Hackers (1995)

As a depiction of the computer-hacker underground, this movie is bogus to the bone. As a thriller, it's cartoonish and conventional. The premise (computer-happy kids hack into the wrong system, and the Forces of Repression come after them) is recycled from John Badham's 1983 WarGames. And the corporate-creep bad guy, played by Fisher Stevens, steeples his fingers and growls mossy villainous clichés. ("By the time they realize the truth, we'll be long gone with all the money.") For all its postmodern trappings the movie is working with sub-prehistoric storytelling tools. But it does succeed on one level, as a movie about adolescent bonding and alienation. The director, Iain Softley, helmed the Beatles-in-Hamburg biopic Backbeat, and he seems to have an instinct for the emotions that pull kids together around common interests and the insecurities that drive them apart. The familiar crises of loyalty and betrayal have an ache of real loneliness. It doesn't hurt that the two stars, Jonny Lee Miller (Sick Boy Williamson in Trainspotting) and Angelina Jolie (Gia), are just about equally gorgeous and charismatic; their longing glances steam up the screen. --David Chute Amazon.com

A teen movie gone high tech

Hackers has all the correct formula for a standard teen movie. New guy comes to some new high school, then meets some girl who has a stuck up boyfriend, new guy gains some new friends, goes to some party, then gets the hookup with the girl at the end after having a slight fight. The only added twist is the fact that the whole movie revolves around computers and hacking.

The movie has no bearing on real life hacking. Although there are some screen shots of actual computer usage, for example I saw a unix command prompt as well as a hex dump, most of the computer usage is done by graphical cgi. For example, when they type on the screen, it makes a noise, or the fact that a virus actually talks to you.

Personally I think the movie has the high level of hacking done right. At the time of the movie, dial ups were the common use of computers on the internet. So in this movie, the characters keep themselves hidden by using pay phones and laptop computers. This is realistic as today's wireless networks and how hackers can be mobile and thus hidden from the real world. There are some other realistic methods done in the movie, but overall, the movie doesn't do anything specific. I think the only thing done realistic is the pay phones dial tone trick which I believe worked in the earlier pay phone models.

In this movie, I think the biggest flaw of hacking is that everyone knows who and what they're hacking. In real life, this is rarely true as most hacking is anonymous and not only that, it extends worldwide; someone in China, for example, can run fake businesses on the net and get credit card numbers from people in America. A realistic scenario that happens all too often and the question of whose responsible comes up. However, in this film, everyone knows who they're hacking and not only that, they have frequent conversations face to face where the main villain of the movie comes to the star of the movie's house and demands things which includes the villain hacking the FBI network to put a hit on his mother. Not only that, the hackers have a small time limit where they have to save the world from an oil spill. Silly, I know, but I think the movie has to have a main villain otherwise it would be a boring movie.

The DVD is exciting as it comes with a unique guide book explaining various things about Hacking and the film. One of the more interesting facts in the book is that when the movie was released, someone actually hacked the movies website and replaced the image with doodles. Another interesting thing about the film is that the director wanted to create realistic hackers by using clothes from thrift shops which is interesting for many reasons. One is that shopping at thrifts stores usually means you have limited cash, and everyone in this film uses laptop computers which in 1995 were quite an expensive piece of equipment; some in the ranges of one to five thousand dollars. Not only that, I don't know a single parent who would buy their teenage son or daughter a three grand piece of equipment that they use to paint smiley faces on. The next interesting thing about the film is that it features teens using laptops which in modern times, nearly every young person uses a laptop computer.. from the college bound to the business men and women, nearly everyone has a laptop computer at one point in their life.

Overall the movie was a good teen movie. If you like computers and teen movies, you're going to love Hackers. However, don't think this is some documentary where after watching it you'll be some sort of expert on hacking. As a matter of fact, I was thoroughly confused after the film. I didn't learn anything except that Jolie was strikingly beautiful in this film... speaking of which, Jolie fans can watch this movie for earlier films of her.
October 11, 2008

Hackers Movie

This earlier Jolie movie exemplifies what innate talent the girl had even back then. It was great to see some of the other cast that went on to Scream, Con Air and some others. Definitely makes light of what the current technology was then and how it became ancient history in a short amount of time. September 9, 2008

So bad it's good!

One of my favorite films ever, hands down! Yes, it's extremely unrealistic in every respect (from the way they look to the way they hack). It's not supposed to be realistic! If you pop this into your DVD expecting a serious exploration of the subculture of hackers, you'll be thoroughly disappointed, and maybe even mad. So know what you're getting into... This movie isn't about realism. It's about pure fun. If you suspend your disbelief and go with the flow, you're bound to enjoy the ride. Being a New Yorker, I especially well relate to the setting. I was the same age as the characters and the actors who portray them when this movie first came out. Being 20, hanging out at the arcade, going to parties atop skyscrapers and running around subway platforms - computers or not, for me it's quintessential New York of the mid-90s. And the actors? Angelina Jolie was a barely known teenager when this was filmed, and already she had a screen presence impossible to ignore. The interaction between the actors seems very natural, and every bit of it is fun. "Check it out, it's got a 28.8 bps modem!... Baby's sweeeet!" Absolutely hilarious. September 9, 2008

Extremely accurate

This was the most accurate portrayal of hacking I have ever seen. The speed at which they are able to connect via analog modem was also very accurate. I thought that the personal, proprietary browser and instant messaging technology added a very interesting aspect to the film. If it wasn't for this movie, I would never have seen those kickflippin' graphics with the jail bars that load so quickly when you try talk to a corporate computer. The soundtrack also very accurate, as well as the references to the RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) architecture, were a real testament to the research the film company had to have done. By far, the most impressive and accurate character in this film is Mr. The Plague -- as a security expert myself, I felt the portrayal of his work environment could have itself been a picture of my very own work! (Except my work environment sadly does not feature Penn of Penn & Teller, nor is my skateboard quite as retro, but still)

The fact that prompts are plain text now but in 1995 they were huge, wavy, green letters just goes to show the degree to which Microsoft has slowed progress in the computer market.

I think this film wholly does inspire us to 'hack the planet'. September 4, 2008

Cult classic at it's best

Ok, this is a cheesy movie. It glorifies the life of a hacker, and over-simplifies things so the audience doesn't get completely lost.

But the movie plays off of that. It's a classic, some will get it and will love it, others will not.

Either case, Angelina Jolie looks amazing back when she looked a little more natural. May 19, 2008

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