Director Michael Mann's Blackhat Arrives On May 30 From Arrow Video As A 4K Ultra HD Edition

Filmmaker Michael Mann started the Hannibal Lecter craze with Manhunter in 1986, The Last of the Mohicans followed in 1992 and Heat was a hit in 1995 … The Insider (1999), Ali (2001) and Collateral (2004) all followed.  

He teamed up with Martin Scorsese for The Aviator in 2004 (as producer … Best Picture nomination) and then back to directing with Miami Vice in 2006 and Public Enemies in 2009.   By any standard, that’s an impressive film list.

Six years passed — producing only — and then came the release in 2015 of one of his most misunderstood films, Blackhat.

Arrow Video, with domestic sales and distribution support provided by MVD Entertainment Group, announced this past week that a 4K Ultra HD edition of Blackhat will be heading home on May 30.

Chris Hemsworth (The Avengers, Thor, Thor: The Dark World, Avengers: Age of Ultron) stars as Nick Hathaway, a “super” hacker doing hard time for his activities, but as “luck” would have it another hacker (or hackers) tripped the coolant system in a Hong Kong nuclear plant into meltdown mode.   It seems that the software used was something that Nick was involved with when he was a student at MIT.

His old roommate, Chen Dawai (Leehom Wang), is now a military officer with the communist government of China and very much into cyber security.   His sister, Chen Lien (Tang Wei), as “luck” would have it is a cyber engineer (one of those small world things … times two).

In any case, Chen Dawai hooks up with the FBI after the Chicago Mercantile Exchange is also hacked (same software) and requests that Nick be cut loose to help track down the source of the cyber-attacks in exchange for his freedom.

That’s your set-up.   Who do you like in this one?   The Chinese?   A self-professed hacker criminal?   It is the same set-up, for the most part, as Heat — anti-heroes (one and all) — that you find yourself rooting for.   A mystery; a thriller.

Bonus features include commentary by film critics Bryan Reesman and Max Evry and five featurettes — “Firewall,” “Zero Day Threat,” “The Cyber Threat,” “On Location Around the World” and “Creating Reality.”