Crypto exchanges fall under dubious circumstances, and excessive token holders are left out of pocket. It's a troubling story in the world of crypto — and one that writer-director Cutie Hodier has made the heart of his new film.
“Cold Wallet” opens with everyone Billy (Raul Castillo) talking tulips to all and sundry, splashing the money on his daughter's PS5 and pinning his hopes of finding a new home on TPC tokens.
Then everything comes crashing down. The exchange's CEO dies under mysterious circumstances, Billy's wallets are worthless, and Tulip's friends who have been tricked into losing money. But hacker Eva (Melonie Diaz) has a lead: Tulip's boss, Charles Heigl (Josh Brenner of “Silicon Valley”), is alive and well — and holed up in an isolated mansion down the road.
Along with Billy's pacifist martial arts instructor, Dom (Tony Cavalero), the trio of vigilantes rob Hegel, confiscate his hardware bag, and force him to cough up the missing cash.
But Hegel is a helpless tech geek; Instead, he's a Hannibal Lecter figure, playing mind games with his captors, sowing seeds of doubt and contradicting each other. Billy is left to wrestle with his conscience – will he play Robin Hood and throw his money into the air for needy investors, or will he take the crypto millions for himself and “join the big boys?”
“Cold Bag” is at its strongest when its well-drawn characters play off each other. Castillo shines as Billy, who uses the Dunning-Kruger influence as an investor enough to convince his friends that he's convincing enough to convince his friends that he doesn't care about his financial troubles. And Cavalero's Dom is especially entertaining when he's struggling. Vigilance attack with “karmic imprint”.
Diaz was given the laudable task of bringing the film's cryptocurrency concepts to mainstream audiences – while her exit from the film felt like an afterthought.
It's hard to buy into the concept of Brenner's Charles Hegel as a master manipulator, pulling the main characters' strings like so many puppets, even as he testifies to the shameful reality of cornered crypto-swindlers like Sam Bankman-Fried. Or, indeed, a hunter with a crossbow who, after a shocking act of violence, turns himself in for the film's “most dangerous game” finale.
The film's low budget also limits its scope. The fact that crypto billionaire Hagel stands in the way of our characters in Massachusetts stretches his credibility a bit, but the action is mostly confined to the one scene where the Vigilantes clash with the crypto swindler.
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ToggleCrypto Credentials
Decryption readers will, of course, be very interested in the film's cryptography.
So far, Hollywood has shown crypto as much as it did computer hacking in the 90s; Tech buzzwords are sprinkled throughout the scripts to see how it works (looking at you, “Mission Impossible: Dead Count”).
“Cool Bag” was one of the first films to use crypto mechanics to drive the plot. Rugpool provides inspiration for the main characters, hardware bags, airdrops, entrances and exits, trades and lineages provide twists and turns to the plot.
It is obviously also made by people who are deeply immersed in the crypto space. The “death” of Hegel and the failure of the TPX exchange echoes the failures of QuadrigaCX and FTX, and the house is liberally decorated with images of whales. Boring Monkey Boat Club NFT art. Billy and his fellow investors trade tips on Reddit and watch crypto YouTubers spitting out phrases like “diamond hands,” the key interaction taking place in a parking lot lit up with the MemeStop and AMC logos.
For crypto enthusiasts, it's a refreshing experience to see the space actually portrayed on screen for once—and rules will find it an engrossing thriller, even if the crypto lingo flies over their heads.
“Cold Wallet” itself is a Web3 organization; It is one of three films supported by the Web3 Film Fund, Decentralized Pictures, using a gift from Steven Soderbergh. Founder Roman Coppola believes that “a new Tarantino or a new Kubrick” could eventually emerge from the world of Film3, and on this evidence, there's a good chance he's right.
Edited by Andrew Hayward.
