JAMES AND CARTER ARE SONS OF THE INTERNET
Carter is an elite hacker who infected the FBI’s Carnivore program with a potent computer virus, delaying its deployment by several years. For this, he was arrested by Agent Roberts, convicted of computer crimes and spent two years in Leavenworth. A condition of his parole is that he is forbidden from touching, much less using, a computer. His ex-wife, Melissa, has sole custody over their daughter Holly and some form of a permanent restraining order against Carter from seeing Holly.
While Carter is at home in rural Texas practicing his golf swing, a woman named Ginger Knowles shows up to solicit his hacking skills for her boss James (the co-owner of this site). For an initial $100,000 Carter agrees to meet with James. He and Ginger fly to Los Angeles, California and meet James in a night club. James pressures Carter right then and there to hack a government system in 60 seconds while simultaneously being held at gun point and having fellatio performed on him by a young woman. Although it was just a test (the gun was not loaded) Carter succeeded in hacking the system, a feat that James had not anticipated.
At James’ house he convinces Carter to write a worm for $10 million that steals money from a secret government slush fund on the order of $9.5 billion. James reveals to Carter that he works for an organization called the Black Cell that was started by J. Edgar Hoover in the 1950s, which is responsible for retaliatory attacks against terrorists who have attacked Americans. It is currently headed by Senator Reisman (Sam Shepard). Reisman discovers that the FBI has caught onto James and attempts to pull the plug. After James refuses to terminate plans Reisman attempts to have James killed, which fails. James tracks the Senator down while he is fly fishing in Bend, Oregon and kills him.
James proceeds with his plan and raids the local branch of the WORLDBANC. He takes hostages and deploys Carter’s worm. After stealing the $9.5B he boards the hostages and his crew on a bus out of the bank. James demands a plane at the local airport (a hostage negotiation cliché) but it was a diversion. An S-64 Aircrane swoops down, lifts the bus and releases it on the rooftop of a skyscraper. From the rooftop, James departs with his team in a helicopter which is shot down by Carter with a rocket-propelled grenade. At the morgue, Carter realizes it was more misdirection and James was not on the helicopter and “James Shear” is an alias.
The end of the film shows Ginger and “James” in Monte Carlo transferring that $9.5B into other accounts. The final scene shows a yacht being destroyed and a news anchor voice narrating that a suspected terrorist died on that yacht, although the DVD version contains an alternate ending wherein Ginger is told in the bank that the account is already empty, alluding to the possibility that Carter has played one final trick on them and taken the money himself. In a companion scene to the alternate ending, Carter is shown on a trip with his daughter in a brand new RV. While eating at a diner, Carter is shown transferring many billion dollars to various charities before continuing his trip.
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