[spoiler]Good point, I wondered about them too - seems rather likely they were killed.
Also, there was some subversion of the fairy-tale storyline, as it turns out the father was actually the step-father … and had, in a way, betrayed Hanna. [/spoiler]
I don’t think this is it. After all, the reason Erik Bana was originally at cross-purposes with Cate Blanchett (I don’t remember their character’s names) was because he wanted to protect the children in question rather than “terminating” the research project. They were hiding to protect Hanna - he was only in danger because he was keeping her from Cate Blanchett. Also, if his only motive were revenge, he wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to reunite with Hanna after he got the “witch is dead” postcard. My guess is he thought the best possibility of successful reintegration required eliminating Cate Blanchett first.
[spoiler] We aren’t given enough of the backstory to find out why the antagonist was so het up on eliminating all of the kids, or what the “dad”'s relationship with the woman she killed was.
But the notion that the Dad simply had to kill the antagonist in order to “protect” his adopted daugher makes no sense - when his plan consists of him allowing her to be caught by the authorities.
Consider two scenarios, which would be better from the POV of simply protecting your daughter:
(1) allow daughter to be caught by murderous lady with the full authority of the state behind her, hoping that daughter (who has never experienced the outside world) will assassinate murder lady, escape from her super secret hide-out crawling with armed guards, and make it to Berlin with no money or ID; or
(2) using your spy skills, forge a new identity and life someware safe, hoping that after (sixteen?) years murder lady will have retired or be unable to find you?
To my mind, plan #1 only makes sense if killing murder lady took priority with Dad over protecting the daughter.
Sure, after raising the daughter, he had sentimental feelings for her - but fundamentally, he betrayed her and was using her. Hanna certainly thought so in the movie - that’s why she was running from him in the end (“you never prepared me for this!”) [/spoiler]
[spoiler]That’s true. Although I wonder if it’s a true subversion or if it was following the parental betrayal trope instead. It seems to me that the moment when Hanna finds out that she has no true parents (defined as those who would have her best interest at heart) left is the moment when she was forced to grow up, thereby completing the fairy tale arc.
I thought the issue of parentage was rather interesting in the film. Marissa seems to be a mix of Big Bad Wolf (the emphasis on teeth, killing grandma, and the ending sequence), the evil witch (the Hansel and Gretel theme, the postcard), and the evil stepmother. One of the little moments that I liked was Marissa’s visit to Hanna’s grandmother. The grandmother asks what Hanna looks like now. Marissa shoots her and then smiles and says “like her mother.” While we know that Johanna is her mother and Hanna does bear some resemblance to her, I think Marissa has some claim to motherhood as well, being the person who set up the program that allowed Hanna to be born in the first place. In many of the scenes, she seems rather proud of Hanna and at the end, before she shoots Hanna she commands her to “[not] turn away from me” (or something) like a mother would a child. The fact that Cate Blanchett and Saorise Ronan bears some uncanny resemblance only adds to the idea that Marissa has put herself as a legitimate mother in her mind in the same way Eric had made himself her legitimate father. She is, however, a rather cruel and murderous mother who has already killed her first creation, the soldier project. [/spoiler]
Do there really have to be spoiler tags in every post? Is anyone really going to open this thread hoping to read nothing about what happens in the movie?
I wish they’d cleared up what happened to the English family; it’s not certain that the bad guys killed them, because they might make good bait for Hanna, but surely they’d starve to death left in those boxes? I know it was all very poetic having the movie begin and end on Hanna saying ‘I missed your heart,’ but it would have been nice to have this loose end tied up.
They were a nice touch, too - the first ‘normal’ people Hanna meets and they’re a bunch of hippies who seem to have hardly any personal boundaries. 
Just watched this and really enjoyed it a lot. Sure, it’s a pretty implausible plot, but the movie is filmed and directed with style and the score by the Chemical Brothers is fantastic. I liked the fairy-tale parallels (and that it doesn’t beat you over the head with them).
I’m pretty sure that the traveling family must have been killed. I read that when asked about it, the director said his idea for a scene that would reveal their fate was deemed “too dark” by the studio.
The fight scenes are very well done. While watching it I noted that they didn’t use the “ultra-rapid-cut” editing style where you can hardly tell what is going on. They discussed that on the DVD extras, too.
Saoirse Ronan really does a great job of carrying the movie. I grow more impressed with her in everything I see her in, and I’ll make it a point to see whatever she’s in next.
How odd, we watched this Friday night and I came here looking for a thread to comment. Fortunately, Tangent saved me a lot of work and hit nearly everything I wanted to: the fairy tale elements, how fun Ronan is to watch, and the great soundtrack (which I’ll be looking for).
One thing I’d add is that every role with a tightly-wound middle-aged woman has to either go to Tilda Swinton or Cate Blanchett…they both have it nailed.
Another is that I appreciated how the gore part of the violence was mostly downplayed…there’s very little spraying of blood relative to what seems to be going on. Which makes sense, given both the fairy tale elements and the age of Hanna, but I also wasn’t in the mood for a lot of gore (having just watched Zombieland).
Oh, and one slight continuity error in the movie, or perhaps a stylistic choice:
We have a front view of grandma when she’s shot, and it’s not particularly violent, and not messy at all. Later when we’re back in the room, there’s a bullet hole in the picture and blood everywhere.
I saw it a couple of weeks ago and liked it. As mentioned above, the scenes of her reacting to technology, even simple stuff like fluorescent lights, was fascinating. The fairy-tale analogy that TheTerribleTako mentioned is kind of interesting too. And I wondered what would become of Hanna in the end. Would she stay in Berlin, move back to the forest or what? And what sort of work would she do?
BUMP!
Just saw this. It was awesome, but I think I mostly was just getting into the score. Still it was a great atmospheric thriller. I wasn’t really bothered by the dreamlike aspect of things not really making sense and being left out of the bigger picture. In fact, that’s the main thing i liked. Felt sorry for the family, who were almost certainly killed