The Girl in the Spider's Web is a 2018 crime thriller film directed by Fede Álvarez and written by Steven Knight, Álvarez and Jay Basu, based on the novel of the same name by David Lagercrantz, which in turn is based on characters in the book series by Stieg Larsson. The film, a soft-reboot with different actors, is a sequel to David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and the second installment in the American-produced Millennium film series. It stars Claire Foy, taking over the role of Lisbeth Salander from Rooney Mara, and follows Salander as she tries to rescue and exact vengeance for battered women. Sverrir Gudnason, LaKeith Stanfield, Sylvia Hoeks, and Stephen Merchant also appear in the film.
The Girl in the Spider's Web | |
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Directed by | Fede Álvarez |
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Screenplay by |
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Based on | The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz Characters by Stieg Larsson |
Starring |
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Music by | Roque Baños |
Cinematography | Pedro Luque |
Edited by | Tatiana S. Riegel |
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Distributed by | Sony Pictures Releasing |
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Running time | 115 minutes |
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Language | English |
Budget | $43 million |
Box office | $26.6 million |
The Girl in the Spider's Web had its world premiere at the Rome Film Festival on October 24, 2018, and was released by Sony Pictures Releasing in Sweden on October 26, 2018 and in the United States on November 9, 2018. The film grossed $26 million worldwide and received mixed reviews from critics, although Foy's performance was praised.
Screenplay
In Stockholm, Sweden, vigilante hacker Lisbeth Salander is hired by computer programmer Frans Balder to retrieve Firefall, a program capable of accessing the world’s nuclear codes that he developed for the National Security Agency, as Balder believes it is too dangerous to exist. Lisbeth successfully retrieves Firefall from the NSA’s servers, attracting the attention of agent Edwin Needham, but is unable to unlock it, and the program is later stolen from her by mercenaries led by Jan Holtser, who also attempt to kill Lisbeth. When she doesn’t attend their schedule rendezvous, Balder mistakenly believes Lisbeth decided to keep Firefall for herself and contacts Gabrielle Grane, the deputy director of the Swedish Secret Service, for help. Meanwhile, Needham arrives in Stockholm in disguise to find Lisbeth and Firefall.
Lisbeth and her friend Plague approach Lisbeth’s former lover, investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist, for help identifying her assailants. Blomkvist learns Holtser previously worked for Lisbeth’s late father, crime lord Alexander Zalachenko, and is now affiliated with an elusive international crime syndicate known as “The Spiders”. Lisbeth attempts to alert Balder, but they are intercepted by Holtser, who kills Balder and frames Lisbeth, preventing her from reaching out to the police. She manages to escape with Balder’s young son August, the only one capable of unlocking Firefall, and hides him in a safe house. Elsewhere, Needham locates Lisbeth’s girlfriend Maria and persuades her to arrange a meeting between them, intending to lure Lisbeth into a trap, but Lisbeth manages to evade him, and Needham is later arrested by Grane. Lisbeth helps him escape in exchange for Needham safely escorting August back to the United States to be reunited with his mother, begrudgingly agreeing to give him Firefall as well.
The Spiders attack the safe house, and Lisbeth learns that their leader is her twin sister Camilla Salander, whom Lisbeth believed to be dead. When they were children, Lisbeth decided to run away from their abusive father, and when Camilla hesitated, Lisbeth left her behind. After years of torture, Camilla faked her suicide and went underground to form the Spiders. Grane hired the Spiders to retrieve Firefall for her, and informed them of Balder’s location, but Camilla kills her and takes August to her base of operations at hers and Lisbeth’s childhood home, where Holtser tortures a captive Blomkvist to force August to unlock Firefall. Armed with a sniper rifle and guided by Plague, Needham eliminates Camilla’s henchmen, allowing Lisbeth to infiltrate the house and kill Holtser, saving Blomkvist. While Needham rescues August, Lisbeth chases Camilla to a nearby cliff, where Camilla tearfully asks why Lisbeth never returned for her. Lisbeth claims Camilla chose their father over her the day she did not escape with Lisbeth, and Camilla, realizing the monster she has become, commits suicide by jumping off the cliff. Lisbeth then burns down her childhood home to destroy all traces of her father, while Needham attempts to access Firefall on his way back to the United States with August, only to learn Lisbeth has already destroyed it as Balder would have wanted.
- Claire Foy as Lisbeth Salander, a computer hacker who has survived severe emotional and sexual abuse.
- Beau Gadsdon as Young Lisbeth Salander
- Sverrir Gudnason as Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist for Millennium and lover/partner of Lisbeth.
- LaKeith Stanfield as Edwin Needham, a National Security Agency (NSA) security expert who is tracking Salander.
- Sylvia Hoeks as Camilla Salander, Lisbeth's estranged sister, who is the head of a major crime syndicate.
- Carlotta von Falkenhayn as Young Camilla Salander
- Stephen Merchant as Frans Balder, a terminated employee of the NSA who developed a program called Firefall, which accesses the world’s nuclear codes. He requests Salander’s help in destroying his program, which he believes to be too powerful for any player.
- Vicky Krieps as Erika Berger, the publisher of Millennium.
- Claes Bang as Jan Holtser, Camilla's accomplice.
- Christopher Convery as August Balder, Frans’ son.
- Synnøve Macody Lund as Gabriella Grane, the deputy director of the Swedish Secret Service (SÄPO).
- Cameron Britton as Plague, a close associate of Lisbeth — a computer expert to whom she reaches out when she needs assistance.
- Andreja Peji? as Maria, Lisbeth's lover/partner.
- Mikael Persbrandt as Alexander Zalachenko, father to Lisbeth and Camilla Salander.
- Volker Bruch as Peter Ahlgren
In November 2015, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Sony Pictures Entertainment was planning to develop a new film series of the Millennium series, starting from the book The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz. Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig, who portrayed Salander and Blomkvist, respectively, in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, would not be back for the film. New actors would be cast, and David Fincher would also not return as director. Steven Knight was announced to be in talks to adapt the novel, while the producers would be Scott Rudin, Amy Pascal, and Elizabeth Cantillon, along with Yellow Bird's Berna Levin, Søren Stærmose, and Ole Sondberg. TheWrap reported that Alicia Vikander was being considered for the role of Salander. However, while promoting Carol, Mara stated that she was still signed for the sequel: "As far as I know I'm doing it until someone tells me otherwise".
In November 2016, Variety reported that Sony was in negotiations with Fede Álvarez to direct the film, with Eli Bush as an additional producer. In March 2017, it was announced that the film would feature an entirely new cast, with production set to begin in September 2017. In May 2017, it was reported that Claire Foy was the frontrunner to play Salander, and, in September 2017, Foy was officially cast in the film. Sylvia Hoeks joined the cast in October 2017. The rest of the cast was announced over the next five months.
Principal photography began in January 2018 in Berlin, and ended in April 2018, in Stockholm.
The Girl in the Spider's Web was released in the United States on November 9, 2018 by Sony. It was originally scheduled for October 5, 2018, but was moved in March 2017. The first trailer was released on June 7, 2018. The film premiered at the Rome Film Festival on October 24, 2018.
Box office
As of November 20, 2018, The Girl in the Spider's Web has grossed $13.9 million in the United States and Canada, and $13.1 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $27.0 million, against a production budget of $43 million.
In the United States and Canada, The Girl in the Spider's Web was released alongside The Grinch and Overlord, and was projected to gross $10–15 million from 2,929 theaters in its opening weekend. It made $3 million on its first day, including $635,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $8 million, down from the $12.8 million opening of the first film and finishing fifth at the box office. The film fell 68% in its second weekend to $2.8 million, finishing ninth.
Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 40% based on 161 reviews, and an average rating of 5.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Girl in the Spider's Web distills the action elements of its source material for a less complex – yet still reasonably effective – franchise reboot." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 43 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it a 75% positive score.