Headhunters (film)

Headhunters (Hodejegerne) is a 2011 Norwegian action thriller film based on the 2008 novel of the same name by Jo Nesbø. The film was directed by Morten Tyldum and stars Aksel Hennie, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Synnøve Macody Lund. Hennie portrays the successful but insecure corporate recruiter Roger Brown who lives a double life as an art thief to fund his lavish lifestyle. He discovers that one of his job prospects owns a valuable painting and sets out to steal it.

Released in Norway on 26 August 2011, Headhunters was a box office success, receiving critical acclaim, and was nominated for multiple awards, including four Amanda Awards and a BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

It is the highest-grossing Norwegian film in history.

Plot
Roger Brown (Aksel Hennie), Norway's most successful headhunter, supports his lavish lifestyle by stealing paintings from his clients; his partner, Ove (Eivind Sander), works at a surveillance company and deactivates security at the victims' homes, allowing Roger to swap the art for a counterfeit. Asked to dinner by his mistress, Lotte (Julie Ølgaard), Roger declines and ends their relationship. Roger's wife and art gallery owner, Diana (Synnøve Macody Lund), introduces him to Clas Greve (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), a former executive for GPS tech company HOTE. Roger, currently seeking to recruit the next CEO of rival firm Pathfinder, recognizes Clas may be a suitable candidate. Diana reveals that Clas has asked her to authenticate a lost Rubens painting he inherited that is believed to be worth millions.

Roger convinces Clas to meet with him over lunch to discuss the job and soon learns Clas used to be a member of TRACK, a special forces unit that specialized in tracking people, and winner of the European Military pentathlon. He also learns that Clas helped HOTE develop a nanotechnology GPS tracking gel that is difficult to remove. Despite his misgivings, Roger meets with Ove to work out the details of stealing the painting. Roger manages to steal it from Clas' home, but he discovers Diana's cell phone beside Clas' bed, implying the two of them are having an affair due to Roger's refusal to have children with Diana. In retaliation, after a seemingly successful meeting with Pathfinder executives, an upset Roger flippantly informs Clas that the company may be looking for someone else to fill the position.

The next morning, Roger finds Ove in his (Roger's) car, apparently dead from a poison syringe embedded in the car seat; just as Roger dumps Ove in a lake, Ove recovers, as he did not get a full dose of the poison. Driving Ove to his cabin, Roger puts him in bed and ignores his demands for medical attention, as he does not want the police involved. Ove pulls a gun in response, causing a shoot-out where Roger accidentally kills Ove. Finding Clas has followed him to Ove's cabin, Roger narrowly escapes after a scuffle. After realising Clas may have used HOTE's GPS gel technology on him, Roger switches his car for Ove's and throws his clothes in a lake, changing into Ove's spare uniform and fleeing to a farm where Ove used to stay. Nevertheless, Clas tails Roger to the farm with his dog and murders the farmer, but Roger evades them. Trying to escape on a tractor, Roger is attacked by Clas' dog, which he kills by impaling it on the tractor's forks. Roger, believing Clas is still chasing him, drives erratically and falls from the tractor, only to find his pursuer is a stranger wanting to help.

Waking in a hospital, Roger learns the police think he is Ove, and arrest him for the farmer's murder when he tries to escape. Driving to the station, the officers pull over to block a truck reported stolen. Roger realizes that Clas is driving the truck and that Diana may have helped Clas by rubbing the GPS gel into Roger's hair. With Clas approaching, the officers ignore Roger's protests, allowing Clas to ram the car off a cliff. Playing dead until Clas leaves the scene, Roger shaves his head and hides his hair on a deceased officer's body, then swaps clothes with a detective's disfigured body to fake his death.

Roger turns to Lotte for help, only to discover she is working for Clas. Clas, who is still secretly employed by HOTE, was planning to use Roger to get the Pathfinder job and steal their secret technologies. Lotte admits that she put the GPS gel in Roger's hair, absolving Diana, and that she suggested dinner so she could introduce him to Clas; since Roger ended their affair, Clas used a counterfeit Rubens painting to meet Roger through Diana. When Roger lets his guard down, Lotte attacks him with a knife, causing Roger to shoot and kill her in self-defense. Roger returns home and admits everything to Diana, who apologizes for her affair with Clas. The next morning, Roger goes to a morgue to retrieve the remaining evidence linking him to the murders (his cut hair), while Diana contacts Clas to ostensibly resume their affair.

While cleaning Ove's cabin of evidence, Roger is confronted by Clas, who tracks the GPS gel in the cut hair. Clas gloats that Diana has returned to him, and tries to shoot Roger but fails. Roger fatally wounds Clas with a hidden gun, explaining that Diana only resumed their affair so she could load Clas' gun with blanks. Ove's home security records Clas involved in a shootout, though Roger stays in a camera blind spot near Ove. The footage, combined with evidence doctored by Roger, suggests Ove and Clas were art thieves who killed the farmer, Lotte, and then finally each other after a dispute. The police, including star detective Brede Sperre, ignore the minor inconsistencies (Ove's time of death being days earlier than what is implied by the video footage) because Brede knows that leaving the case unsolved would harm his growing reputation. Later, Roger and a visibly pregnant Diana are shown selling their house, and Roger returns to work, giving the Pathfinder job to the client he rejected and robbed at the beginning of the film.

Cast

 * Aksel Hennie as Roger Brown
 * Synnøve Macody Lund as Diana
 * Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Clas Greve
 * as Ove Kjikerud
 * Julie Ølgaard as Lotte Madsen
 * Reidar Sørensen as Brede Sperre
 * as Jeremias Lander
 * Mads Mogeland as Joar Sunded
 * Baard Owe as Sindre Aa
 * Torgrim Mellum Stene as Atle Nerum
 * as Ferdinand
 * Nils Jørgen Kaalstad as Stig
 * as Brugd
 * Gunnar Skramstad Johnsen as Eskild Monsen
 * Lars Skramstad Johnsen as Endride Monsen

Production and remake
The Swedish production company Yellow Bird acquired the film rights to Jo Nesbø's 2008 novel Headhunters in 2009. It was the first of Nesbø's novels to be turned into a film. The film was shot in and around Oslo on a budget of 30 million NOK over 40 days. The film lacked aerial shots that they needed but ran out of money and instead archive footage scenes from the Swedish film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was used and was digitally altered to change the type of car.

A Hollywood remake of Headhunters was planned, with the British journalist and screenwriter Sacha Gervasi writing the screenplay. The rights to the English-language remake were sold to the American film studio Summit Entertainment in 2011 while the Norwegian film was still in production.

Music
Tracks used in the movie include:
 * "Weathervane" by Weathervane (writing name of Jimmy Gnecco and Paul Waaktaar-Savoy) - over the end credits
 * "Sleep Ferrari" published by Universal Publishing Production Music (no artist given)
 * "Come Arround" [sic] by Goran Obad and Henrik Skarm

Release
The film was released in Norway on 26 August 2011 and was seen by 104,000 Norwegian moviegoers in its opening weekend, making it the second best opening weekend in Norwegian history, after Max Manus. It was by far the most-watched domestic film of the year, with 557,086 tickets sold at the cinema, and the second most-watched including foreign films, only beaten by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2.

Box office
In its opening weekend in Norway, the film earned $1,789,809, good enough to top the Norwegian box office rankings. The film stayed at the top spot in the Norwegian box office rankings for four straight weekends. It had eventually earned $8,877,056 upon its departure from Norwegian theaters.

It also earned an additional $10,085,388 in other territories and $1,200,010 in the United States for a worldwide box office gross of $18,962,444 against a production budget of $3,636,887, making it the highest-grossing film in Norwegian cinema history.

Reception
Headhunters received overwhelmingly positive critical reviews upon release. Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 93% based on 98 reviews, with an average rating of 7.63 out of 10. The consensus reads: "Grisly, twisty, and darkly comic, Headhunters is an exhilaratingly oddball take on familiar thriller elements". On Metacritic, the film has a score of 72 out of 100, based on reviews from 26 critics.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three and a half out of four, praising the film as "an argument for the kinds of thrillers I miss. It entertains with story elements, in which the scares evolve from human behavior. Unlike too many thrillers that depend on stunts, special effects, and the Queasy cam, this one devises a plot where it matters what happens. It's not all kinetic energy".

In Norway the film got favourable reviews; with most reviewers following the "die throw" system, where one is worst and six is best, the vast majority gave five. The die throw of five was issued by VG, Dagbladet, Aftenposten, Bergens Tidende, Bergensavisen, Stavanger Aftenblad, Dagsavisen, Fædrelandsvennen, Haugesunds Avis and Hamar Arbeiderblad. The die throw of four was issued by Adresseavisen. and Klassekampen. Dagens Næringsliv, called the film "highly acceptable" genre action with a sympathetic lead character.

Accolades
Headhunters was the first Norwegian film to be nominated for a BAFTA (in the category Best Film Not in the English Language). The film was also nominated for four Amanda Awards: People's Amanda (audience vote), Best Actor, Best Direction and Best Visual Effects, but not for Best Norwegian Film, leading to criticism of the Amanda jury.