The Net (1995)

Plot of The Net: Angela Bennet is a freelance computer analyst who communicates with friends via the internet, and also by post. She receives a 2 ¼” disc from a friend and finds it gives her access to a variety of secret information. Meanwhile the friend, in his small aircraft, crashes when his nav system fails. Angela visits her mother who is an Alzheimer’s sufferer and does not know who she is. When she goes on holiday to Mexico she is befriended by a tall dark stranger, who seduces her, but conspires to steal her purse and all her ID information. He then takes her out on a speed boat in order to kill her, but she escapes and is rescued by nuns.  Angela is unable to convince people in the US embassy of her ID, but takes on some-one else’s to get back into America. There she finds that her house is up for sale and that another woman occupies her desk in the office of her employers. Meanwhile the villain is still after her, because she has a copy of the disc.

Content: There is implied sex but no nudity and just a bit of social drinking. Angela spends time at her computer, playing games, typing stuff in and using the mouse. She has a desktop which has slots for both 5” and 2 ¼” discs. The exchanges info with her friend by Fedex envelopes. Jack Devlin, the man after her is a creepy Englishman. She gets together with him in Mexico. She calls her former lover, also her therapist who helps her, but he is hospitalised and killed by the villains who alter his hospital records. Angela has her records changed on the police computer so that she is chased by the highway patrol and arrested. She is bailed by a fake FBI man, but escapes and runs away. There is a lot of running. The climax takes place at a computer convention.

A View: Well, having written out this summary the film does not sound great, but actually is quite engaging, and as most critics have said Sandra Bullock does pretty well. And it seems to have made money despite middling reviews. It is a pretty well known trope, innocent person caught up in a plot for no reason they know of, but even so it works pretty well, and now you’ve read this you could have it on while doing something else.

Fun Fact: Really liked the discs, the enormous monitors and the clunky systems. The flat screens in 2001 A Space Odyssey were actually screens with 16mm projectors behind them.