The previously released "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" trailer remains one of the most memorable bits of movie marketing this year, teasing the arrival of the feel-bad movie of the holiday season. But if you thought that trailer was cool, just wait — you haven't seen anything yet.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (original title in Swedish: Män som hatar kvinnor – "Men Who Hate Women") is an award-winning crime novel and locked room mystery by Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson. It is the first book in his "Millennium series".
At his death in November 2004, Larsson left three unpublished novels that made up the trilogy. It became a posthumous best-seller in several European countries as well as in the United States.[1] Larsson witnessed the gang rape of a young girl when he was 15. He never forgave himself for failing to help the girl, whose name was Lisbeth – like the young heroine of his books, herself a rape victim, which inspired the theme of sexual violence against women in his books.
Mikael Blomkvist, disgraced publisher of the Swedish political magazine Millennium, lost a libel case involving allegations about billionaire industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerström and is sentenced to three months in prison. Blomkvist steps down from the magazine's board of directors. At the same time, he is offered a freelance assignment by Henrik Vanger, the former CEO of Vanger Enterprises, which he accepts — unaware that Vanger commissioned an investigation into Blomkvist's personal and professional history carried out by private investigator Lisbeth Salander.
The old man draws Blomkvist in by promising not only financial reward for the assignment, but also solid evidence against Wennerström. Blomkvist agrees to spend a year writing the Vanger family history as a cover for the solving the case of the disappearance of Vanger's niece Harriet some 40 years earlier. Vanger believes that Harriet was murdered by a member of the Vanger family. Blomkvist moves to the Vanger estate and becomes acquainted with the extended family, most of whom resent his presence.
Meanwhile, Salander meets her new legal guardian, Nils Bjurman. Nils uses his position to extort sexual favors from her in return for access to the money from her own financial accounts. After two sexual assaults, Salander attacks Bjurman; she tattoos him and blackmails him with the release of a video of him raping her in return for full control of her bank accounts.
Blomkvist discovers Salander and realises that she has hacked into his computer. He persuades her to assist him with research. Together, they discover entries in Harriet's diary that list the names of missing women from across Sweden; this leads them to suspect that they are on the trail of a serial killer, who has been at large for decades. They discover that Harriet's brother Martin, now CEO of Vanger Industries, is the serial killer. Salander saves Blomkvist's life when Martin attempts to kill him, and Martin is killed in a car accident while escaping Salander's pursuit.
Blomkvist realizes that Martin did not know what had happened to Harriet and therefore, Harriet must still be alive. He tracks her down as a rich farmer and businesswoman in Australia and persuades her to return to Sweden. Blomkvist agrees with Harriet and Henrik not to publish any evidence he has found on the Vanger family and to keep the family's secrets to himself. In exchange the family makes large annual donations to charities which support victims of domestic violence.
Vanger's evidence regarding Wennerström proves to be insubstantial. However Salander breaks into Wennerström's computer and discovers that his crimes go far beyond what Blomkvist documented. Using her evidence, Blomkvist prints an exposé and book which destroys Wennerström, who is later found dead under suspicious circumstances. The exposé catapults Blomkvist and Millennium to national prominence. Meanwhile Salander - using her phenomenal skill with computer hacking and several false identities with which she approaches various Swiss banks - succeeds in stealing more than a quarter of a billion dollars from Wennerström's secret bank account and hiding it in various secret bank accounts of her own.
A brand new "Dragon Tattoo" trailer has arrived online, clocking in at an astonishing three minutes and 46 seconds. This time around, the in-your-face quick cuts are played down in favor of a much more cohesive look at the movie's plot and a clearer picture of the two leads, disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist and punk hacker Lisbeth Salander, who is different in "every way," according to her boss Dragan Armonsky.
"He's clean in my opinion," Salander assesses of Blomkvist when delivering the results of her investigation into the financial reporter. "He's honest. He's had a long standing sexual relationship with the co-editor of [Millennium] magazine. Sometimes he pleasures her. Not often enough, in my opinion."
Salander's description of her future partner gives way to the revelation of Blomkvist's quest in the movie: to solve a decades old murder mystery for a retired industrialist way past his prime.
"I need your help," begs Henrik Vangar, who's seeking to put an end to the mystery of who killed his beloved niece Harriet. "You come stay on [Hedeby] island, a way of avoiding all those people you might want to avoid right now. You'll be investigating thieves, misers, bullies. The most detestable collection of people you will ever meet… my family."
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