moviefreak

This 2002 sci-fi movie could’ve been better had I not been able to guess the ending he he he…It has all the twists and turns that can make a good movie. Unfortunately, even though I couldn’t guess the details, but I could give a right guess to one particular important thing in the movie, so that makes me feel a bit disappointed. Overall, though, it’s a pretty good movie. At least I wasn’t bored while watching it. I’ll give it a 6.7 stars out of 10.

The Story:

In the beginning, we find Morgan Sullivan (Jeremy Northam) being tested to be a potential spy of a company named Digicorp and he passes the tests. It seems that his wife wants him to stay home and wait for her Dad to give her a job opportunity instead of looking for a job on his own. However, Morgan insists on taking the job in that pharmaceutical company, though he has to lie to his wife about this. After all, he’s supposed to be a SPY, right?

Well, he’s then sent to some kind of convention under the name Jack Thursby and he’s told to record everything that’s been said by the speakers. He’s bored to death by the boring speeches, but he does follow orders well. Despite his wife’s protest, he has to go to another convention as his next assignment in order to do the same thing. It seems that the pharmaceutical company he works for wants to steal information about their competing company named Sunways.

On this assignment, he meets an attractive woman named Rita Foster (Lucy Liu). He feels attracted to her, but she knows that he’s married. After taping the speeches at the convention, he is “attacked” by a group of people, one of whom is Rita, and he’s forced to tell them what kind of device he uses to record the speeches in the convention. Then Rita explains to him that he’s been fooled by people who hire him and that the convention is merely a “mask” for something else. She gives him tablets to take since she knows that ever since he was hired by the company, he’s been having nightmares and neck pain. He is also given an injection to get rid of the drug effect given by the company during the convention. Rita tells him to stay as Jack Thursby no matter what other people say and that he shouldn’t react to anything during the convention no matter what happens.

After being injected, he stays “sober” during the convention and he realizes that other people have lost their consciousness, though their eyes are open. Although the speaker of the convention still gives a speech, then some people come out to brainwash them by putting some kind of device above their heads and they’re forced to watch some tapes over and over again. Each individual is given different tapes that shows different kinds of life and lifestyle. Then they’re “sent off” to their new lives. Upon boarding the plane, Morgan is sedated and he wakes up in a new house, new environment, and new wife and he’s called Jack Thursby.

What’s going on here? Why are they doing that to all those people at the convention? Can the mysterious Rita help?

Stop here if you don’t want to read the spoiler he he he…

OK, I’m warning you again…

Still scrolling down? OK then as you wish…

So the bottom line is that Digicorp has brainwashed all those people so that Sunways would hire them as their agents. However, Sunways finds out that Morgan is not brainwashed, so the head of the company tells him to be a double agent. At first he doesn’t want to do so, but he’s told that if Digicorp finds out that he’s not brainwashed, he’ll be eliminated. So he starts following orders from Sunways this time.

Still confused, he contacts Rita Foster again for help. Rita tells him that Sebastian Rooks can help him get a new life and a new identity. She tells him that once Sunways doesn’t need Morgan anymore, he’ll be eliminated. So now his choice is to trust Rooks to protect him. On his last assignment for Sunways, he has to switch the disk with the one Rooks gives him. The disk contains a search program that will log in into Sunways’ computer network and steal a file.

Turns out that Morgan Sullivan is actually NOT Morgan Sullivan. He’s actually Sebastian Rooks, the spy that nobody has ever seen. He “brainwashes” himself to be Morgan Sullivan and he hires someone to be his wife just to get into Digicorp. He knows all along that he’ll be brainwashed by Digicorp and then he can work for Sunways. He wants to steal some data about Rita Foster from Sunways’ computer network, since Rita is his actual girlfriend. Why does he want to steal the data about Rita? Because in Digicorp’s computer system, Rita Foster is scheduled to be “eliminated” and he’s erased the file at Sunways’ computer network.

At first he doesn’t remember that he is actually Sebastian Rooks, but after some time he remembers again. The movie ends with Sebastian Rooks and Rita Foster sailing together happily.