‘who am i — no system is safe’ (who am i — kein system ist sicher): toronto review
‘Who Am I: No System Is Safe’ is a German techno-thriller film directed by Baran bo Odar. It tells an intricately woven tale of a tin tặc who gets entangled in a plot of murder và seeks to lớn clear his name. The film is notable for its visual depiction of technical aspects of hacking. Its unreliable narrator và cyber elements have earned it comparisons to ‘Fight Club‘ & ‘Mr.Robot.’ While that is true, the non-linear narrative will mod your brain và the shocking closing moments of the film act as a Trojan vi khuẩn causing your software (brain) khổng lồ malfunction và affect your processing. But don’t worry, we are here with the anti-virus – the answers to all your questions about the ending of ‘Who Am I.’ SPOILERS AHEAD.
Bạn đang xem: ‘who am i — no system is safe’ (who am i — kein system ist sicher): toronto review
Who Am I Plot Synopsis
The film opens with an ominous murder scene, then quickly cuts lớn Benjamin Engel, a tin tặc from Berlin, sitting in an interrogation room. The officer-in-charge informs Hanne Lindberg, the Head of Europol’s Cybersecurity Department, that Benjamin has asked her to conduct the interrogation. Benjamin says that he has information about FRI3NDS, a notorious four-member hacking group affiliated with the Russian cyber mafia, và MRX, a notorious hacker popular on the darknet; he tells her that he could give them lớn Hanne if she listens khổng lồ him. Hanne has no other choice & sits down.
The story then unfolds in a series of flashbacks. Benjamin tells Hanne that he is like a superhero: lượt thích many heroes, he has no parents. He never knew his father, và his mother committed suicide when he was eight years old. He lives alone with his sick grandmother. He considers himself invisible và calls it his superpower as most people never noticed him during childhood, and he was socially awkward. He says he learned to code và hacked his first system when he was 14 years old. Although he feels lượt thích a loser in real life, the internet gives him a sense of belonging.
While he was spending most of his time on the darknet, he met his hacking idol, MRX, whose identity is not known and who can thủ thuật into any system. Benjamin strives lớn be like him. However, unable lớn attend college, he worked as a pizza delivery boy to pay the bills. He tells Hanne that one night while delivering pizza to lớn a group of students, he saw Marie, a girl he has been in love with since school. When he found out that she was having trouble with her exams, he decided khổng lồ help her and be a “superhero.”
He went khổng lồ the college, hacked its servers to tải về the question paper, but was caught và got arrested. Since he had no prior convictions, he was sentenced to vì community service as punishment. While cleaning the streets, Max, a fellow hacker, introduces himself to Benjamin, who feels that Max is the opposite of him: charismatic and self-confident. Later, Max introduces Benjamin to lớn his friends Stephan và Paul. After Benjamin proves himself as a hacker, Max explains that the concept of social engineering is the best way lớn hack.
Benjamin, Max, Paul, và Stephan size a group of hackers called “Clowns Laughing At You,” nicknamed CLAY. Using Benjamin’s house as the base of operations, they cause widespread chaos in Berlin in the size of pranks và become increasingly popular on social media. However, MRX, who Max is obsessed with, immediately taunts them. Max is enraged & wants lớn perform a more outrageous act of hacking, & Benjamin suggests hacking into the main building of the BND (German Central Secret Service).
The group agrees with Benjamin’s idea & decides to mod into the BND to impress MRX. With some dumpster diving and phishing, they gain access khổng lồ the BND building, use their internal servers, và hack all printers khổng lồ print their “NO SYSTEM IS SAFE” logo sản phẩm around the building, which impresses MRX. However, when they go to lớn a club khổng lồ celebrate, Benjamin notices that Max is kissing Marie. Benjamin storms off and refuses to speak to lớn his friends or let them inside the house. Feeling inferior, he secretly contacts MRX and offers him a database of BND’s private servers that he hacked.
When the group arrives the next day, Benjamin is still angry & attacks Max, who beats him up. However, Paul hears on television that one of the FRI3NDS members, nicknamed Krypton, was murdered. Benjamin admits that he passed on the information from the BND to lớn MRX. Upon verification, he finds that the information identified Krypton as a double agent working with Hanne to expose MRX & FRI3NDS. MRX frames CLAY for Krypton’s murder. Lớn clear their names from the murder charge, Benjamin contacts MRX, who instructs them to gian lận into the Europol database in exchange for MRX’s identity and provides them with a hacking tool.
After dissolving their hard drives in acid khổng lồ erase data, they travel to lớn Europol’s Hague headquarters. They try to thủ thuật the servers of Europol, but their previous methods of dumpster diving và phishing attempts fail. While leaving the building, Benjamin notices that a student visiting the building drops her visitor’s card. Benjamin recollects Max’s advice on social engineering & gains entry lớn the premises.
He attaches a hacking device in the canteen và uses it to thủ thuật into Europol’s internal servers và provides MRX with an entry that was secretly encrypted in a double Trojan so that if MRX tried lớn gain access, his real identity would be exposed. MRX sees through this ruse & exposes Benjamin. He is attacked by the Russian mafia and barely manages lớn get away safely. Benjamin returns to the hotel where he is staying with his friends & finds them dead. This scene bookends the film’s opening scene. Fearing FRI3NDS are going khổng lồ kill him, he decides to turn himself in.
To prove he is serious, he reveals personal information about Hanne, who was suspended because she failed to capture FRI3NDS & MRX. Hanne agrees to lớn include Benjamin in a witness protection program in exchange for help in catching FRI3NDS and MRX. Benjamin signs up as MRX himself and spreads lies about MRX being a snitch, forcing the real MRX khổng lồ use insecure methods lớn break into darknet servers. This allows Benjamin to lớn expose him, & MRX is revealed as a 19-year-old American boy from thủ đô new york City, who the FBI arrests in a cafe. Two shocking revelations come khổng lồ light in the aftermath of these events that untie and tie the entire plot simultaneously.
Who Am I Ending: How Does Benjamin hack Hanne?After agreeing to put Benjamin in the witness exchange program, Hanne notices a wound running through his palm (the same injury Max got after driving a nail through his hand) & suspects that Max, Stephan, and Paul are fictional characters. To lớn find answers, she visits Benjamin’s doctor, who claims that his mother had multiple personality disorder và therefore committed suicide, & learns that it can be genetically inherited.
Hanne connects several plot holes in Benjamin’s story và realizes that “he” alone was CLAY; he hacked the BND alone & planted his grandmother’s WWII bullets in the hotel to make it look like his friends had been killed. Hanne confronts Benjamin, who has an emotional breakdown after discovering that people with mental disorders cannot get witness protection. However, Hanne changes her mind at the last moment và gives him access to the witness protection program, which turns out to be a “real” program containing information about all citizens of Germany.
Benjamin changes his identity here. Hanne allows Benjamin lớn go on the condition that he never hacks again. Benjamin, who now has blonde hair, is alone on a ferry. However, Marie, Max, Stephan, và Paul suddenly join him. In an expository scene, Benjamin explains that he pulled off “the greatest social engineering stunt” of all time by hacking a person, Hanne, & getting what he wanted. The scene switches back lớn Benjamin, who returns to the khách sạn and finds the boys alive và well. He tells them lớn run away as MRX knows his identity, but they refuse to lớn leave him behind.
After Marie visits them và confirms that people with mental illness cannot receive witness protection, they devise a plan for Benjamin lớn go lớn Hanne và dictate the story. He deliberately gives holes in the plot that she is likely khổng lồ decipher and then uses her khổng lồ get into the witness protection program. In the vps room, it is revealed that Benjamin did not change his identity; he erased it. Benjamin claims that Hanne will eventually realize his deception, but she will not pursue them.
Does Benjamin Have Multiple Personality Disorder?The film never clarifies if Benjamin is sick or if it is an elaborate set-up, as he claims in the climax. It is possible that he is sick, and his friends are a manifestation of his multiple personality disorder. He is seen continuously taking a drug that is considered a hallucinogen. We never really learn much about his friends, not even their full names, và they appear out of nowhere to lớn join Benjamin on the boat. All this points to the fact that Benjamin could have multiple personality disorder.
But as Benjamin himself states at the beginning lớn Hanne, “Every little detail is important,” và it is these details that will give us a definitive answer. To lớn prove his point, Benjamin performs a magic trick immediately after saying this dialogue. He collects four sugar cubes in his palm, and when he opens it, there’s only one; he again closes his palm and reopens it to reveal all four cubes. In the final moments, Benjamin explains this trick to lớn Hanne và says, “Everyone only sees what they want lớn see.”
This moment subtly reveals that Benjamin has planned the plot holes in the story on purpose & wants Hanne to lớn see them. The presence of four cubes itself is an indication that the four members of CLAY are four different people. Another clue is when Hanne goes khổng lồ Benjamin’s house, she finds the drug packet in his dustbin. It is entirely possible that he planted it there. But the big clue here is the poster on the wall, a poster from ‘Fight Club.’
The parallels between ‘Fight Club’ and ‘Who Am I’ become stronger và stronger as the film progresses (Benjamin’s look even resembles that of Edward Norton), and anyone who’s seen the former film will immediately claim that Benjamin has multiple personality disorder. But if you’ve forgotten, let us remind you – “Everyone only sees what they want khổng lồ see.” Thus, the obvious parallels between the two films are a clever misdirection in our opinion. Benjamin does not have a multiple personality disorder. It was merely a deception to get what he wanted.
