FAQ

Män som hatar kvinnor. Which translates exactly as "men who hate women". Another great example of how changing titles for foreign markets can alter expectations and/or look silly.

Millenium magazine journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) is hired by wealthy industrialist Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), retired CEO of Vanger Industries, to write his memoirs but who really wants Mikael to investigate the murder of his grandniece Harriet who disappeared some 40 years ago. With the help of an antisocial, punk computer hacker Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), a young woman with a dragon tattoo on her back, a checkered childhood and an abusive court-appointed guardian named Nils Bjurman (Yorick van Wageningen), the pair uncover a series of gruesome murders that eventually puts their own lives in danger.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is an English-language remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009), based on a crime novel by the Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson (1954-2004). It is the first of his Millennium trilogy, followed by The Girl Who Played with Fire (2006) and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest (2007). The screenplay for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was written by American screenwriter Steven Zaillian.

Hedestad (Hede City) and Hedeby (Hede Village) Island are both fictitious places, invented for Larsson's novel. They are described as being along the east coast of Sweden, about three hours north of Stockholm, a little more than an hour north of Gävle. The original novel (in Swedish) featured maps of Hedeby Island, but they were left out of the English translations. Other places mentioned in the movie, such as Stockholm, Göteborg, Skelleftea, Kalmar, Uppsala, Norsjö, and Karlstad, can be located on the following map.

There are a lot of Vangers to keep track of in the movie; even more in the novel. In this movie, there are three Vanger brothers: Henrik, Ricard (deceased), and Harald (Per Myrberg). Henrik is a widower with no children. Ricard had one son, Gottfried (deceased). Gottfried was married to Isabella and their children are Martin Vanger (Stellan Skarsgård) (current CEO of Vanger Industries) and Harriet Vanger (missing since 1966, presumed dead). Cecilia (Geraldine James) and Anita (Joely Richardson) and Birger are the children of Harald.

Henrik Vanger commissioned Milton Security to do a comprehensive investigation into Mikael's background, because he wanted to hire Mikael to investigate the disappearance and probable murder of his grandniece Harriet. Being the best researcher employed by Milton, Lisbeth was assigned to the job. She was probably attracted to him as well.

It's not really brought out until the end of the movie when Mikael asks how a 23-year-old can be a ward of the state. Lisbeth tells Mikael that she was declared mentally incompetent at age 12 after she tried to burn her father to death. Further details of that incident will be provided in The Girl Who Played with Fire.

At 2012 exchange rates, 10,000 SEK would be worth about 1,500 USD, 950 GBP sterling, and 1,160 EUR.

Email accounts get hacked every day. It is relatively easy for someone who makes it their profession to do so, as in identity hackers. Hacking an email account is even easier when the account is only protected by a weak password as in all numbers, letters, or simple words. Most people would not notice that their account was hacked until some private information turned up elsewhere. The problem for the hacker would be in covering their tracks if the hack was revealed. The characters in the film either did not know their email accounts were hacked or could not go to the authorities considering the sensitivity of their respective predicaments. Hacking email accounts is a huge problem for everyone but can be diminished if everyone uses strong passwords that contain: capital and lower case letters, non-sequential numbers, no words of any kind or any language, no personal information i.e. birthdays, anniversaries. Furthermore, in the original novel, it's explained that Lisbeth doesn't actually hack the email accounts. She plants a software in the victim's computer that allows her to monitor everything that is done with the computer. It's obvious that this is what happens in the movie as well, but it's not explicitly explained.

They refer to biblical passages from the book of Leviticus. 30114 is Leviticus 1:14: "If a dove is the sinner's offering, the priest shall wring off its head, cleave its wings, and burn it upon the altar." 32016 is Leviticus 20:16: "If a woman lies with any beast, you shall kill the woman and the beast; their blood is upon them." 32018 is Leviticus 20:18: "If a man lies with a woman having her sickness, and uncovers her nakedness, he has made naked her fountain, and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood." 32027 is Leviticus 20:27: "A woman who is a medium or a sorceress shall be put to death by stoning." 32109 is Leviticus 21:09: "The daughter of a priest who profanes herself by playing the harlot, profanes her father and shall be burned with fire."

With Martin dead, Mikael is able to convince Harriet to return to Hedeby in order to reunite with Henrik. Henrik provides Mikael with the proof about Wennerström that he promised, but the information is from 35 years ago and, due to the statute of limitations, is useless to Mikael. Lisbeth offers to look into Wennerström's activities and discovers that he's been laundering money from drugs, arms, and crime syndicates in Russia and placing the money in accounts in the Cayman Islands. With solid proof now, Mikael writes another exposé in Millenium, charging Wennerström with criminal activities on a global scale. The Securities Fraud office investigates Wennerström, and he is eventually executed gangland-style. Meanwhile, Lisbeth asks Mikael to loan her some money for an investment, promising to return it in full. Disguised in a blonde wig, Lisbeth transfers around money from Wennerström's multiple accounts and ends up placing over two billion Euros into accounts of her own. She then returns to Stockholm and buys an expensive leather jacket for Mikael. When she delivers it, however, she sees Mikael leaving his apartment with his arm around Erika (Robin Wright), so she tosses the jacket in a dumpster and rides off on her motorcycle.

The film stays close to the book with just a few additions and alterations. In the book Mikael Blomkvist's libel conviction includes a prison sentence. He takes a break from his research halfway through the novel to serve his sentence, then resumes the research; this is omitted from the film. In the novel, Mikael's father worked for the Vanger Corporation and stayed with his family on Hedestad with the Vangers. Harriet babysat Mikael when he was a young boy. This detail does not make it into the movie. In the book, he also develops a romantic relationship with Cecilia Vanger; this plot line does not make it into the film. The book mentions that Lisbeth's previous legal guardian Holger Palmgren has had a stroke, but it happens before the action of the book starts. She abandons him when doctors give a grim prognosis, telling her that Palmgren will likely not recover from his coma. In the film, the stroke occurs during the course of the story, and she stays in contact with him. It also shows her tracking down her new guardian, Nils Bjurman, once more after she tattoos his chest and blackmails him. She does not begin doing this in the books until the second installment, though it is an important plot point. A minor liberty taken is that in the novels it is repeatedly stated that Lisbeth likes neither clubs nor crowds and hasn't stepped foot into a nightclub in many years. In the movie, she meets up with Miriam Wu at one. Mikael also finds out to great surprise that Lisbeth is a ward of the state and that she was institutionalized for setting her father on fire during the course of the second book. In the film, both facts are revealed to him earlier on.

The biggest change is towards the end when Mikael and Lisbeth realize that Harriet Vanger fled Sweden to get away from her serial killer brother. In the book, Mikael realizes that Harriet likely ran away and, since her cousin Anita was her best friend, Anita probably knows where Harriet is. With the help of Lisbeth's hacker friends he traces a phone call from Anita's London apartment to Australia and tracks down Harriet, whom he convinces to come home and reunite with Henrik. In the film, Harriet is living in London under Anita's identity. In the book, Lisbeth repeatedly visits her brain damaged mother in a convalescent home. She is unable to join Mikael to Australia because her mother passes away. In the film, her mother is never mentioned nor featured, so she is able to accompany Mikael to London.

"Great Bird of Prey" by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross.

It's a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, with Karen O providing vocals. The second trailer used "An Itch", also by Reznor and Ross.