“Cypher” is a 2002 film directed by Vincenzo Natali. It stars Jeremy Northam as Morgan Sullivan, Lucy Liu as Rita Foster, Nigel Bennett as Finster, Timothy Webber as Frank Callaway, and more. The film revolves around Morgan Sullivan, a jobless man whose life takes a turn when he lands a job as a corporate spy. “Cypher” is a low-budget film that borrows heavily from movies like “Total Recall” and “The Matrix.” Indoor shots, many single shots, and close-ups reveal the film’s economic limitations. However, this sort of works in the favor as these low-budget shots give it a more raw and authentic feel.
Cypher (2002) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
What is Morgan Sullivan’s new job?
The film starts with Morgan Sullivan, a man down on his luck, out of a job, and bored with his life. He’s tried every trick in the book to land a decent job, but nothing’s worked, which leads to constant clashes with his wife. She’s been begging him to swallow his pride and ask her father for a job at his company. But Sullivan is not interested in asking his father-in-law for help. This is a hard pass, probably because it would feel like he’s abandoning what’s left of his pride.
Desperate for a change, Sullivan stumbles across a job opening at Digicorp Corporation. It is a company that hires corporate spies to pry around and gather intel on rival firms. If he’s selected, Sullivan’s new job will be all about sneaking around, collecting secret documents, and feeding them back to headquarters. Sullivan aces the tests, gets a new identity, and is warned about the potential dangers that come with this mysterious job. However, Sullivan hopes his new secret job will make his life more interesting.
For the next few months, Sullivan’s big-secret job turns out to be a snooze fest. Instead of dodging bullets and cracking codes like James Bond, his job is to attend boring conventions and record endless speeches. It was not precisely the thrill ride he was hoping for. Sullivan imagined a life full of excitement and danger, but instead, he’s stuck listening to three-hour talks about shaving creams and perfumes. The only fun Sullivan gets out of this job is when he starts spinning false tales about his fake background, inventing stories about where he’s from and how he grew up.
Why is Sullivan in agony?
After a few stints on the job, the strain begins to take its toll on Sullivan’s life. He begins experiencing nightmares that shake him to the core, in addition to feeling a crushing neck pain like he’s got a thousand tons weighing him down. At first, he brushes it off, thinking it’s just stress, and tries to treat it with the pills given to him by Lisa Foster. Like Sullivan, Lisa is also a corporate spy but works for a rival company. She suggests that Sullivan skip sending any transmissions that day and hands him some more pills to help with the nightmares and neck pain.
Their next meeting takes a turn when Lisa kidnaps him and injects him with some strange green liquid. She claims the drug will block the narcotics that Digicorp has been secretly dosing them with at every convention by sneaking it into the water or drinks. She also reveals that the conventions are nothing but a charade designed to keep people like Sullivan distracted so they don’t catch on to what’s really going down behind the scenes.
What is Digicorp up to?
Thanks to the antidote, Sullivan manages to avoid the trance-like state and finally sees what’s going on at these conventions. Once the spiked drinks hypnotize all the attendees, Digicorp operatives stroll into the room and put some strange headsets onto everyone. These gadgets brainwash the attendees, making them believe their fake identity is their real one.
For Sullivan, this means fully adopting the persona of “Jack Thursby.” But what’s Digicorp’s motive? It seems they’re creating these identities to create disposable spies or workers who can be easily tossed aside when they’ve served their purpose. Taking Rita’s advice, Sullivan plays along with his superiors and pretends to be wholly convinced of his new identity as “Jack Thursby,” just like all the other brainwashed employees. Digicorp even goes as far as creating a fake family for him.
Who is Frank, and what does he want?
Digicorp assigns Sullivan, now fully operating under the alias “Jack Thursby,” to spy on Sunway Systems, a tech company. Sunway’s head of security, Frank, quickly discovers that Sullivan has somehow avoided Digicorp’s brainwashing net. Instead of blowing the whistle, Frank sees an opportunity and approaches Sullivan with a proposition. He asks Sullivan to become a double agent and plant bugs in every room at Digicorp HQ.
Sullivan’s had enough. He’s done with the lies, the manipulation, and the endless espionage. He just wants out. But Frank reveals that there’s no home for Sullivan to return to. His wife has already put their house on the market and filed for divorce. Sullivan also learns about Sebastian Rooks, a freelance operative and the mastermind behind it all. It turns out Rooks is Rita’s boss, and Sunway Systems hired him to provide them with someone who isn’t brainwashed by Digicorp.
Sullivan’s in a real jam now. His wife’s gone, the house he knew has been changed with some phony setup, and his entire life feels like a bad dream. The worst part is that there’s a solid chance that Digicorp will eliminate him the second they realize he’s not brainwashed and remembers his old life. With no options left on the table, Sullivan’s got no choice but to play along.
What does Sebastian Rooks want?
Sullivan meets up with Rita again and asks her to get him in touch with his boss, Sebastian Rooks. Rooks has a proposition for Sullivan. Rooks wants him to pull off one last job. In return, he’ll set Sullivan up with a brand new identity, free from the clutches of Digicorp and Sunway Systems—both of which will no doubt want him dead once his mission is over. The job involves stealing vital intel from Sunway’s underground data vault.
What Sullivan doesn’t realize is that he’s been played from the start. From the moment he got hired by Digicorp, everything was part of a bigger scheme. Finster, the man who brought Sullivan into Digicorp, was Rooks’ inside man the whole time. But Finster is also a double agent and plans to double-cross Rooks. Finster tells Sullivan that if he gives Digicorp the disk rather than handing it to Rooks, they will leave him in peace and will not pursue him.
Cypher (2002) Movie Ending Explained:
Who really is Sebastian Rooks?
Up until now, we’ve all been led to believe that Sebastian Rooks is a ruthless criminal, the man who kills anyone who so much as glimpses his face. But towards the final minutes, it is revealed that Sebastian Rooks is none other than Morgan Sullivan himself. After Sullivan steals the data, Rita takes him to a mansion. Sullivan’s paranoia gets the better of him, and he starts to believe that Rita and Rooks have played him and are now planning to take him out. In a panic, he fires his gun, accidentally hitting Rita in the shoulder. This is when Rita asks him to check out the next room.
Sullivan steps inside and finds the room filled with personal mementos, like his favorite whiskey and the brand of cigarettes he’s always smoked. There’s also a photo of Rita and Sullivan together, confirming that Sullivan is actually Sebastian Rooks. Sebastian Rooks had this whole theft planned out from the start, right down to wiping his own memory to pull off the ultimate heist. The entire plan, as wild as it sounds, was so complicated that it required him to abandon his true identity and live as Morgan Sullivan just to steal that data from Sunways’ vault.
When Rita helps him remember, Rooks’s memory fits back into place, and he escapes. Rooks also blows the place to bits to tie up any loose ends. In the final moments, we see Rooks on his yacht. He throws the stolen disc into the water. The disc held everything about Rita and her secret identity. By getting rid of it, Rooks ensures that neither Digicorp nor Sunways could ever touch her. So, in the end, it was all for love.
Cypher (2002) Movie Themes Analysed:
The characters’ decisions in “Cypher” (2002) effectively reflect the themes of manipulation and identity. Jeremy Northam plays Morgan Sullivan, a monotonous office drone who decides to join a corporate espionage plot for some excitement. Accepting the identity of “Jack Thursby,” a corporate spy, puts him in a world where he is continually influenced.
The business world is portrayed in “Cypher” (2002) as an unfeeling mechanism that sees its workers as insignificant parts of the system. Here, we see the heartless, calculating side of corporate America through Morgan Sullivan’s story. As Sullivan becomes involved in corporate espionage, he is but a piece in a much larger puzzle. The company he works for does not care about him as a person or about his health; they view him as an asset that can be replaced when he is no longer needed. The scenes in which people like Sullivan are used and thrown away show how companies treat their workers. All corporations care more about power struggles and profits than they do about the employees who make the company tick.
