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Cypher is a 2002 sci-fi thriller starring Jeremy Northam and Lucy Liu, directed by Vincenzo Natali of Cube and Splice fame.

The story follows Morgan Sullivan, a bored and henpecked house-husband who gets a job as a corporate spy in order to add some excitement into his dull routine and annoy his overbearing wife. At first he's thrilled by the prospect of creating a whole new life for himself as a "secret agent" but soon finds that the realities of the industry are somewhat less interesting - recording presentations about shaving cream distribution and consumer trends in the processed cheese market.

However, after he runs into a beguiling and flirtatious woman at a hotel bar, things take a dive off the deep end.

Beautifully shot with Natali's trademark visual flair, this was a smart low-budget neo-noir with a storyline very heavily influenced by PKD.

Not to be confused with Cypher Language.

WARNING: Colossal Spoilers Ahead!

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This film provides examples of:

• Accent Relapse: Inverted; Morgan goes through a few along the course of his espionage activities due to inventing an accent for his spy persona. Later subverted when he drops to his original British accent after remembering he's really Sebastian Rooks.
• Adrenaline Makeover: See Becoming the Mask.
• Applied Phlebotinum: The neurograph and Rooks' brainwashing devices.
• Badass: Sebastian Rooks, to the extent that even Finster and Callaway appear to fear him. Rooks later ensures his reputation is deserved when he kills them both in cold blood.
• Becoming the Mask: Morgan's transformation into the personality of his James Bond-esque alter ego, Jack Thursby. Later subverted when Morgan is (not-really-)brainwashed by Digicorp in that his new life is just like his old crushingly boring and futile life, and not like the swish and romantic one he had invented for his first assignments.
  "I... I smoke cigarettes! I play golf! I'm not supposed to live in the suburbs!"
• Beneath the Earth: The Vault.
• Bob Haircut: Rita.
• Brainwashed: Digicorp trains many of its field operatives this way, so they can pass through their opponents neurograph technology.
• Catapult Nightmare
• Chekhov's Armoury: See Foreshadowing below.
• The Chessmaster: Sebastian Rooks. He also has most of the qualities of the Magnificent Bastard and the Manipulative Bastard
• Chess Motifs: Explicitly stated. Sebastian Rooks is the, er, Rook with Morgan Sullivan being the Pawn. The clever part is the Pawn becoming the Rook when he reaches the reaches the metaphorical end of the board. The two opposing technology corporations, DigiCorp and Sunway Systems, are also color-coded as the opposing sides of a chess board, with DigiCorp being black, and Sunway Systems white.
• Deliberately Monochrome: Morgan's world is an endless succession of neutral tones, by way of a heavily desaturated look
• Drowning My Sorrows: Dunn is shown to habitually drink heavily after musing on his banishment to the Vault after neurograph machines made his job as a mole spotter obsolete
• Double Agent: Taken to ridiculous extremes. Almost every character is a double agent, to the extent you'll be sure that even the cleaners had a hidden agenda. And the protagonist is.. well, let's see.. He starts as a spy for Digicorp, they brainwash him into a double agent to be planted at Sunways, but Sunways had the brainwashing sabotaged so he could be a triple spy, then he contacts Foster to become a spy for Rooks, then gets tempted into betraying Rooks for Digicorp as Rooks mole in Digicorp had planned all along, and then turns out to be Rooks himself playing all the others. So that's 6 times, a Sextuple spy. Yeah.
• Elevator Action Sequence: A vertigo-inducing maglev variant
• Elevator Escape: See above
• The Enemy Of My Enemy Is My Friend: After being drawn in by her good looks, this is why Morgan begins to trust Rita.
• Eye Scream: The brainwashing devices
• Faceless Goons: The Sunways private army
• Feed the Mole: Sunways' plan for Jack Thursby; see also The Thirty-Six Stratagems.
• Femme Fatale: Rita Foster.
• 555: Notably averted with Rita's secret number, which uses the (unused) area code 436.
• Foreshadowing: And how. The boating book, whisky, Cohiba's, Rita, the bad dreams and headaches
• Friendless Background: Morgan.
• Gambit Pileup: Might as well be the Trope Codifier.
• Gambit Roulette: Not only is Digicorp plotting against Sunways through Morgan, but Sunways are plotting against Digicorp through Sebastian Rooks. However, Rooks is also plotting against Digicorp and Sunways through Morgan Sullivan by way of Rita Foster and... well, just go watch it.
• The Ghost: Sebastian Rooks. Later revealed to have been a massive subversion.
• Good Cop/Bad Cop: Played with with Finster and Callaway. Finster has a quietly menacing air about him from the word go, whilst Callaway is friendly and approachable when he introduces himself to Morgan. Later subverted in that we see that they're both equally vicious, murdering bastards with their own private army of Mooks.
• Henpecked Husband: Even after he's done all the cooking and cleaning, Morgan's wife shouts at him when he tells her he's going to be working freelance instead of going to work for her father. Thankfully Morgan has Taken a Level in Badass, and he refuses to go along with her plans for him. We later see an identical situation, with "Jack"'s wife ordering him about around the house and directing his career path.
• Homage: It's impossible to do a story like Cypher without at least alluding to PKD and Where Eagles Dare
• House Husband: Justified in that his wife is the breadwinner, but Morgan clearly doesn't enjoy being one.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Justified by Applied Phlebotinum
• Locked in a Freezer: One of the first scenes where Morgan is told what the hell is going on.
• MacGuffin: The disc from the vault.
• Manchurian Agent: Subverted. Morgan is already an agent and requires a trigger to go back to his normal self
• Mega Corp: Two of them, namely DigiCorp and Sunway Systems. Complete with intelligence agencies that dwarf those of most countries, and of course their own commando teams.
• Mock Millionaire: In getting into character, Morgan begins effecting traits of a globe-trotting playboy; wearing finer clothes, indulging in top-label scotch and cigarettes, referring to exotic locations he's traveled to on his yacht. Subverted, as those are all qualities of his true personality, a genuine billionaire.
• The Mole: Too many to count.
• No Budget: A film made for $7.5 million has no right to look this well-polished.
• Oh Crap: Morgan as he's trying to escape the lift shaft, plus Finster and Callaway as they see the bomb.
• Precision F-Strike: Don't ask Morgan to go and work for his father-in-law.
• Red Pill, Blue Pill: "If you want answers, take the shot."
• Secret Identity
• Serious Business: Whatever business Digicorp is in. Yes, industrial espionage happens in the real world, but the resources spend here to spy on their competitor, and to prevent them from spying on you, are really Turned Up to Eleven. Makes you wonder what exactly those companies make.
• Smoking Is Cool: Morgan takes up smoking as part of his spy persona.
• Spot the Imposter: "Are you a double agent?"
• Tomato in the Mirror: Morgan Sullivan is actually Sebastian Rooks.
• Took a Level in Badass: Justified.
• Twenty Minutes into the Future: The only real change from now is the introduction of the neurograph devices, and the implausible architectural structure that is the Vault.
• Twist Ending
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
  • Doesn't actually happen, but people keep warning the protagonist that his current employer will do this to him. Then when he decides to betray that employer and work with the one who warned him about it, someone else warns him that his new employers will do the same. It does happen with Finster and Callaway and their Mooks who, after being used to help retrieve the MacGuffin, are blown up by Rooks as he makes his escape.
• What You Are in the Dark: An interesting variant - given the opportunity to create an entirely new personality from scratch, the meek and awkward Morgan Sullivan creates the persona of Jack Thursby, who is inadvertently similar to the ruthless and sophisticated Sebastian Rooks.
• Whooshing Credits
• Xanatos Speed Chess: Rooks' plan adapts with the varying state of the two rivalling Gambit Roulette-playing technology firms and Morgan's mind. Although to be exact, it's more that the unknowing Rooks/Sullivan has his plan adapted for him by Rita, who he's no doubt briefed her on what the likely outcomes of various events will be and what do do if and when they happen.
• Your Cheating Heart: While on an assigment Morgan tries to hit on a woman he met in the hotel he's staying at. After striking up a conversation with her, she calls him off when she notices his wedding ring, which he forgot to take off. Subverted. It turns out that the women, Rita Foster, is his real lover, and his supposed "wife" was just one of his employees who he hired to play the part.

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Crossroads 2002

Films of the 2000s

The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys