Net, The (1995, Jeremy Northam, Sandra Bullock)

After her successes in Speed and While You Were Sleeping, Sandra Bullock returned to the thriller genre with Winkler’s paranoid-led computer conspiracy film The Net that pays homage to Hitchcock while offering both glitz and pace.

Bullock plays a freelance computer consultant whose idea of recreation is to spend more time on screen. But on the eve of her first holiday in years, a colleague sends her a new Internet programme with a warning that it contains material that is, literally, explosive. But he is killed in a plane crash on the way to see her. She takes off on holiday, with the material locked into her laptop and on the Mexican beach, meets fellow hacker Jeremy Northam who’s interested in her mind, her body and her information. But he is not all he seems…

Fleeing back home, Ryan then confronts another nightmare. Not only is she the only person who knows about a threat that could cause global chaos but her life is in danger. She has ceased to exist – her new persona is that of a shiftless, habitual criminal with outstanding warrants, created by her enemies using computer technology to, literally, change her personality. With both the law and the lawless after her, Ryan must go on the run…

Winkler, like Hitchcock, place an ordinary person at the centre of extraordinary events and half the fun is to see how Ryan reacts to this hidden world she’s stumbled in to. If the set pieces (a carousel, an empty convention centre) are a little contrived, Winkler carries the suspense and action forward with aplomb and both Bullock and Northam reward him with excellent performances.

production details
USA / 1995 / 114 minutes / 1995

Director: Irwin Winkler
Writers: John D. Brancato, Michael Ferris,

cast
Jeremy Northam as Jack Devlin
Sandra Bullock as Angela Bennett/Ruth Marx
Dennis Miller as Dr. Alan Champion
Wendy Gazelle as Ruth Marx
Ken Howard as Michael Bergstrom
Ray McKinnon as Dale Hessman
Daniel Schorr as WNN Anchor
L. Scott Caldwell as Public Defender
Kristina Krofft as Nurse #1
Tony Perez as Mexican Doctor
Gene Kirkwood as Stan Whiteman
Christopher Darga as Cop
Charles Winkler as Cop
Julia Pearlstein as Nurse #2
Rick Snyder as Russ Melbourne
Gerald Berns as Jeff Gregg
Tannis Benedict as Elevator Woman
Vaughn Armstrong as Trooper
Wren T. Brown as Trooper
Lynn Blades as Remote Reporter
Israel Juarbe as Thief
Julia Vera as Mexican Nun
Lewis Dix Jr. as FedEx man
Lili Flanders as Embassy Worker
Adam Winkler as Computer Nerd
Brian E. Frankish as Shuttle Driver
Wanda-Lee Evans as Desk Sergeant
David Winkler as Compuer Technician
Andrew Amador as Dermot Conley
Juan García
Diane Baker as Mrs. Bennett
Robert Gossett as Ben Phillips