- In the European version of the film, the description of Lozano and his affiliation with the "Los Zapotecas" gang at approx. 26 minutes into the film is shortened.
- Michael Mann premiered the Director's Cut during a retrospective of his films at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on February 10, 2016. This version is three minutes longer than the theatrical release, and opens with the hacking attack on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, rather than the Hong Kong nuclear plant attack, which has been moved to the middle of the film. Some scenes and dialogue exchanges have also been cut or shortened. This version was shown on FX on May 9, 2017, and several days later it was made available on DirecTV Now, Hulu with Live TV and other streaming services.
- The initial Director's Cut was created by Michael Mann for a retrospective screening of his films at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2016. In 2017, FX showed a different version of the Director's Cut, with further editing changes by Mann. This version contains all the changes made for the Brooklyn screening, but also many other changes, including elongated shots, truncated shots, different shot order, alternative angles, re-framing, rearranged dialogue, different audio, different music cues, and additional scenes. Virtually every scene in the film has been altered in some way, however small the changes may be in some cases. This version was subsequently made available on various streaming services, and in 2023, Arrow Video released it on Blu-ray for the first time.
- The opening scene is the trade exchange hack to drive up the price for soy futures. In the Theatrical Cut, this doesn't happen until approximately 14 minutes into the film, and it comes after the nuclear power plant at Chai Wan has already been breached. This re-positioning reflects the original intention of the filmmakers. However, very late in editing, Mann decided to switch the scenes so as to create a more impactful opening; "I made one major shift in the movie; it's a huge shift. The nuclear explosion used to occur after the storm drain, late in the movie. That's huge. It's like putting a hand in a socket, pulling it out the other side. I decided, "No, I have to have these events occur in the front." I had to reconstruct a lot of dialogue all along the way. Halfway in his interview, Hathaway says, "The nuclear reactor I heard about," but he didn't hear about it. He hadn't heard about the nuclear reactor because the nuclear reactor never happened that early. It was kind of tricky. It became much better." Obviously, Mann changed his mind for the Director's Cut, and having the film open with the trade exchange attack and then build to the Chai Wan attack helps the pacing and narrative progression immeasurably.
- The Theatrical Cut opens with a stylized view of the planet from space, lit up by the vast grid networks communicating. The title then appears on screen, before the film cuts to the Chai Wan attack. Although that attack is in the Director's Cut, the shot of the globe is absent. There is no title card in the Director's Cut (-00:29).
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