Cyberpunk Review » Hackers

Year: 1995

Directed by: Iain Softley

Written by: Rafael Moreu

Degree of Cyberpunk Visuals: Medium

Correlation to Cyberpunk Themes: Medium

Key Cast Members:

Dade Murphy/’Crash Override’/'Zero Cool’: Jonny Lee Miller

Kate: Angelina Jolie

: Fisher Stevens

Rating: 7 out of 10

Screencap

“You are elite.”

Overview: OK, so its not near future, but these kids have the glorified underground hacker thing down. In Hackers, every computer is networked and available for hacking. Hackers gives us a plethora of cool computer imagery cut scenes, 3D buildings serving as file share stores, and lots of underground punk visuals. These visuals are packed into a nicely paced movie that makes the outlandish story of high stakes theft, environmental destruction and hacker antiheroes fun to watch.

Screencap

Using “God” as the password is not very secure, but it does serve to highlight the hacker feeling of omnipotence.

The Story: Hackers follows the life of a group of “Elite” hackers, who, through chance while playing a hacking game, uncover a plot within a large bank to contaminate the environment by blaming innocent hackers on messing up software that causes automated oil tankers to spill in order to cover up the theft of millions. The lead bad guy, code name “The Plague” (played by Fisher Stevens) is also a hacker, except that he has “sold his soul” to corporate life and serves as the lead security consultant. The struggle between the hackers and The Plague inevitably brings in the hapless police, who immediately are duped into arresting the hacker force.

Screencap

While the larger “destroy the environment for personal and corporate greed” theme is going on, there is also intertwined teenage alienation and bonding themes. Most all the hackers are outcasts from “regular” society. The leads Jonny Lee Miller, who plays hacker “Crash Override,” and Angelina Jolie (Acid Burn) engage in a hacking contest, of which, the loser has to wear a dress on a date (Jolie never wears dresses).

Screencap

The Hackers: Both Jonny Lee Miller and Angelina Jolie do a great job in playing slick, but semi-nerdish “Elite” hackers. They head up a cast of misfits, all of whom are consumed with breaking in to everywhere just to see if they can. Jesse Bradford, Matthew Lillard, Laurence Mason, and Renoly Santiago all give fun, memorable performances All the popularized hacker approaches are shown here, including social engineering, sifting through trash, and hackers thumbing their nose at authority. The notion of an “Elite,” which is someone in the top 5% of all hackers is given as the ultimate goal for all who aspire to be hackers. To be recognized as such, you have to have a high-profile hack in your history.

Screencap

The Visuals: Hackers is more visually interesting due to all the creative hacking cut-scenes interspersed throughout the movie. They serve to glorify hacking, networked computers and the overall hacking lifestyle. Because staring at a computer while typing doesn’t yield exciting celluloid, this was a nice approach to keep things interesting. Unfortunately, it is completely absurd from a realism standpoint (especially the 3D knowledge stores), as hackers pretty much keep to source code and text prompts. Shots of the underground punk scene generally consist of flashes of neon colors in darkly lit, oddly shaped rave bars.

Screencap

The Bottom Line: There are a bunch of the hacker movie types, but I find Hackers to be on of the most enjoyable to watch. This glorification of the hacker movement is charming, as are most of the hacker co-stars. Miller and Jolie have great chemistry, and make you really care about an otherwise absurd story. Again, don’t look for realism in Hackers, but enjoy it nonetheless.

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Comments

Hackers is a guilty pleasure but is a tad bit dated now. Hackers are sort of the new cattle rustlers for the cyber era.

Hi Spike, welcome to cyberpunk review! And yeah, Hackers are definitely the “cowboys” of the cyberpunk era.

Love it. Bit outdated (check the configuration of Angelina’s laptop :p ), but this really cool movie.

PS. I couldn’t find War games review, so I post this news here:
http://www.cinemablend.com/new/War-Games-Gets-A-Sequel-3523.html
Second source:
http://productionweekly.com/2006/09/29/gillard-set-to-play-games-again/

I’ve always had a soft spot for the movie Hackers cuz when the movie first came out, I could relate to it. I love the way everyone is dressed. Yeah, it may be outdated, but I get a kick out of watching it still. It’ll always be on my favorites list.

this is the best movie in the world

I watch this flick probably once a month, it’s defiantly a guilty pleasure, plus, how hot is angelina in this?

Hi L1zrdking, Angelina is Smokin in this, although if you really wanna see a truly hawt Angelina early in her career, I’d recommend Cyborg 2. It’s not a good movie, but if you’re a Jolie fan, its MORE than worth the price of admission, even given the fact that she hadn’t learned how to act yet (this was her first picture).

Ive been meaning to check that flick out. I havnt got around to getting it yet, but its on my list. I guess I’ll have to bump it up to the top now heh

And, I just cant say enough how much I lvoe this movie. Sure its cheesy and over the top, but damn is it cool. Sadly, I never caught alot of the references till recently ie: Gibson , Babbage, etc.

I find it interesting that you’ve given many movies low ratings based on their level of unbelievability (most often with those involving time travel) and yet you rate this one so high. Maybe it’s simply a matter of not understanding the technology very well, but I can assure you, nearly EVERY technical aspect of this movie would make any real…I hate to use the term, but “hacker” cringe with distaste over the blatant misrepresentation of the culture. I personally hate this movie…not because it’s a bad movie per se, but because of the effect that it has on people who watch it, who more often than not perceive it as being wholly believable. It seems to me they could have done a little more to show that it was NOT a true reflection of reality in ANY sense of the word.

Hi Onideus Mad Hatter, point taken. Sometimes I call out a movie for its egregious use of technology but didn’t touch on it here. If you notice the date of the review, this was early in my site. At this point I was working off of previous shorter reviews I had written and was almost bulk-loading them to get a body of content here to make the site useful. I’ve always intended to go back and update some of these - Dark City being the first one.

But in contrast with your comments on Timecop, while the technology here is problematic, the story is pretty good! And the acting is FAR better than Timecop, as are the production values, cinematography, etc. While many times I have changed my ratings based on user comments, I still stand by both scores in this and Timecop’s case.

damn!!!hackers are sexy and angelina jolie is there really beautiful and I love the closes too!!:)

i agree with “goth-overlord” this is the best movie ever made
I’m from Bulgaria and when i saw this movie my life changed for ever now i try learning unix,linux and etc. form the moment whhen i saw that movie i saq my future as a hacker.

ok this movie came out when I was like three but I still love it. Of course it’s A little bit dated now but so are some of the movies we love. And the basic stuff in hackers still holds up today. This movie ruled and I watch it when ever I can. Oh and in the summery of Hackers this site left out the whole ‘Zero Cool’ thing.

so do I those clothes ruled

hi,
i m here to know some thing about computer of hotmail hacking.
i m cyber computer criminal and here to stop the computer hacker to do any kind of hacking in to any big server like main server of hotmail and yahoo some those kind
did any one tell me how to hack hotmail
good
byue

Hi, I’m here to find the location of the movie “Hackers” unix version, I want it for my laptop witch is exsackly the same to the one in the movie. so could u tell me where to gat it

Thanx

nevermind already found it

umm…ya well the unix was actually freebsd and then i figured out that it used a mac in the movies so could someone provide the version…i have version 7.5.3 and with the update…thanx

yeah this is the best movie in the world good

[…] If you’re lucky enough to find a version with a bonus CD, you’ll have the extra treat of listening to the music of Simon Boswell, who not only does the soundtrack for Burn:Cycle but also Hardware and Hackers. […]

it’s nice to read those kicki’n comments but i may say these movie is so enjoy’n to watch but it kick’s my ass because of the cast!!!hehehe

Well, what can I say,this movie will be in my top-10 “best movies” allways and ever… firts time when i saw this movie, I fall in love with Anhelina Jolie haha, Acid Burn it’s my favourite movie character…
Actually , the soundtrack it’s great too… I’ll not commented the clothes’ cuz they r fockin amazing,…

Greetings from Bulgaria

[…] the music of Simon Boswell, who not only does the soundtrack for Burn:Cycle but also Hardware and Hackers. […]

There are a number of obvious real-life references despite the gratuitous amounts of pathetically rendered 3D graphics and the idea that hacking is all about changing your directory path at a terminal prompt. The references that are real include the prototype demo video of what would eventually become Wipeout for the PlayStation (nightclub scene), the technical books (”multi-coloured rainbow”), using a number of attackers for a distributed denial of service attack against a central server, the reading of the manifesto from Phrack (Volume One, Issue 7, Phile 3 of 10 - look for the police car scene where the guy with glasses says, “that’s cool”), and the obtaining of access by tricking someone into giving out the number for a modem. One of the members of CoD (Cult of the Dead Cow), I believe, (or was it one of the other groups involved in Operation:Sundevil? can’t remember..) was used as an advisor for the movie.

Of course, the hacking in this movie is both purely superficial and misleading, but as previously stated, it’s just to make the movie’s hacking scenes graspable to the general public.
I actually liked the Gibsonesque cybrespace presentation, though I know squat about actual hacking and cracking…

This movie was ok i like the discriving of hacking and you should make more mvies about hacking like you did with hackers.

p.s please make more movies bye nick name thereaper

This film has nothing in common with real hackers and hacking-unix culture, it’s not scifi, it’s not cyberpunk, it’s just a fantasy comedy.I agree totally with Onideus Mad Hatter about the high rating, i think it deserves lower rating because it’s unbelievable in almost every aspect. This film is for Hacking Culture like Hot Shots for Air fighter Wars… lots of stupid stuff that make you laugh so much. The dark side of this film is that it takes a very bad picture of Hackers that make teenage or s*****d people like cyber tech (read his comment above) called script kiddies fuck others with “Next-> Next -> Next” Cracking M$ Window$ FuckMail Software,bad shit.

But your review is good and the film deserves to watch it,it’s just i’m tired about this kind of hacker’s cliche.

this film made me so goddamned angry. in no way does it truly represent the mindset of (i hate using this word) “hacker.” This movie is for simpletons who dont really understand the workings of a computer. the cutscenes of the internals of the computer were so fucking UNBELIEVEABLE. COMPUTERS DO NOT SHOW ONES AND ZEROS AND FILES IN 3D and HIGH DEFENITION GRAPHICS. You dont get pussy and a happy ending if you are a “hacker” and the way they show how every teen can hack and it’s the “cool thing to do” is the lamest thing ive ever even seen in a movie. This movie gave a bad name to actual “hackers” and everything they represent. Instead of a believeable story this is just a shameless attempt at glorifying a decadent approach to “hacking.” this movie makes me so sick to my stomach and angry with the red hot fires of rage that even the heat of a thousand desert suns pales in comparison.

whoever made this film can go die in a fire.

the term “Hacker” should not be an expletive and the word and common belief of the “hacker” is just something people who are afraid of technology get scared of.

SCRIPT KIDDIES INDEED

that’s all this movie represents

everyone “hacking” for props, as if this was some sort of street gang.

fucking FAIL

EPIC FAIL

Settle down beavis, its a MOVIE.

nige really needs to settle the fuck down as he’s merely making himself look ridiculous. No-one who watches this movie believes that computers display ‘zeroes and ones and files in high definition graphics’ - it’s a film to entertain you. not to educate you.

People like you really get my goat cos you take yourself so seriously.

get over yourself and learn how the movie industry works.

Whe are all hackers o body doent hack but a who is not a hacker
Greetz r.red.owner@hotmail.com

Hacker is a term used for someone who sets up security while “Kracker” refers to the person breaking the security down and entering. We live through our computers and take what we want. We however do not destroy unless you anger us. This is our pleasure and society should not be intimidated by the way the media clutters up our once glorious image. Our pleasure is not breaking the law but our pleasure breaks the law by its self. I am a Kracker and if my existence breaks the law then so be it. The most common and basic human instinct is to survive and I refuse to change to what you might call normal. I can not survive without haveing my dirty little secret just as you can not survive without breathing. I am the khaos klown and I do not break the law for pleasure. Yes I break the law but I know you cant judge me simply because you fear I will judge you. For my fellow krackers who have read this and can understand where Im coming from message me at kinglighter@hotmail.com.-
Khaos Klown

Angelina. Jolie. In. Nerdy. Cyber. Gear.

-faints-

This movie is one of my guilty little pleasures. Sure the effects are unrealistic, and the terminology makes no sense at all from a technical point of view. For crying out loud. The “Gibson” uses giant see through towers to store their data. But worse than that, you see arcs of electricity traveling up and down them like some kind of “Jacob’s ladder”. Have you ever seen what high voltage and electromagnetic waves do to computers and other electrical equipment?

[b]But[/b]… it does a great job at portraying the true Cyber Punk attitude. It says: [i]We understand something that nobody else in the world can understand. We’re elite. We use what we know to skirt around the system because we can, and besides, the system needs a good circumventing anyway.[/i]

Love Love All Hackers I am Country (”MADIN IRAN”)

OOO OOO
OO O OO
O O
O Hacked By Faraz O
O O
O O
O O
O

ThI5 F1LM m4DE Me 50 90dD@mN3d 4nGrY. IN No w4Y Doe$ 1+ tRULY rEPr3$3NT TH3 MIND5E+ oF (1 H4+e u51n9 +H15 woRd) “H@cK3R.” th1$ MoV13 IS PHOR S1mPlE+ONS wH0 doNT ReaLLy UNDER$T@ND +eh W0RK1n95 0F 4 cOMpUT3R. THe CU+$cenEs OPH TH3 IN+3RN4L5 0pH t3H 80×0r W3re 5O FUcK1NG UN83l13vE@bL3. 8Ox0r5 D0 nO+ 5hoW 0N3$ @Nd zER05 @ND PHIL3$ 1N 3d 4ND hi9h d3feNI+ioN 9R@PHiC$. j00 DOnT g3T PU$5y 4nD 4 h4PpY 3nD1ng 1PH j00 @R3 4 “h4cKER” aNd +H3 w@Y +h3Y 5H0W H0w 3V3RY TEen C4n h4XoR @nD I+’5 +eH “Co0L ThiNg T0 d0” I$ tEh L4m35t +h1n9 Iv3 3vER eVen $EEn 1N @ MOv1E. +hi5 M0v1e g4vE 4 B4d n4ME t0 4CtUAl “HaCK3R$” AND 3V3rY+HiNG tH3y REPre5EnT. IN5T34D 0f @ B3lI3V3@Bl3 $+0ry THi5 1$ Ju5+ A 5hAMel3s5 @TtEmP+ 4+ 9L0R1PhyIN9 a DEC@dEnt APPR04CH to “H4cKiN9.” +H1$ m0vI3 m4Ke$ m3 50 $1cK t0 My 5TOM4cH 4nD 4N9RY W1TH THE R3D hot PHIr3S 0PH R4g3 Th4+ EVEN th3 HEA+ opH 4 +hoU54ND De5erT $un5 p@Le5 In cOmP@R1$On.

wHO3v3R M@D3 TH15 fILm C4n gO dIE iN 4 PHIr3.

+hE +3Rm “H4CkeR” should N0t bE @n eXPl3+IV3 @nD The w0rD 4ND C0MmON b3l13F OF tHE “H4CkeR” i$ jU5+ 5om3Th1n9 pe0PLe WhO @RE @pHR4iD Oph +3cHN0L09Y g3T $C4R3d oPH.

$Cr1PT k1DD1E5 INdE3d

tH4+’5 4ll +H15 MoV1e r3PR353NT5

Ev3RyONe “H4CkIng” fOr ProP5, 45 IPh +Hi$ w45 5Ome 50Rt oF 5TRE3+ 9@NG.

FUcKing Ph41L

ep1c phaiL

Speaking of epic failures, your comment is basically the picture perfect definition of it.

these comments are so funny!

Seriously though: my take on the visuals was this: it’s a way to depict what the cracker visualises as they break into the computers. Not ment to be literally “what you see is litteraly happening on the screen”, it’s like a dream sequence to get us inside the cracker’s mind.

Ofter when I’m hacking (not cracking) I do have these kinds of visualisations of data structures, navigating filesystems as if in a labyrinth and so on (when what’s on my screen is actually source code or a command prompt). It’s not really very far fetched at all.

I will admit that glorifying the cracker ethos is not helpful, especially in today’s climate of homeland “security” (oxymoron?) beginning it’s next big war on drugs — er, I mean “cyber crime” (whatever that could be). The hacker/cracker diction debate is unfortunately lost by us true hackers, but real crackers aren’t cool.

if you want to watch the movie just go to watch-movies.net

April 5, 2008
a DEC@dEnt APPR04CH to “H4cKiN9” @ 1:55 am:
wHO3v3R M@D3 TH15 fILm C4n gO dIE iN 4 PHIr3.

> PFFFFFFFWHAHAHAHAH IM SHITTI N MY PHAT PANTS - CLEAVER LAUGHT RITE THERE

+hE +3Rm “H4CkeR” should N0t b…

$Cr1PT k1DD1E5 INdE3d

> I USED TO THINK OLD BBS WERE RAD SHIT, WE WOULD THINK THAT ASKII CHART WAS SPACE AGE AND REUSE EVERY CHAR IN IMPOSSIBLE MATTER JUST TO PHUKING HAVE A LAUGHT MADE IT COOL OR SOMETHING , THIS MOVIE -IS- A TYPE-O A PUN FOR THE PUNTER A ROCKET BLAST OUT OF YOUR

AS WHATEVER YOU SAY ITS A MOVIE, ENTERTAINMENT, AND AS A BOOK SOMETHING CAN POP OUT IN BETWEEN THE LINES AND MAKE YOU TIK OR THINK

tH4+’5 4ll +H15 MoV1e r3PR353NT5

> SO AS I , THANKS FOR WRITING IT IN PLAIN MACHINE I CAN RELATE

Ev3RyONe “H4CkIng” fOr ProP5, 45 IPh +Hi$ w45 5Ome 50Rt oF 5TRE3+ 9@NG.

> AS MY THEDRAW SESSIONS, BUT NOW I USE DUHDRAW AND IT STILL LOOKS MONKEY SPACE LUNCH

FUcKing Ph41L

> MY CAT CANT DISPLAY 3D OOOOOOOOOOOH DANG THAT MOVIE IT BROKE MY DREAMS , SO UNTRUE , I THINKS ILL DIE FOR REAL ONE DAY WITHOUT A PROPER DEFRAGGED DAT TAPE BACKUP

ep1c phaiL

> I STILL LISTEN TO VINYL SCRW UZ IM LEETZ

´zerocool

Good luck with that ;D Posix systems and coding are extremely addicting.

a new coment from brazil …….

rafael_snk02@hotmaillcom

addc ., No avalied ;;;;

Time for some Echo 23?

Does anyone know what computer Dade/Zero Cool/Crash Override
is using when he hacks OTV in the beginning of the movie?
It looks like about the size of a large construction lunchbox,
but has a built-in screen(!!!!), and is running an older Mac OS.

FUCK YOU HACKERS!! MAY ALL YOU HACKERS DIE!!!!

WhoCaresIfYouDie, why such language. ‘Fuck you hackers!’ . This is not a hacker board, but a cyberpunk fiction board, that also reviews cyberpunk movies. Whatever…

I love hacking and informatic.
mail for me!!!
thank’s!!!

I loved this movie. I realized when I first started watching this movie that this is nothing what hacking is like, but it is still an entertaining movie, people with neat clothes, a great soundtrack, references to 1984 :D. The thing i’d really like to know is…where can I find a hang out place like the one where all those kids would go? With the arcade and the rollerblading, that would be sweet!!!

this movie reminds me of a my one freind

lan

cahop maera lan

Good movie but not like reality
LinuxRules

Well, when it was made it was set in the future and represented a vision of where the internet was going, a vision sadly not achieved.

i is very nice!!!!!!

I love this film and it’s OST. Tho it was shot in ‘95 it reminds me of those teen movies from 80’s with parties and light-hearted jokes. Haven’t idea what ever happened to Jonny Lee Miller since then :X Lillard’s character was hillarious as hell and Jolie was so cool teenager unlike now when she became a femme fatale with the guns and all her movies are the same (from Tomb Raider to Wanted).

I HAVE MY USERNAME AND PASSWORD FOR GOOWILL EMPLOYEE MY HUSBAND

E-MAIL. I WOULD LIKE TO CHECK MY HUSBAND E-MAIL FROM MY COMPUTER INSTEAD OF HIS JOB, BUT I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO FIND THE SOFTWARE TO DOWLOAD IN MY COMPUTER TO BE ABLE TO CHECK HIS E-MAIL ON MY COMPUTER HOW MUCH WOULD YOU CHARGE ME TO FIND THE RIGHT SOFTWARE TO CHECK HIS E-MAIL AT MY HOME PLEASE
THANK YOU
BLANCA

To all of you saying “this movie suxxorz because it isn’t realistic!!! I hate script kiddies!” Calm the fuck down. I’m a grey hat dev, and this is one of my favorite movies.

No it’s not realistic, and yes most of it is hilariously bad, but that’s the friggin point. If you really think that this movie spawned script kiddies, get real. Nobody took this movie seriously, it’s the cyber-culture version of the highschool comedy genre.

And specifically to the guy who ended his comment with “EPIC FAIL!”, do you seriously not see the irony of complaining about script kiddies? Your meme use just shows you’re as much of a leecher as any LOIC user.

yeah i totally agree with that comment(lol)

I actually dressed like that when I was a kid in the 90’s, so fun, normal way for a 17 year old to dress.

this movie sucks!

@ a D3C4dEnt APPRO4CH to”H4cKiN9″
Is there really any need to use leet on a thread which doesn’t use automatic content censoring of text comments? Or to copy someone else comment in leet?

As for this movie, I personally rather enjoy it. The main things to remember are:

a) This is effectively a commedy

and

b) This does not truly represent computer cracking in it’s total reality.

That being said is does take some inspiration from real cracking methods e.g. social engineering, knowledge of common passwords, dos attacks etc, as well as showing an insight into some aspects of the teenage hacker lifestyle (constantly on computer, love of sci-fi, hacker meetings).
Naturally, unreal elements were added in to make this film commercially viable to the mainstream media market otherwise this movie would have probably resulted in an economic net loss due to poor sales and reviews.

Just watched this one for first time in ages. It’s cheesy. Every scene is dated itself long before the director yelled check the gate. But there is some fun energy. I like the shots that go from cityscapes to motherboards.

Fisher Stevens is the best thing about the movie. The plague needs his own subforum on cyberpunkforums.com

This movie is a pile of garbage and I love it.

This movie is a classic, everyone’s taking it too literal and analyzing it too much, getting mad for nothing.

WHoCaresifYouDie-I’ll see you in hell

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