The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Movie, 2011, The 2010s, Set in Sweden
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is #9 of 13 in release order and #9 of 13 in chronological order in the David Fincher.
The story
Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist investigates the disappearance of a weary patriarch's niece from 40 years ago. He is aided by the pierced, tattooed, punk computer hacker named Lisbeth Salander. As they work together in the investigation, Blomkvist and Salander uncover immense corruption beyond anything they have ever imagined.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo recap
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) follows a disgraced Swedish journalist and a young hacker hunting the truth behind a 40-year-old disappearance. David Fincher directs from Steven Zaillian's adaptation of Stieg Larsson's 2005 novel. Daniel Craig plays Mikael Blomkvist, who has just lost a libel case to the financier Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. Rooney Mara plays Lisbeth Salander, a researcher and hacker under state guardianship. The aging industrialist Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) hires Mikael to find out who killed his grandniece Harriet 40 years earlier, promising dirt on Wennerstrom in return. Mikael moves to the family's island, full of Vanger relatives, some of them former Nazis. Lisbeth's new guardian, Nils Bjurman, rapes her; she takes revenge, blackmails him and tattoos his crime on his body. Mikael hires her, and she links a list in Harriet's datebook to murders of women across Sweden from 1947 to 1967. Stellan Skarsgard plays Martin Vanger, Harriet's brother and head of the company. It is Fincher's ninth feature, between The Social Network and Gone Girl.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo ending explained
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo ends with Lisbeth turning away from Mikael. Martin traps Mikael in his basement and boasts of killing women like his father did; Lisbeth saves Mikael and chases Martin, who dies when his car crashes and burns. Harriet is alive in London, living as her cousin Anita, having fled her abusive brother. Lisbeth hacks Wennerstrom, ruins him and steals his fortune. She buys Mikael a gift, sees him with his lover Erika, and throws it away. The planned sequels were never made, and in the novel Harriet hides in Australia.
Post-credits scenes
No. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has no mid- or post-credits scene.
Where to watch The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is streaming on Netflix and Apple TV in the US. You can rent or buy it on Amazon, Apple TV, and Google Play.
Ratings
IMDb 7.8/10, Rotten Tomatoes 86%
Where it fits
- Release order: after The Social Network, before Gone Girl.
- Chronological order: after The Social Network, before Gone Girl.
Cast
- Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist
- Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander
- Christopher Plummer as Henrik Vanger
- Stellan Skarsgård as Martin Vanger
- Robin Wright as Erika Berger
- Yorick van Wageningen as Nils Bjurman
- Steven Berkoff as Dirch Frode
- Joely Richardson as Anita Vanger
- Geraldine James as Cecilia Vanger
- Goran Višnjić as Dragan Armansky
- Donald Sumpter as Detective Inspector Gustaf Morell
- Ulf Friberg as Hans-Erik Wennerström
Directed by David Fincher.