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Our top film industry story of 2014 wasn’t even a story until late November, and even then, we didn’t know it would be the story of the year. In November, when the news of the Sony hack started to emerge, the ostensible reason given for the hostile activity toward the corporation was the impending release of the Seth Rogen/James Franco comedy The Interview. At the time, it seemed silly, but let’s just say that… things escalated quickly.

You would have to be living under a rock to not understand that the threats were ostensibly coming from North Korea (a fact still under debate) because of objections to the film’s depiction of the assassination of the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un. Since this is a guy who has threatened the United States with a nuclear strike and who inexplicably hangs out with former NBA star Dennis Rodman, his mercurial reaction to a dumb movie that lampoons him shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone (assuming that North Korea is in fact responsible for the hack, a point still being debated in national security circles).

Things began innocuously enough, as the cyber-attackers first revealed confidential details pertaining to Rogen and Franco’s salaries for The Interview. The hackers, who called themselves the Guardians of the Peace (GOP), had previously leaked new Sony films such as Annie and Fury along with personal data and salary information for Sony’s top executives, so this behavior was right in line with their modus operandi so far.

The situation became grimmer a couple of days later. Sony employees and their families were threatened via email, followed by another missive from the GOP that denied sending the warning, but nonetheless stated, “Stop immediately showing the movie of terrorism which can break the regional peace and cause the War!” Even as Sony was being forced to reexamine their own security, the issue was becoming something much more culturally significant.

Then, on December 16th, the most aggressive threat arrived as the GOP warned, “The world will be full of fear. Remember the 11th of September 2001. We recommend you to keep yourself distant from the places at that time. (If your house is nearby, you’d better leave.) Whatever comes in the coming days is called by the greed of Sony Pictures Entertainment.” This chilling invocation of the tragedy that occurred over a decade ago would set off a chain of events that transformed The Interview from just another middling Seth Rogen comedy to a symbol of free speech and defiance against terrorism.

I should pause at this point to note that as more and more details of the Sony hack were revealed, we began talking around the BOP offices about whether it merited a spot on the Top Film Industry Stories of 2014 list. We had already established our stories (for the most part) starting in late November and early December, but suddenly it felt like the hack was an absolutely critical inclusion. As December progressed, we went from, “Yeah, maybe it should be a story” to “Actually, the Sony hack should probably be our #1 story” to “Whoa. The Sony hack is one story, and The Interview is another story all on its own.”

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