The Girl in the Spider's Web

"The past never forgets."

2018 1h 55m EN

😐

6.2

MID

🥫

38%

ROTTEN

😬

METACRITIC

⭐

6.1

IMDB

★6.2TMDB · 1,573🥫38%Rotten Tomatoes●43Metacritic★6.1IMDB · 54,475

ActionCrimeThriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

After being enlisted to recover a dangerous computer program, hacker Lisbeth Salander and journalist Mikael Blomkvist find themselves caught in a web of spies, cybercriminals and corrupt government officials.

“The past never forgets.”

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Cast

Claire Foy
Lisbeth Salander
Sverrir Gudnason
Mikael Blomkvist
LaKeith Stanfield
Edwin Needham
Sylvia Hoeks
Camilla Salander
Stephen Merchant
Frans Balder
Christopher Convery
August Balder
Claes Bang
Jan Holster
Synnøve Macody Lund
Gabriella Grane

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Fede Álvarez
Writers: Axel Eichhorst, Jay Basu, Fede Álvarez
Languages: English
Countries: Germany, United Kingdom, United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Earned back only 82% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 8 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 3 countries: Germany, United Kingdom, United States of America.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Millennium New Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

CAST

Did you know

226+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Fede Álvarez, shot by Pedro Luque. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Roque Baños. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Tatiana S. Riegel shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Fede Álvarez directs. Pedro Luque behind the camera. Roque Baños scores. Tatiana S. Riegel cuts. A commercial under-performer on release. Produced in Germany, United Kingdom, United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Earned back only 82% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.
2Released 8 years ago.
3International production across 3 countries: Germany, United Kingdom, United States of America.
4Part of the "Millennium New Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
5226+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
6Directed by Fede Álvarez, shot by Pedro Luque. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
7Original score by Roque Baños. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
8Editor Tatiana S. Riegel shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
9Claire Foy and Sverrir Gudnason and LaKeith Stanfield carry the top of the cast.
10Marketing tagline: "The past never forgets.".
11IMDB entry: tt5177088 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
12Classified under 11 themes, including "hacker", "based on novel or book", "sweden", "stockholm, sweden".

The technical file

Cinematography: Pedro Luque
Original score: Roque Baños
Editing: Tatiana S. Riegel
Production design: Eve Stewart
Costume design: Carlos Rosario
Makeup / hair: Andrea Pirchner
VFX supervisor: Javier Cruzado
Sound: Hamilton Sterling
Stunt coordinator: Florian Hotz
Runtime: 115 min · 1h 55m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $43,000,000
Box office: $35,164,920
Return: 82% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: The Girl in the Spider's Web (2018)
Rotten Tomatoes: 38% 🥫 Rotten
Metacritic: 43/100
IMDB rating: 6.1/10 · 54,475 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

1 win & 7 nominations total

Part of

Millennium New Collection

The American adaptation film series of the Swedish psychological crime thrillers based on the Millennium series of novels by Stieg Larsson. Due to Stieg sudden death in 2004, Swedish author and crime journalist David Lagercrantz was commissioned to continue the Millennium series featuring Larsson's characters.

Also by

Fede Álvarez

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

mram162018-11-22
★ 5/10
Lackluster entry in the Millennium film series: A solid performance by Claire Foy (First Man, Unsane) can't do much to elevate a weak script that, quite often, not only asks you to suspend your disbelief, but to abandon your disbelief altogether. This film is based on the fourth of five books (to date) in the popular "Millennium" series of novels, which happens to be the first of the books written by author David Lagercrantz after the passing of original author Stieg Larsson. The first three books were adapted into a trilogy of films in their native Sweden (all of which were released in 2009), and the first book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, was given an American adaptation helmed by David Fincher in 2011. The story of the newest entry in the film series revolves around a top-secret program called Firefall, which would allow whoever wields it to take control of the world's nuclear weapons. The program was designed by Frans Balder (Stephen Merchant), who has a young autistic son. Balder, having come to realize that the program is too dangerous for any government to control, contacts super-hacker Lisbeth Salander (Foy), asking for her help to find and destroy the program. Unknown to them,however, a mysterious group known only as the Spiders are also after the program. Salander receives help along the way from good friend Mikael Blomkvist (Sverrir Gudnason), a journalist working for Millennium magazine (from which the book series gets its name). In the meantime, Lisbeth's attempt to acquire the Firefall program leads American National Security Agency security expert Edwin Needham (LaKeith Stanfield) to travel to Sweden in hopes of tracking her down. Action abounds, and as the film progresses we learn the identity of the leader of the Spiders, a secret tied to Salander's murky past. Eventually all parties converge on a house in the mountains that is all-too-familiar to Salander, where the film's climax plays out. The film appears to retcon certain details from the previous films (e.g. Blomkvist is younger than he should be), which can be off-putting to those familiar with those films.. Vicky Krieps, who audiences may remember from her fantastic performance in 2017's Phantom Thread, is wasted in a brief appearance as Millennium's publisher Erika Berger. While Salander has been established as a first-class hacker in previous films (as well as in the books on which they're based), here her hacking skills often reach levels of unbelievability. An example of this: in one scene Salander hacks into a car's systems while actively pursuing in another car. In the end we are left with a film that could have been greater than it is, but which was hobbled by a poor script filled with overly convenient contrivances. The film's one saving grace is Foy, who does the most with what she is given.
thecrustycurmudgeon2019-01-17
While I enjoyed this film, it was a bit of a disappointment compared to the others in this series. As noted by other reviews, the film is haunted by an incredibly poor script. On the other hand, the action is pretty good if you can tolerate the long, poorly scripted scenes in between. The film tries too hard to surpise us with twists, some of which are predictable and others which are just flat. Some of the circumstances in the film are far-fetched. I don't mind suspending belief a bit, but this is neither a fantasy or a science fiction film, so there should be some reasonable level of reality. Several scenes are just ridiculously beyond reason and logic. Claire Foy is an excellent actress and I like watching her. She did the best she could with this script. It's unfortunate that the directors chose to portray her as a bit haggard and completely without sex appeal. Certainly, the character of Lisbeth Salander is intended to be a nonconforming ruffian, but Claire Foys' depiction of her is considerably rougher than Rooney Mara's and far less sexually-charged than Noomi Rapace's. This is a shame as Claire Foy does have sex appeal; she either chose or was not encouraged to to use it here. It's an acceptable addition to this series, but it's mediocre in comparison to it's predecessors.
Dr Nostromo2026-01-05
★ 8/10
77/100 Lisbeth gets hired to steal a computer program from the NSA setting off a series of events that involves the US, Sweden, the creator of the software, his son, a journalist, and the Spiders that are connected to Lisbeth's past. Having seen the first film, and the Swedish, Tattoo, Fire, and Hornet, this one had a lot to live up to and they did nicely! Exceptionally well-crafted film and extremely smart with solid characters and realistic action. I'm amazed at how all 3 actresses have played Lisbeth well enough to easily accept the character as the same. Awesome! -- DrNostromo.com