Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘Firewall’

Written by Scott Edwards 

It can be very stressful when you or your company is being merged with another group. Not knowing how your role will change, much less if you will have a job, the unknowns outweigh the positives for the most part. It is important not to stress out about this, since the decision is out of your hands and there is nothing you can do to stop it, especially if you are not at the highest level of the company. Most of the time you and your talent will be retained, since there are so many moving pieces, your job remains essential for longer than you might expect.

Jack Stanfield is trying to keep up on the trends of internet hacking and has a couple more tricks up his sleeve when it comes to combating them. Being in charge of internet security for a small branch of banks, his team is looking forward to a merger with a much larger bank. With his workload not being affected at this time, Jack knows that he will be obsolete very quickly since there are younger and brighter employees out there that can do more with a computer than he has been required to for some time.

Getting a strange visit from a debt collector, Jack finds out that his identity has been stolen and used to rack up a ninety-five thousand dollar gambling bill. Not ever having this happen to him before, Jack turns to his good friend Harry that can help to make this problem go away. Harry also has another proposition for Jack if he has the time, being contacted by William Cox about a possible job. Jack is more than willing to hear the man out, and the offer that has been put on a silver platter before Harry and Jack is too good to be true. Needing to think about it, Jack gets ready to drive home, but he finds that he will have a passenger with him for the duration.

Arriving home to see his family bound and gagged, Jack has no choice but to listen to what Cox wants from him. With the merger going through at the bank, Jack will have the opportunity to gain access to many more account numbers, thus giving Cox the ability to steal a hundred million dollars, electronically. Jack will not let anything bad happen to his family, but has to find a way to keep the money from falling into Cox’s hands. Trying to find an alternative to wiring all of the money with his name attached, Jack explores his options at the bank, but when he is caught, he finds out that there are penalties that will be taken out on his wife and kids. Knowing that he is being monitored by the new bank director, Jack has to find a different way to gather all of the information he needs and not get caught before the wire transfer takes place or his family will be killed by Cox and his men.

This movie was released in 2006 and it still scares me to this day. With all of our lives on the computer now, it is hard to believe that more people do not get involved in partial situations like this. I know that robbing a bank might be a little extreme, but extortion and sabotage do not seem that farfetched. I liked how the technology of the day was utilized, even an MP3 player came into the mix, but a movie like this will always feel dated, unless you have lived through the era. I do like seeing Harrison Ford running around trying to save his family from whatever threat they have gotten themselves into, since it seems like it is the role he was born for. Not a bad story, it has is parts where it may drag a bit, but overall, it plays out well and begs you to remember the horrors that the internet could cause.

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