4 ms·

Real Hackers Tell Us Why They Love the Movie 'Hackers'

35 points by vinnyglennon 7y ago

fuzz4lyfe 7y ago
Sneakers is the best hacker film ever made. Hackers was maybe number 2 in my book.
- malvosenior 7y ago
  Wargames is #1 in my book. Sneakers was great though. I think I was too old to like Hackers, it seemed very forced to me.
  - fuzz4lyfe 7y ago
    Come to think of it Wargames is my #2, and I like the Weird Science hacking scene more than hackers
    - staticautomatic 7y ago
      +1 for Weird Science.
  - caymanjim 7y ago
    I think Sneakers is more realistic and captures the essence better, but WarGames is the one that impacted me the most and holds a special place in my heart. I was about ten years old when WarGames came out, and I got a Commodore 64 for Christmas that year. About a year later, I got a modem, and about a year after that I started "wardialing" my entire local calling area (and also accidentally some non-local calling areas; I spent the whole summer mowing laws to pay my parents for the giant phone bill that resulted). War dialing led to random "login" prompts, which led to me teaching myself Unix, VMS, and PrimeOS. It led to Tymnet and Telenet (X.25 packet switching networks). That eventually got me, through many complicated jumps, to MIT's free Unix systems (anyone who could access it could get an account). Between MIT's free Unix systems, and a lot of commercial systems that I--ahem--borrowed access to, by the time I was 15 years old, I was already a Unix, C, and Internet expert, years before Linux and even years before any local ISPs existed. When my friend's dad, who worked at AT&T's Bell Labs, found out that I was hacking into systems just to teach myself Unix, he gave me surplus AT&T 3b1 and 3b2 Unix machines. By the time I got to college in 1990, I already knew more about Unix than any of the professors. While that led to me abandoning my courses, it also led to a full-time sysadmin job at the college, and when the Internet exploded a few years later, I was already a decade ahead of my peers, and my career took off from there. So I have WarGames to thank for all of it. I'm sure glad I never got caught hacking into anything; even though I was at worst a grey hat, I had friends who were criminally prosecuted. I was in the same systems that Kevin Mitnick went to jail for five years for accessing.
    - supergeek133 7y ago
      That's a great story, thanks for taking the time!
- caymanjim 7y ago
  I agree, Sneakers is #1 for me. It's got unrealistic Hollywood elements (the magic decryptor and its visualized effect), but it's largely grounded in reality. It's whimsical, shows the banality of most hacking, and does a great job of showing how most "hacking" is really social engineering. I can't compare the two because I've never seen Hackers. It struck me as pure Hollywood nonsense, and because it bombed, I haven't even run across it flipping channels. I'll have to track it down now and watch it.
headcanon 7y ago
Hackers makes the top of my list of "Hacker" movies, not for any kind of technical/realistic chops, which they deliberately eschew, but purely for its artistic direction. Reasons why I love this movie: - Has the best costumes: Leather, Spandex, cheetah print, that fluffy cat tshirt Phreak wears in one scene. They contribute to a colorful portrayal of a 90's New York overrun by Club Kids, which no other movie except Party Monster really touches. It reminds me a lot of the Fifth Element in some ways. - Has the most memorable characters and talent. Acid Burn, Zero Cool, The Phreak, Cereal Killer, and Joey, not to mention Agent Gills, Razor and Blade, and of course still-dressing-in-the-dark Eugene (Don't call me Eugene) - Has the best soundtrack: Massive Attack, Prodigy, Underworld, Stereo MC's, and more. This movie served as a gateway to high-school-aged me to a whole world of 90's trip-hop and electronica that I still enjoy. - No other hackers movie can claim to have a "Hack the Gibson" level influence for its one-liners and references, except maybe War Games. - Hilariously corny lines and delivery. Perfectly toes the line between being funny-bad and just bad-bad. No matter how many times I see this movie I die every time Gills says "You are floating, and I'm about to flush yo ass!" You can probably tell I've seen this movie way too many times, but I'll never get tired of watching it.
- nvarsj 7y ago
  Don't forget Orbital! This is one of my favorite movies as well, for similar reasons. I grew up in the 90s with BBSs, and I think the film captured the subculture pretty well. I also remember reading the detonate.net parody of Hackers at the time, and thinking it was one of the most hilarious things ever.
  - headcanon 7y ago
    How the hell did I forget about Orbital
- rasz 7y ago
  It was London rave scene forcefully shoved in front on NY backdrop.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
rurban 7y ago
Other real hackers tell you why they love the movie "Startup.com". https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/startupcom https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/startupcom

35 points by vinnyglennon 7y ago

fuzz4lyfe 7y ago

Sneakers is the best hacker film ever made. Hackers was maybe number 2 in my book.

malvosenior 7y ago
Wargames is #1 in my book. Sneakers was great though. I think I was too old to like Hackers, it seemed very forced to me.
- fuzz4lyfe 7y ago
  Come to think of it Wargames is my #2, and I like the Weird Science hacking scene more than hackers
  - staticautomatic 7y ago
    +1 for Weird Science.
- caymanjim 7y ago
  I think Sneakers is more realistic and captures the essence better, but WarGames is the one that impacted me the most and holds a special place in my heart. I was about ten years old when WarGames came out, and I got a Commodore 64 for Christmas that year. About a year later, I got a modem, and about a year after that I started "wardialing" my entire local calling area (and also accidentally some non-local calling areas; I spent the whole summer mowing laws to pay my parents for the giant phone bill that resulted). War dialing led to random "login" prompts, which led to me teaching myself Unix, VMS, and PrimeOS. It led to Tymnet and Telenet (X.25 packet switching networks). That eventually got me, through many complicated jumps, to MIT's free Unix systems (anyone who could access it could get an account). Between MIT's free Unix systems, and a lot of commercial systems that I--ahem--borrowed access to, by the time I was 15 years old, I was already a Unix, C, and Internet expert, years before Linux and even years before any local ISPs existed. When my friend's dad, who worked at AT&T's Bell Labs, found out that I was hacking into systems just to teach myself Unix, he gave me surplus AT&T 3b1 and 3b2 Unix machines. By the time I got to college in 1990, I already knew more about Unix than any of the professors. While that led to me abandoning my courses, it also led to a full-time sysadmin job at the college, and when the Internet exploded a few years later, I was already a decade ahead of my peers, and my career took off from there. So I have WarGames to thank for all of it. I'm sure glad I never got caught hacking into anything; even though I was at worst a grey hat, I had friends who were criminally prosecuted. I was in the same systems that Kevin Mitnick went to jail for five years for accessing.
  - supergeek133 7y ago
    That's a great story, thanks for taking the time!
caymanjim 7y ago
I agree, Sneakers is #1 for me. It's got unrealistic Hollywood elements (the magic decryptor and its visualized effect), but it's largely grounded in reality. It's whimsical, shows the banality of most hacking, and does a great job of showing how most "hacking" is really social engineering. I can't compare the two because I've never seen Hackers. It struck me as pure Hollywood nonsense, and because it bombed, I haven't even run across it flipping channels. I'll have to track it down now and watch it.

headcanon 7y ago

Hackers makes the top of my list of "Hacker" movies, not for any kind of technical/realistic chops, which they deliberately eschew, but purely for its artistic direction. Reasons why I love this movie: - Has the best costumes: Leather, Spandex, cheetah print, that fluffy cat tshirt Phreak wears in one scene. They contribute to a colorful portrayal of a 90's New York overrun by Club Kids, which no other movie except Party Monster really touches. It reminds me a lot of the Fifth Element in some ways. - Has the most memorable characters and talent. Acid Burn, Zero Cool, The Phreak, Cereal Killer, and Joey, not to mention Agent Gills, Razor and Blade, and of course still-dressing-in-the-dark Eugene (Don't call me Eugene) - Has the best soundtrack: Massive Attack, Prodigy, Underworld, Stereo MC's, and more. This movie served as a gateway to high-school-aged me to a whole world of 90's trip-hop and electronica that I still enjoy. - No other hackers movie can claim to have a "Hack the Gibson" level influence for its one-liners and references, except maybe War Games. - Hilariously corny lines and delivery. Perfectly toes the line between being funny-bad and just bad-bad. No matter how many times I see this movie I die every time Gills says "You are floating, and I'm about to flush yo ass!" You can probably tell I've seen this movie way too many times, but I'll never get tired of watching it.

nvarsj 7y ago
Don't forget Orbital! This is one of my favorite movies as well, for similar reasons. I grew up in the 90s with BBSs, and I think the film captured the subculture pretty well. I also remember reading the detonate.net parody of Hackers at the time, and thinking it was one of the most hilarious things ever.
- headcanon 7y ago
  How the hell did I forget about Orbital
rasz 7y ago
It was London rave scene forcefully shoved in front on NY backdrop.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

rurban 7y ago

Other real hackers tell you why they love the movie "Startup.com". https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/startupcom https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/startupcom