Hanna (2011)
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A genetically engineered assassin must navigate a perilous journey to find her father after being hunted by a high-ranking CIA agent.
The story
Hanna Heller is a fifteen-year-old girl living in rural northern Finland with her father, Erik, an ex-CIA operative. Since she was two, Erik has trained her to be a skilled assassin, teaching her hand-to-hand combat and target shooting. However, Erik possesses a secret that cannot be made public, making him a target for Marissa Wiegler, a senior CIA officer who seeks to eliminate him. When Hanna declares she is ready to face their enemies, Erik activates a radio beacon to alert the CIA to their presence. He instructs Hanna to meet him in Berlin, but she is quickly seized by special forces and taken to an underground complex.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Hanna Heller is a fifteen-year-old girl living in rural northern Finland with her father, Erik, an ex-CIA operative. Since she was two, Erik has trained her to be a skilled assassin. Because Erik knows a secret that cannot be public, Marissa Wiegler, a senior CIA officer, seeks to eliminate him. Erik trains Hanna with the intent to kill Marissa. One night, Hanna activates a radio beacon to alert the CIA to their presence and is seized by special forces. She is taken to an underground complex in Morocco, where she kills a decoy and several guards to escape. She stows away on a ferry to Spain with a family on a camper-van holiday, befriending the children. Marissa hires Isaacs, a sadistic former agent, to capture Hanna. After a vicious fight, Hanna escapes Isaacs but the family is interrogated and disappears. In Berlin, Erik fails to kill Marissa in an assassination attempt. Hanna meets Knepfler, an eccentric magician, but discovers Erik is not her biological father. Erik reveals he recruited pregnant women into a CIA program to create super-soldiers with enhanced DNA; all subjects except Hanna were eliminated. Marissa and Isaacs arrive; Erik acts as a distraction and is shot dead by Marissa. Hanna finds Knepfler tortured to death by Isaacs and flees. In a final confrontation, Hanna wounds Marissa with an arrow and kills her with a gun.
- First release year
- 2011
- Runtime (minutes)
- 111
- Production countries
- Germany; United Kingdom; United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Joe Wright
- Writers
- Seth Lochhead · story; Seth Lochhead · screenplay; David Farr · screenplay
- Cast and characters
- Saoirse Ronan · Hanna; Eric Bana · Erik; Tom Hollander; Olivia Williams; Jason Flemyng; Cate Blanchett · Marissa Wiegler; Sebastian; Rachel
- Genres
- action; thriller; adventure
- Themes
- nature versus nurture; overcoming the dark side; rites of passage; genetic engineering
- Tone and mood
- surreal; dark fairy tale; Kubrickian; dreamlike
- Setting
- Northern Finland, Morocco, Spain, and Berlin during the modern era.
- Premise and plot tags
- transhumanist hero; assassination; father-daughter relationship
- Reception
- The film received generally favorable reviews, praised for its performances, action sequences, and themes, though some critics found it lacked subtlety.
- Production trivia
- The film was originally intended to be directed by Danny Boyle and Alfonso Cuarón.; Saoirse Ronan prompted the producers to consider Joe Wright for the director role.; The film's story and script were written by Seth Lochhead while he was a student at Vancouver Film School.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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