''Track Down'' (also known as ''Takedown'' outside the United States) is a 2000 American

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...

based on the non-fiction book ''Takedown: The Pursuit and Capture of Kevin Mitnick, America's Most Wanted Computer Outlaw—By the Man Who Did It'' by

Tsutomu Shimomura is a Japanese-born American physicist and computer security expert. He is known for helping the FBI track and arrest hacker Kevin Mitnick. ''Takedown'', his 1996 book on the subject with journalist John Markoff, was later adapted for the s ...

and

John Markoff John Gregory Markoff (born October 24, 1949) is a journalist best known for his work covering technology at '' The New York Times'' for 28 years until his retirement in 2016, and a book and series of articles about the 1990s pursuit and captur ...

, about the manhunt for computer hacker

Kevin Mitnick Kevin David Mitnick (born August 6, 1963) is an American computer security consultant, author, and convicted hacker. He is best known for his high-profile 1995 arrest and five years in prison for various computer and communications-related crim ...

. It is directed by

Joe Chappelle Joseph Chappelle is an American screenwriter, producer, and director of film and television. He is perhaps best known for his work on the critically acclaimed HBO series ''The Wire'', where he directed six episodes and served as co-executive pr ...

, with as screenplay by Howard A. Rodman, John Danza, and

David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

Leslie Newman Leslie Newman (1938 – c. 2021) was a screenwriter who co-wrote the first three '' Superman'' films with husband David Newman, who died in 2003. She was born in 1939, in the United States. They had two children together. She has written a no ...

. The film stars Skeet Ulrich as Mitnick and Russell Wong as Shimomura, with Angela Featherstone,

Donal Logue Donal Francis Logue (born February 27, 1966) is a Canadian actor. He starred in the film '' The Tao of Steve'' and has had roles in the TV series ''Sons of Anarchy'', ''Vikings'', '' Grounded for Life'', ''Copper'', ''Terriers'', and, as Detecti ...

Christopher McDonald Christopher McDonald (born February 15, 1955) is an American film, television, theatre and voice actor. McDonald is best known for playing the villainous professional golfer Shooter McGavin in the 1996 comedy '' Happy Gilmore''. Other notabl ...

Master P Percy Robert Miller Sr. (born April 29, 1967), known by his stage name Master P, is an American rapper, record executive, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur. He is the founder of the record label No Limit Records, which was relaunched as ...

, and

Tom Berenger Tom Berenger (born Thomas Michael Moore; May 31, 1949) is an American actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Staff Sergeant Bob Barnes in ''Platoon'' (1986). He is also known for playing Jake ...

. Upon release, the film and its source material came under controversy due to inaccuracies and falsehoods alleged by Mitnick against Shimomura and the screenwriters. The film's producers faced a lawsuit from author Jonathan Littman, who alleged that portions of the film's screenplay were taken from his book ''The Fugitive Game: Online with Kevin Mitnick.'' As such, the film was not released in the United States until September 24, 2004, where it was released

direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy wa ...

Dimension Films Dimension Films is an American film production company owned by Lantern Entertainment. It was formerly used as Harvey and Bob Weinstein's label within Miramax, which was acquired by The Walt Disney Company on June 30, 1993, to produce and r ...

Summary

For years

had eluded federal agents while using the latest electronic gadgetry to break into countless computers and gain access to sensitive and valuable information. But when he breaches the system of leading computer crimes expert

, it sets off an epic chase through cyberspace between a pair of hard-driven geniuses operating on different sides of the law.

Cast

* Skeet Ulrich as

* Russell Wong as

* Angela Featherstone as Julia *

as Alex Lowe *

as Mitch Gibson *

as Brad *

as McCoy Rollins *

Jeremy Sisto Jeremy Merton Sisto (born October 6, 1974) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Billy Chenowith in HBO's '' Six Feet Under'', NYPD Detective Cyrus Lupo in NBC's ''Law & Order'', George Altman in the ABC sitcom '' Suburgatory'', ...

as Lance "Icebreaker" Petersen *

Amanda Peet Amanda Peet (born January 11, 1972) is an American actress. She began her career with small parts on television, and made her feature film debut in '' Animal Room'' (1995). Her portrayal of Jill St. Claire in '' The Whole Nine Yards'' (2000) bro ...

as Karen *

Ethan Suplee Ethan Suplee (; born May 25, 1976) is an American film and television actor. He is best known for his roles in the films ''American History X'', ''Remember the Titans'', ''John Q'', '' The Wolf of Wall Street'', ''Without a Paddle'', and several ...

as Dan Bradley * Dorit Sauer as Shelley * Scott Cooper as Jake Cronin *

Ned Bellamy Ned Bellamy (born May 7, 1957) is an American actor. Early life and education Bellamy was educated at UCLA. His brother, Mark Bellamy, was the United States Ambassador to Kenya from 2003 until 2006. Career After graduating from UCLA, Bellamy ...

as Tom Fiori * Sara Melson as Rachel * J. C. Quinn as Sgt. Tom Janks * Cara Buono as Christina Painter *

Mitch Pileggi Mitch Pileggi (born April 5, 1952) is an American actor. He played Horace Pinker in '' Shocker'', Walter Skinner on ''The X-Files'', Colonel Steven Caldwell on '' Stargate Atlantis'', Ernest Darby in ''Sons of Anarchy'', and Harris Ryland in t ...

as Bruce Koball The real Tsutomu Shimomura makes a

cameo appearance A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly ei ...

as a hacker.

Release

The film was released to theaters in France as ''Cybertraque'' in 2000, then on DVD in EuropeKevin Poulsen (September 9, 2004)
"Mitnick movie comes to the US"
''

The Register ''The Register'' is a British technology news website co-founded in 1994 by Mike Magee, John Lettice and Ross Alderson. The online newspaper's masthead sublogo is "''Biting the hand that feeds IT''." Their primary focus is information tech ...

''. (SecurityFocus). as ''Takedown'' later, such as in Germany in May 2003. It was released on DVD in the U.S. as ''Track Down'' in late 2004.

Criticism

Factual inaccuracies

In Kevin Mitnick's ''The Art of Deception'', Mitnick states that both book and movie are "extremely inaccurate" and based on media hype. In the film, Mitnick and Shimomura meet twice; one of these meetings prompts Kevin to flee to Seattle. This meeting did not actually take place. The film depicts Mitnick hacking into Shimomura's computers and stealing/deleting his files and software. Though Mitnick admits hacking Shimomura's computers using IP spoofing, he claims he never caused any damage to anyone by deleting files or data, merely copying source code of some software, out of curiosity. The film also shows Mitnick hacking NORAD, the NSA and other famous government institutes, which never in fact happened. The 2001 documentary '' Freedom Downtime'' tries to get behind some of the false rumors about Kevin Mitnick that ended up being presented as facts in the film.

Lawsuit regarding alleged copyright violation

In 1997, California author Jonathan Littman wrote ''The Fugitive Game: Online with Kevin Mitnick'', in which he presented Mitnick's side of the story. Littman alleged that portions of the film were taken from his book without permission. As a result, Littman sued

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Disney Stud ...

and

Miramax Miramax, LLC, also known as Miramax Films, is an American film and television production and distribution company founded on December 19, 1979, by brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein, and based in Los Angeles, California. It was initially a lea ...

References

External links

* * *
Seattle Times article detailing Mitnick's stay in Seattle
{{Joe Chappelle 2000 films 2000 action thriller films American action thriller films Films about computing Films about the Internet Films based on non-fiction books Films shot in North Carolina Films with screenplays by David Newman (screenwriter) Films with screenplays by Leslie Newman Films directed by Joe Chappelle Works about computer hacking 2000s English-language films 2000s American films