The American "desktop movie" focuses on network attack and defense, revealing Hollywood's two-sided exploration of personal privacy

Source: Global Times

The "information explosion" in the Internet era has deeply touched many people, and how to protect personal privacy and security from being stolen and abused by hackers or other people with ulterior motives is a very conflicting topic. "Network Mysteries 2", released in the United States at the beginning of this year, shows how ordinary netizens fully call online resources to find clues to solve cases through a unique "network movie" form, and also warns of the ubiquity of hackers, even belonging to the US government, revealing Hollywood's two-sided exploration of personal privacy.

"Desktop Movie"

In "Cyber Mysteries 2", a girl named Jon discovers that her mother and boyfriend have not heard from her after traveling to Colombia, and she is in the United States to ask the embassy for help, so she can only use the Internet to find clues. However, as Jon investigates deeply, more mysteries make her overwhelmed: not only discovers that the identity of her mother's boyfriend has been falsified, but also learns a large number of family truths that her mother has never told her, the plot has been reversed many times, and the heroine has found clues and goodwill support on the Internet, but also encountered doubts and online violence, and this evil consequence even extends to real life.

Throughout the film, almost all clues rely on the Internet to collect, and ubiquitous hackers can provide any service, such as the girl hiring someone to hack into the mother's boyfriend's social media account, the girl's biological father hacking into the home camera and other details, so that the audience realizes that the electronic devices around them are not safe, and personal privacy is basically in a "semi-exposed" state.

"Cyber Mysteries 2" uses a unique "desktop movie" expression to present information through search engines, social accounts, maps, street views, cameras and other terminals on computer and mobile phone screens, making the audience feel immersed, as if they are using these functions, distance and language are not a problem. On the contrary, hackers can also easily obtain important information from ordinary netizens, companies, institutions, and even the police and military, and this "supernatural" technology has appeared and been played up many times in Hollywood movies.

"Generation Z" daughters look for their mothers

"Cyber Mysteries 2" is not the first "new concept movie" to present the plot through the Internet and screens, the film's creators Anish Chaganty and Seif Ohanian have been skilled in using this technique in 2018's "Cyber Mysteries", but the plot is that the father who is an engineer is looking for his daughter through the Internet, this time the daughter of "Generation Z" who lives online all year round finds her mother through the Internet, this setting ensures enough motivation emotionally, and the protagonist's network skills are also convincing. "Network Mysteries" won 30.49 million yuan at the box office after its release in China, which also allowed the audience to see the charm of desktop movies.

Similar in concept and approach to the "Cyber Mysteries" series, 2018's "Unfriend 2: The Dark Web" is more focused on rendering the mystery and horror of the Internet. In addition, in the British drama "Halloween Special of Secret No. 9", the online live broadcast was also used to fake the documentary style, and the French movie "Pop-up Horror" used the Internet and camera to form a narrative throughout the process. In 2015, episode 16 of the sixth season of Modern Family was a comedy story told entirely on a computer desktop.

Chaganty, the creator of the "Cyber Mysteries" series, revealed in an interview that he was inspired by a Google ad "Paris Love", which uses online search engines, web text and images to reveal the purpose and state of characters - a technique that is now widely used in Hollywood movies.

For this low-cost, unique Internet era movie, the audience and the media gave a good evaluation. After the release of "Network Mysteries 2", the North American box office reached 32.45 million US dollars, the global box office also had 45.05 million US dollars, the Rotten Tomatoes website scored 88% freshness (media evaluation) and 90% popcorn index (audience evaluation), and the comprehensive score of Metacriti mainstream media also had 67 points.

The Hollywood Reporter commented that "Cyber Mysteries 2" maintains a gripping sense of rhythm, gradually cutting into deeper mysteries through email, social media, etc., and collecting personal information far beyond people's awareness. The Los Angeles Times said that in addition to the amazing speed of plot development and interesting process, the film also reflects the realism of the real world, and it is common for social media and short videos to leak personal information.

Privacy vs. information disclosure

If the hackers in "Cyber Mysteries 2" are just "tool people" used by heroines and villains for private purposes, then in many more costly Hollywood action, thriller and sci-fi films, the image of hackers is deliberately exaggerated and exaggerated to become another character image solidified on the screen, many of which are US government or military personnel.

App Search reviewed Hollywood movies' various ways of portraying hackers, including clichés that have led people to form "stereotypes" about hackers. For example, depicting hackers as mentally disturbed "mad scientists", the villain of "Life and Death 2" was played by Willem Dafoe as a computer-savvy madman. There are also hackers who are terrorists who are in retaliation against governments and even all of humanity, with very narrow political purposes.

In addition, Hollywood movies often portray hackers as "ninjas"-like action masters, wearing turtlenecks and breaking into the system, and Hugh Jackman in "Operation Swordfish" even hacked the US Department of Defense host within 60 seconds, or left a show off mark when invading like "007: Skyfall".

In the Hollywood action film "Fast and Furious 7", the high-tech tracking product "Sky Eye" made by hackers can locate anyone's location in a short time through various clues, and this device eventually falls into the hands of the US government. In the earlier "Spy" series, the CIA could also quickly locate the target location through the change of bank account or itinerary, and it seemed that it was no difficulty for them to obtain the personal privacy of ordinary people.

What do companies and institutions that capture personal privacy do with this data? The 2019 Netflix documentary "Privacy Thief" tells how data companies during the US election period used big data collection and analysis Facebook and targeted push and other related technologies to capture or steal a large number of users' personal privacy from social platforms, including users' friend lists, like content, followers and fans, and speech keywords, etc., so as to determine users' political tendencies, so as to accurately place advertisements and induce users to "target voting".

It seems that there are two sides to Hollywood's approach to personal privacy, both by rendering the legendary story of hackers, showing the "great power" of the US government in obtaining personal information, and reminding ordinary people to attach importance to personal privacy and security, suggesting that they are actually "always under surveillance."