, “He has over two million followers online. How many do you have?”
Plus, Plague, Lisbeth’s friend and partner in hacking, returns for “The Girl In The Spider’s Web.”During one scene, Plague contacts Lisbeth about a potential job, explaining: “There is a client asking for the impossible. Interested?”
In this movie, we learn about Lisbeth’s sister and father. Lizabeth says, “She worked for my father for years. He was a psychopath. Turns out she was the same. I am glad they are both dead.” Apparently, Lisbeth has a real nice family and doesn’t want anything to do with her family- ha ha.
During this film, Lizbeth is asked to steal a program for Frans Balder, a former NSA analyst and here’s the odd part: the program is his program. Anyways, Frans tells Lisabeth at a secret meeting: “So do you think it can be done? The sum of all my sins. A 2725 byte piece of software. It’s a single instant filing copy. reproduced, copied, and only moved. They told me I’d have control over it. But they lied. I’d realized too late that I’d created an abomination. Please help me.”
However, Lisbeth has reservations about stealing back his program from the NSA, one agency in the executive branch of the US government. Lisbeth says, “It depends. What am I looking for? So you want me to steal it?”
For Frans Balder, this program must be stolen for world security reasons.
“Take military systems, for example. Since 911 all global defense systems are controlled by satilite networks, and such networks are all protected by the same quantum encryption protocol. A tool of the kind, we are discussing here, could effortly access the tactical and nuclear arsenals of most world powers. By his personal computer, a single user would simply be imbued with God-like power.”
Meanwhile, the NSA discusses security breaches on it’s servers throughout the movie. “It appears the Russians are claiming it to be some kind of systems security breach. This is a Russian Topol MS 127 missile. Code launch a three stage solid propellor. It was moved into launch position a week ago. Any special division head, we urge you to come forward as a result of any classified project you may be working on. Obviously, we respect the facts. We don’t want to jeopardize the security of the process. The security state department has requested for us to cooperate in any way we can with the Kremlin,” says a NSA officer during a defense briefing.
In regards to Mikael’s role in the movie, once again, Lisbeth needs his help. “I need your help. That is the first test of Project Firefall. It’s a tool designed to breach and control most online defense systems. Frans Balder developed it for the Americans, and hired me to take it back from them. I think he wanted to destroy it.”
Throughout the movie, Gabriella Grane, a Swedish government deputy, is calling the shots from behind the scenes. Gabriella tells an NSA analyst on Swedish soil: “NSA special division, formly military, field ops, Afghanistan, Mexico, Ukraine. Special division. Is that an American euphemism for no accountability and no oversight?”
During this conversation, we learn the analysts’ name, Ed Needham. However , he’s not in Sweden on official business.
“Funny part about that, I am not here on business. Pleasure. Look, am I being deported?”
In response, the deputy has some advice for Needham. Grane says, “The NSA has no business on Swedish soil.” She adds, “If you engage in any activities not in that book, I will have you arrested and put back on the first plane back to Washington. Now have a nice day.”
Meanwhile, Plague, a hacker and friend of Lisbeth, makes an appearance in “The Girl In The Spider’s Web.” It seems he’s just hacked the Swedish government defense servers: “I got into the SAPO servers. They are keeping him at 774 Bourough… There are two plains clothes officers in the car. And several more uniformed officers on the premises. Careful Lisbeth.”
Once again, the authorities are looking for Lisbeth in this movie. Deputy Grane tells Mikael, “Your friend, Salander, has perpetuated a cyber attack on the most important security agency in America.”
Further, Lisbeth’s family is a Russian crime family. “Lisbeth’s father. He was part of a Russian crime ring.”
Moreover, it comes out in this movie that Lisbeth doesn’t like Mikael writing about her “family.” In a close moment with Mikael, she tells him: “I bet you can’t wait to write a story about all this. About me. My psycho family. Just like you did last time.”
In the end, Mikael figures out the bad guy in this movie. He tells Grane: “How did they know? How did the Spiders know Balder’s location? You’re the client. You were buying Firefall from her. Now Augustine and Lisbeth are paying the price for all this.” In response, she says: “Access by a single user to online nuclear weapons. Would you rather have that in the hands of the Americans, the nation that never missed a war, or us? The nation that never went to war?”
Overall, I liked this movie. Once again, we have Lisbeth Salander hacking and dealing with criminal rings and national security. Of course, Lisbeth saves the day. And evil government officials are exposed. In terms of technology and hacking, the film was ok. I give this movie a golden star.
