Jack Devlin is the main antagonist of the 1995 film The Net.
He was portrayed by Jeremy Northam.
Biography[]
Devlin is a contract killer and cyber-terrorist affiliated with a group of malevolent hackers known only as "the Praetorians". Devlin was hired by conspirator Jeff Gregg to obtain a floppy disk with a backdoor (allowing it to avoid detection whilst being able to illegally access computer files). The disk is sent to a California systems analyst named Angela Bennett by one of her colleagues, and when Devlin discovers this, he finds out all of her details through a computer system. Bennett goes on holiday to Cozumel in Mexico and Devlin meets her there, introducing himself to her in person and taking her to dinner. He pays a mugger to steal her purse containing the disk and Devlin takes it before shooting him dead. Later, Devlin and Angela make love on board a speedboat, but she soon finds his gun and questions him about it. Devlin reveals his true intentions to her and attempts to kill her, but Angela takes the disk and Devlin's wallet before fleeing with the disk in a dinghy. However, in her haste, she hits a group of rocks and knocked unconscious, and the disk is destroyed.
While Angela is in the hospital, Devlin and his fellow conspirators erase all records of her identity and instead assign her the identity of "Ruth Marx", who has an arrest warrant. The real Ruth Marx, who is one of the conspirators, takes Angela's identity and tells Angela over the phone that she will get her old life back in exchange for the disk. Angela is forced to avoid the police whilst attempting to prove that she is the real Angela Bennett, although Devlin confronts her on several occasions to once again try and take back the disk.
Eventually, Angela infiltrates the building where the impostor Angela is working and discovers details about the conspiracy, which she then emails to the FBI from the Moscone Centre. As Devlin and the impostor Angela search for her, Devlin is tricked into releasing a virus that reverses the erasing of Angela's identity. Angela then flees and Devlin gives chase, accidentally shooting and killing the impostor Angela in the process. Devlin soon finds Angela and pulls a gun on her, but she hits him with a fire extinguisher and causes him to fall off a gangway to his death onto the roof of a parked forklift.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Jack Devlin is the greater threat to Angela's life and is the one carrying out Gregg's orders. Because of this, Devlin can be considered "the heavy" of the film.