Chris Hemsworth’s 11-Year-Old Action Thriller Is One of the Biggest Box Office Flops Ever – & It’s His Greatest Movie

Does Chris Hemsworth have a good movie outside the MCU? Such a question has been asked again and again, and if you are a fan of the Australian actor, you cannot help but wonder why. Don’t they know about Extraction? What about Rush, arguably the greatest racing movie of all time? Hemsworth is indeed good, but he has a curse. His non-Marvel movies rarely become major hits, which is why people forget about them. Even Crime 101, his latest vehicle, is struggling to move. But none of his underrated films deserves more love than the action-thriller, Blackhat.

Despite being directed by legendary filmmaker Michael Mann, Blackhat only grossed $20 million at the box office against a $70 million budget. Critics also panned it, and it currently has an approval rating of 33% on Rotten Tomatoes. Interestingly, several critics also included it on their end-of-year favorite lists. So, is the movie bad or excellent? Well, it actually qualifies as Chris Hemsworth’s best film when looked at objectively.

‘Blackhat’ Keeps Chris Hemsworth in His Comfort Zone While Still Challenging Him

Chris Hemsworth often finds himself condemned to two characterization styles. He is either the tough guy, like in the MCU, Extraction, and Crime 101, or the charming, carefree guy, like in Rush. These are his comfort zones, and even though he thrives in them, there’s always a feeling that something is missing. Luckily, Blackhat inserts the missing jigsaw by making Hemsworth’s character incredibly smart, too.

In the Michael Mann movie, Hemswoth’s character, Nicholas Hathaway, is a convicted hacker released from prison to track a global cyber-terrorist. He joins a joint US-Chinese task force, and the trail soon leads him from a massive Chicago stock exchange to a massive Hong Kong nuclear plant, revealing a mega conspiracy aimed at the manipulation of financial markets. Rather than ride on the trope of the “basement hacker,” Mann turns Hathaway into a two-in-one hero, both booksmart and streetsmart. He can fight as brilliantly as he can write code, making himself self-sustaining.

Thanks to this approach, we see Hemsworth do some real acting, and the movie is proof that he should never be forced to follow the one-dimensional manual of ‘80s and ‘90s action heroes. In Blackhat, he is a man of wild contradictions. He has an irresistible beast-like magnetism with dangerously unpredictable efficiency, but there is also an intensely engaging gentleness that radiates innocence and tenderness… a smooth interior that’s occasionally at variance with his masculine outer frame.

Hemsworth looks really scared at times, but you can tell he’ll get the job done. Such is how he ought to be at all times, especially when he is in action-heavy or stunt-heavy films. Who imagined that we’d see the Thor star quoting Michel Foucault and diving into philosophy? His lines hit as hard as his punches. And like Robert De Niro in Heat or James Caan in Thief, Nicholas Hathaway is the typical Michael Mann hero/antihero… always on the move and fixing things on the go.

‘Blackhat’ Proves That Hemsworth Needs To Work With Big Directors More

Universal Pictures

Many of the world’s greatest actors always have one major thing going for them. They work with big directors regularly. Leonardo DiCaprio, Denzel Washington, Brad Pitt, and many others all get calls from top filmmakers regularly. It’s preferable that way. The job tends to be easier when both the coach and the player are great. And no matter how talented a player is, they can always learn a thing or two from a great coach.

In Blackhat, Michael Mann pushes Chris Hemsworth to lengths he has never been able to reach before. Watching him, you get the feeling that he’s eager to impress, aware that a great showing could earn him more spots in the filmmaker’s future films. As an actor, it’s vital to ensure that you play in the best playgrounds, maintained by the most caring owners. Otherwise, no matter how hard you work, your efforts will amount to nothing.

To earn appreciation from film aficionados around the world and make them flock to see him every time (preventing poor box office performances), Hemsworth needs to put himself in a position where he works with Scorseses and Tarantinos of this world regularly. He ought to be in a succession of highly provocative and expertly made pictures that take full advantage of his mercurial persona, melding tenderness and viciousness, and, of course, sex appeal. Will he do it?

Release Date

January 16, 2015

Runtime

133 minutes

Director

Michael Mann