IT Guy Goodie CEO Baddie
The film portrayed the CEO as the principal character and so hero but this was not the case at all. The portrayal has many parallel to Irish airline boss Michael O'Leary with the same ruthlessness in business. The CEO has used illegal accounting methods and bribery to expand breaking Security and Exchange regulations. He has had a app written for his company on the cheap without adequate security and employing temporary intern employees without any background checks. For an airline this puts passengers in danger. He hasn't shown oversight or understanding of this project at all. He then invites one of the interns over at the weekend under the presence of a reward but then makes him do IT work. The one consolation for him is that he meets his pretty daughter aged 17 and totally legal in Texas. She likes him and he does not force himself on her. He is good looking has a cool car and she can see his brilliance at IT and is likely to make a mint. The poor chap has had his talents wasted without just reward. The CEO hypocritically does not like the 10 year age gap between the hacker and his daughter, although the 23 year age gap between him and his wife is ok.
Getting sacked for just just flirting with the bosses daughter and unfair grounds is the final straw. He then whistle-blows on the company's illegal activity. Remember he was given access to the CEOs smart home and business systems so technically this wasn't hacking. A civil as opposed to criminal act.
Only then comes the hackers illegal actions. The daughter blanks him so he does revenge porn. The false email from the cancer doctor and messing with the smart home and messing with the airline systems in a non critical way are all civil actions. The CEO should have dealt with this via the police and courts but critically he did not as the CEO is a much bigger criminal than the hacker. Indeed the hacker has even more dirt on the CEO in those thumb drives. He only reveals the civil crimes of the organization not the probably criminal ones on they contain.
The CEO then resorts to violence a criminal act and threatens to kill him. The hacker knows he has no evidence of this and fears for his life. He calls the CEO in his car who says he is going to come over and kill him. He then hacks the breaks of the car as self defense.
The CEO then calls the private security guy who knows him and has previous dealing with. This guy is a criminal who uses any means to achieve his rich clients objectives including using state department staff. The IT security guy hacks into the hackers personal medical files, breaking criminal law. He steals the innocent waitresses phone. Another criminal act.
The CEO them breaks into the hackers flat, a criminal act. The hacker has a gun for self defense and quite rightly shoots at the intruder. The gun is confiscated so the hacker is unprotected. He then beats himself up so that he is safely under police custody. The CEO takes the thumb drives into the police and is rightly arrested. The hacker has his only protection the thumb drives taken away. The hacker knows the CEO is going to have him killed no matter what and that he will get out on bail. He isn't safe in police custody. His only option would be to go round the CEO's house and be in the presence of the family. He has gagged them but I believe told them what a crook and how broke the CEO is and that he will NOT kill them but will either commit suicide in front of them or be killed by the CEO with them witnessing. Hence his wife's pleas at the end not to kill him. By not killing him the CEO gets to continue his business after a small financial hit and the contents of the thumb-drive are not revealed by the death of the hacker. The CEO drops the charges and the threats and the police never see the thumbdrive contents. CEO starts to run his business in a more ethical, prosperous way.
CEOs watching this should learn to run their businesses legally, be aware of the IT running their companies paying their staff adequately and employing decent IT security to protect their customers and assets. Resorting to other criminal organizations in revenge just can back fire spectacularly and lead them into more trouble and risk of imprisonment themselves.