THE TAKEOVER

2022, 87 minutes, Colour.

Holly Mae Brood, Geza Weisz, Frank Lammers, Susan Radder, Walid Benmbarek, Jeremiah Fleming, Lawrence Sheldon.

Directed by Annemarie van der Mond.

This is a brief action film from Holland. The central character is an expert hacker, discovered at 16, continuing to supervise for companies, finding something wrong with a company’s system, sending out a Trojan horse to halt activities – with dire consequences. There was Run, Lola, Run – now there is Run, Mel, Run. Experts have made up a fake video of her killing the victim. She is going to the police, seeing thugs who are shooting at her and her boyfriend at the police station, gone on the run with him.

There is something frantic about her behaviour, contacting her friends on screen, contacting an old hacker, Buddy, whom she had put in to Interpol. He has liked Mel, turns up, tries to expose the fake video but is threatened by an international criminal who is trying to rectify the computer situations, especially for the participation of a Chinese company responsible to the Chinese government. This scenario and companies being hacked, references to the Chinese hackers, will resonate with many audiences.

The company is producing a driverless bus and, when it is launched, the electricity is put out of control and there is bus speeding along Rotterdam streets, echoes of 1994 is popular bus drama, Speed.  And all ends well!

1. Dutch drama? Settings in Holland and Belgium? Characters?
2. The world of technology, IT, files and codes, companies and protection of information, shared information, illegal connections, hacking?
3. The locations, the countryside, Rotterdam, the city, views, harbour, bridges, aerial views, buildings, bus routes…? The musical score?
4. The prologue, the issue of hacking, interrupting workings, Buddy called in, his skills, tracking down the offender, discovering Mel at 16? Her skills? (The later filling out of the story, working with Buddy, then reporting him to Interpol because he was keeping the money from their work and exposes, his fleeing, no contact for years, his resentments?)
5. Mel, 10 years later, as a personality, obsessed, her IT skills? Called in to the firm, the issue of the driverless buses, the international connections, the manager, her supporting Mel, Mel investigating, discovering the interference, sending the Trojan horse for disruption, the enormous international repercussions of this action?
6. Mel, travelling on the bus, the security photo? The threats, the consequences of the Trojan horse? The contact visually with her working friends? Her going out with Thomas, the Chinese meal, his concoction, her decision to leave? Later coming to apologise? On the television showing her killing the man in the lane? With Thomas, the two men coming to the apartment, with the guns, shooting, the escape?
7. Her having gone to the police, talking with the detective, about the disruption with the codes, her leaving, the escape, after seeing the two thugs at police headquarters? Going to Thomas, getting his help?
8. Mel, on the run, realising that to prove her innocence and the murder sequence fake, the need to contact Buddy? She and Tom’s waiting for him? His turning up, forgiving her the past, his liking Mel? His working on the computers, his discoveries about the international interconnections?
9. Rogers, the thugs, the pursuits, his frustrations, finding Buddy, holding the gun, shooting him? Mel and Thomas escaping, Rogers in pursuit, his car bogged and their escaping?
10. The detective, his assistant, believing Mel guilty, changing his mind, going into action, Thomas connecting with him, the issue with the bus on the bridge? His going to the company, talking with the manager, her being abrupt, yet making the phone calls, and Rogers threatening her?
11. The launch of the bus, the gathering, the speeches, photo identity, the champagne on the bus, the electricity failing, the bus out of control, echoes of 1994’s Speed?
12. Mel, going to the company, Rogers tracking her down, their fighting? Her trying to rectify the situation? The detective arriving with the police, Rogers taken in? Mel, contact with Thomas in the car, the connection in the car, taking it to the bus, climbing onto the bus, into the bus, making the connection, stopping the bus at the edge of the water? The criminals raising the bridge for a crash?
13. Mel, showing the detective the true killer, the imposition of her identity, proving her innocence?
14. The expose of the manipulation of information, hackers, power? And, in this case, the Chinese connection and audience response to the history of Chinese hacking?
15. And happy ending, Buddy’s tape and leaving her the money for a company and a future for Thomas and Mel? Yet her continued obsession?