A community of DIY codebreakers

‘DARK WEB: CICADA 3301’ MAKES A BIG BUZZ, BUT NEVER TAKES FLIGHT

BY JOE NOLAN, FILM CRITIC

These days an average mainstream news report might mention vaccine roll-outs, new stimulus plans, anything to do with royals or even an investigation of a so-called conspiracy theory. In this time of QAnon Shamans conspiracy theories have gone mainstream. And while some people swear the elites are ruled by an ancient race of reptilians, and there’s 2.1 million dollar bounty on Bigfoot in Oklahoma, these contemporary fables might be games that have gone out of control.

Alternative reality games emerged during the early days of the internet and often feature narratives that spill out into players’ everyday lives: a character might send players a text; instructions mysteriously arrive via email. Around 1993 Joseph Matheny’s Incunabula/ Ong’s Hat website went live. The site included an odd selection of brochures, book lists and interviews, which loosely conveyed the story of a pair of genius twins who’d developed a trans-dimensional vehicle in the impenetrable Pine Barrens of New Jersey. ARG’s have also been deployed to promote everything from the Halo 2 video game to the Lost television series. Cicada 3301 is another real life internet-based phenomenon. It acts a lot like an ARG. It’s never been completely solved, and no one knows who’s behind it.

The new film Dark Web: Cicada 3301 is inspired by the real-life internet puzzle. More specifically it’s inspired by speculation that Cicada 3301 is a training/recruiting platform created by some shadowy secret society. The cyber thriller pits an oddball trio against the challenges of a virtual puzzle, and the untrustworthy characters racing to uncover the forces behind it.

Conor Black (Jack Kesy) stumbles on Cicada 3301 while surfing the dark web. Black has a prolific memory and a Rainman-like talent for instantaneous mathematical computation. Black meets a librarian named Gwen (Conor Leslie). Gwen is also researching the Cicada mystery and the pair become uneasy partners. When Conor and Gwen uncover a digital image mash-up of William Blake prints they call on Conor’s pal — an art historian named Avi.

It’s not surprising that director and co-writer Alan Ritchson (Smallville, Titans) used the Cicada 3301 mystery to launch a thriller film. But this film also wants to be a comedy. It’s also a movie where more than one character is attacked with a book. The Conor Black character is a bad boy bartender/bar fighter who also happens to be a math wiz with a penchant for hacking. He just can’t seem to make the rent. Gwen the librarian is also a cryptography expert who happens to be an expert with the lock-pick she carries in her purse.

The actual story of Cicada 3301 involves a community of DIY codebreakers who’ve formed worldwide friendships over their love of puzzle solving. This film might have stayed truer to its inspiring source material and given us a cyber-flavored Stranger Things featuring a squad of code kids exploring an internet version of The Upside Down. Instead we get unreal characters, superfluous fight sequences, redundant storytelling and a bewildering amount of juvenile humor.

If you’re fascinated by 21st century urban myths and internet subcultures you know you have to watch this film – now it’s part of the Cicada story, too. Unfortunately Cicada’s dedicated investigators — this film’s most likely audience — are the group that will be most disappointed by this version of their world. It’s hard to tell a compelling cinematic story about online image searches and digital cryptography. But the story of Cicada isn’t really about the internet, passwords, and QR codes. Cicada is about mystery, and a passionate dedication that’s made strangers from across the world partners and friends. That’s a code this film doesn’t crack.

'Dark Web: Cicada 3301' is now streaming on digital platforms and on demand.

Joe Nolan is a critic, columnist and performing singer/songwriter based in East Nashville. Find out more about his projects at www.joenolan.com.