Hanna Season 1: 7 Brilliant Details You Probably Missed

Could the Utrax central office be hidden under an airport baggage claim?

Hanna Amazon Fence
Amazon

Stopping to read text in movies and TV shows can be frustrating or rewarding, depending on how much effort the crew put forth to fine-tune the smaller details. For instance, there's a late scene in Joe Wright's 2011 film Hanna in which the titular assassin visits an internet café in search of information. Hitting the pause button during this scene reveals a couple of odd text choices.

In particular, a photo of the car crash that plays a central role in the film's backstory is captioned "Ein Bild aus den besseren Tagen." This roughly translates to "a picture from better days," which you might recognize as a terrible way to describe a car crash. It's evidently supposed to be a picture of Johanna and her mother in their apartment, but this picture isn't seen until after Hanna scrolls to another article.

The first season of Amazon's Hanna largely avoids these types of minor background errors. There are a few possible errors that might actually raise questions about the show's future, but most of the text fits its purpose. In fact, many details - both text-based and otherwise - are actually quite brilliant when given an extra moment of consideration. Take, for example, the following seven.

Warning: A few major spoilers for Season 1 of Amazon's Hanna are to follow.

7. The Rights Of Sentient Property

Hanna Amazon Fence
Amazon

In the second episode, Marissa Wiegler meets with former Utrax colleague Michael Jacobs to enlist his help in searching for Hanna. Since they're meeting in public, she obscures Hanna's file by hiding it under a newspaper. While the close-up shot of Jacobs lifting the newspaper is only there so that we can see the file underneath it, the newspaper itself is worth a closer look.

The text is in French, but a quick translation reveals that the article concerns a book on animal regulations. This book examines the legal rights of animals, highlighting the moral ambiguity of subjecting sentient beings to the regime of property. It's actually the first book in Europe to compile all French legal texts concerning animal welfare in a single volume.

This is a real article by Le Monde, published within the same month that filming began on Amazon's Hanna. As such, its inclusion may have been a mere coincidence. For any props department in need of a French newspaper, Le Monde is a fairly obvious go-to. On the other hand, this particular article is a compelling choice for the scene in question.

As far as the CIA is concerned, the Utrax subjects are living property. They're raised in captivity and trained like animals. In this very scene, Wiegler is trying to secure the capture of subject that was stolen from Utrax before it could be euthanized. Thematically speaking, Hanna's file appearing in the same shot as an article on the rights of living property is one of the more brilliant directorial decisions of the entire season.

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Kieran enjoys overanalyzing and arguing about pop culture, believing that heated debates can (and should) be had in good fun. He currently lives in Fort Worth, TX, where he spends his time chatting with strangers on the bus and forcing them to look at pictures of his dog.