''Silk Road'' is a 2021 American

crime thriller Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...

film, written for the screen and directed by Tiller Russell based on the ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

'' article "Dead End on Silk Road: Internet Crime Kingpin Ross Ulbricht's Big Fall" by

David Kushner David Kushner is a writer who has contributed to many publications, including ''Wired'', ''The New York Times'', ''Rolling Stone'', SPIN, ''IEEE Spectrum'' and ''Salon''. Career From 1994 to 1996, Kushner worked as a senior producer and writer ...

. The film stars

Jason Clarke Jason Clarke (born 17 July 1969) is an Australian actor. He has appeared in many TV series, and is known for playing Tommy Caffee on the television series '' Brotherhood''. He has also appeared in many films, often as an antagonist. His film r ...

, Nick Robinson,

Alexandra Shipp Alexandra Ruth Shipp is an American actress and singer who rose to prominence for portraying singer Aaliyah in the Lifetime television film '' Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B'' (2014) and Kimberly Woodruff in the Oscar-nominated film '' Straight ...

Jimmi Simpson Jimmi Simpson (born November 21, 1975) is an American actor. He is best known for his work on television, which includes recurring roles as Liam McPoyle on ''It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia'' (2005–2013), Lyle the Intern on ''The Late Show ...

Paul Walter Hauser Paul Walter Hauser (born October 15, 1986) is an American actor and comedian. He is known for his supporting roles in the films '' Cruella'', ''I, Tonya'', '' Late Night'', ''BlacKkKlansman'', and ''Da 5 Bloods''. In 2019, Hauser had his breakout ...

Darrell Britt-Gibson Darrell Hadari Britt-Gibson (born August 4, 1986) is an American actor, known for his role as Darius "O-Dog" Hill on the HBO series ''The Wire''. He has also appeared on the Showtime series ''Californication'', the Starz series ''Power'', the ...

, and Will Ropp. It is based on the true story of

Ross Ulbricht Ross William Ulbricht (born March 27, 1984) is an American serving life imprisonment for creating and operating the darknet market website Silk Road from 2011 until his arrest in 2013. The site operated as a hidden service on the Tor network ...

who develops a website on the Dark net, an act which attracts the attention of the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

and

DEA The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA; ) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating drug trafficking and distribution within the U.S. It is the lead agency for domestic en ...

who send in federal agent Richard "Rick" Bowden, a fictional composite of real life DEA Agent Carl Force and US Secret Service Special Agent Shaun Bridges, both of whom were convicted of felonies related to theft of assets in the investigation of Ulbricht, to bring down Ross' empire. ''Silk Road'' was released in the United States on February 19, 2021 by

Lionsgate Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered ...

Plot

Detailing the capture of Silk Road founder

by the FBI and DEA agent Rick Bowden, nicknamed the "Jurassic Narc." Young, idealistic and driven to succeed, Ross Ulbricht creates Silk Road, the internet's first unregulated marketplace. When the site becomes a multimillion dollar pipeline for illicit drugs, Ulbricht draws the attention of Rick Bowden, a dangerously unpredictable DEA agent who uses any means necessary to take him down.

Cast

as Richard "Rick" Bowden aka "Jurassic Narc" * Nick Robinson as

as Julia Vie *

as Chris Tarbell *

as Curtis Clark Green *

as Rayford *

Katie Aselton Kathryn Aselton (born October 1, 1978) is an American actress, film director and producer. She directed and co-starred in '' The Freebie'', which was shown in the non-competition "Next" category at the Sundance Film Festival in 2010. She also st ...

as Sandy Bowden * Lexi Rabe as Edie Bowden * Daniel David Stewart as Max * Will Ropp as Shields * Jennifer Yun as FBI Agent Kim Yum * David DeLao as Johnny Marales * Raleigh Cain as Callie

Production

In January 2019, it was announced

and Nick Robinson had joined the cast of the film, with Tiller Russell directing from a screenplay he wrote. In May 2019,

Cole Sprouse Cole Mitchell Sprouse (born August 4, 1992) is an American actor and photographer. He is known for his role as Cody Martin on the Disney Channel series ''The Suite Life of Zack & Cody'' (2005–2008) and its spin-off series ''The Suite Life on ...

and

joined the cast of the film. In June 2019,

and Lexi Rabe joined the cast of the film. That same month, Daniel David Stewart joined the cast of the film, replacing Sprouse.

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as a ...

began in June 2019 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Release

It was scheduled to have its world premiere at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. Tribeca was f ...

on April 16, 2020. However, the festival was postponed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. In December 2020,

acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film, and set it for a February 19, 2021, release.

Reception

Review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

gives the film a 52% approval rating based on 64 reviews, with an average rating of 5.60/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "''Silk Road'' draws intriguing parallels between its oppositional main characters, but doesn't do quite enough to develop the story surrounding them." According to

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which sampled 11 critics and calculated a weighted average score of 41 out of 100, the film received "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 7937254 2021 thriller drama films 2021 crime drama films American crime drama films American crime thriller films American thriller drama films Films about the Drug Enforcement Administration Films about the Federal Bureau of Investigation Films about cryptocurrencies Films about cybercrime Films about e-commerce Films about the illegal drug trade Films postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic Films set in 2010 Films set in 2012 Films set in 2013 Films set in Austin, Texas Films set in Baltimore Films set in New York (state) Films set in Salt Lake City Films set in San Francisco Films set in Sydney Films set in Utah Films shot in New Mexico Organized crime films based on actual events Biographical films about drug traffickers Films based on newspaper and magazine articles Darknet markets 2021 crime thriller films 2020s English-language films 2020s American films