The Leak

“The Leak” is a visually captivating short film that revolves around a hacker who must find others who have his same set of skills to fight off the agency he once worked for. There’s a lot of futurism that’s at play here with some really neat post-editing to make this feel edgy, thrilling, and intriguing.

The short film opens on the main hacker playing a prank on another guy who had attempted to hack the main hacker. As a result he ultimately recruits him to join his ranks. Meanwhile we get insight on the government who is working at large to capture the main hacker once and for all because of the type of threat he imposes to society. The government ultimately kidnaps a girl hacker who the main one is trying to recruit. Is the government only kidnapping her to set up the two hackers or is there more to her background? We of course find out, and it’s actually quite surprising by the end.

There’s a lot of implied logic throughout, once you get the gist of it makes for a pretty compelling story. The filmmakers accomplished this short with a budget under $500. The production value actually seems a lot more and that can be because of how visually enhanced it is with graphics, so the filmmakers do need to receive a round of a applause for pulling it off and making it seem like it’s something much more.

Id’s love more background with why this hacker is trying to recruit these people. There are intense moments that are fun and there is a twist that grabbed me in for more. The way this is set up is like a web-series. Here’s the situation, here’s the characters, and here’s the conflict they have to face. The way this ends really leaves it open for more world building and a better chance of defining these characters. I am curious if the filmmakers will make a companion piece to “The Leak”  to build more onto this world.  It’s an interesting premise.

TI enjoyed how well this was shot and edited. It made the short film fly by extremely fast and at times when it got intense, the pacing would increase which really helped the overall tone this film was going for. Although there is some humor in it, the subject at hand is serious. It’s not only here to serve as a comedy. If you like fast-paced thrillers that has a really unique and cool visual style in it, check this out.