The Girl in the Spider’s Web

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.

Classification: 15