5 ms·
Happy 30th anniversary to ‘Sneakers,’ a cult classic that was ahead of its time
- yanowitz 4y agoMy favorite Easter egg is the title as anagram for “NSA reeks”
- matt-attack 4y agoI’d wager that’s a retronagram.
- voxadam 4y agoIf dang or someone could edit my original title submission to fit the field it would be great. It would seem that the Android client I'm using truncates titles without warning.
- mcphage 4y agoIt really is an excellent movie, and understand that social engineering is the heart of hacking.
- beej71 4y agoSo much good stuff on thr social engineering front. From "May I please use the restroom?" to "Just press the goddamn buzzer!"
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- sen 4y agoSuch a great movie. One of the best hacking-related movies ever made for me personally.
- jmyeet 4y agoI really enjoyed Sneakers but I still visibly cringe whenever I hear this line: > A computer matched her with him? I don't think so For me the pinnacle of how hacking is represented on the screen is Mr Robot by far.
- ProllyInfamous 4y agoWatching Mr Robot encouraged me (a skilled tradesmen) to install Kali Linux, about a year ago. I am currently attempting to pivot into a more-technical lifestyle that is easier on my poor, yet-forty body. Sneakers was recommended to me by a client, whom suggested my talkativeness (both depth and range) were similar to one of the movie's character behaviors. I deleted the movie afterwards, and ... I have plenty of available capacity. Re: SciFi dating concepts: I just read BJ Novak's "One More Thing", which is a collection of short stories. My favorite is that of a man whose sex robot falls in love with him... so he attempts to return her (I haven't spoiled anything with this teaser).
- mylons 4y agooh please. the movie is superb. your comment doesn’t little but to display you have a big ego.
- butwhyth0 4y ago
- delecti 4y agoIntroversion can just mean that socializing is exhausting, not that they're necessarily bad at it.
- butwhyth0 4y agoThanks for explaining introversion to an introvert! Asthma doesn't stop you from running, but it makes it exhausting. I'm not "talkative" because talking is exhausting. Yet OP talks so much other people notice how talkative, ranged and deep they are...
- pronoiac 4y agoMichael Selvidge has a fun Twitter thread with Sneakers info: https://twitter.com/selviano/status/1568298272900673538 https://twitter.com/selviano/status/1568298272900673538 / https://nitter.net/selviano/status/1568298272900673538 https://nitter.net/selviano/status/1568298272900673538
- hallman76 4y agoA solid movie with a solid soundtrack that isn't available on Spotify. There's a long tail out there that streaming services don't have and it's a bummer.
- rerx 4y agoYouTube Music is better for the really long tail because they integrate inofficially uploaded playlists. Not always the best quality, but better than nothing. https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLH9C08qrQ7S5vwv_pOnkxjqQpmVjl-ksp&feature=share https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLH9C08qrQ7S5vwv_pOn...
- DrBazUK 4y agoThere's an unofficial Soundtrack on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6Mx5C8xfaRWcLsTer3rmGi https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6Mx5C8xfaRWcLsTer3rmGi but there's none of the original score, only the licensed tracks :(
- cainxinth 4y agoThey included some good clips, but they missed one of my favorite scenes: Navigating by Sound: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuIheGaiFLM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuIheGaiFLM
- xtracto 4y agoThat's also my favourite scene. The cocktail party but is great.
- caseysoftware 4y agoIt's worth noting that the War Games writers Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes paired up again on Sneakers where Lasker was a writer and Parkes was a producer. They shaped an entire generation of of geeks' thinking by telling good, accurate (if embellished) stories.
- nvahalik 4y agoNever knew this.
- z303 4y agoSlate on the 20th anniversary https://www.metafilter.com/119793/Slate-celebrates-the-20th-anniversary-of-Sneakers https://www.metafilter.com/119793/Slate-celebrates-the-20th-...
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- dang 4y agoRelated: Cracking the Code: Sneakers at 30 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31378418 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31378418 - May 2022 (76 comments) Memories of the “Sneakers” Shoot (2012) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29840802 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29840802 - Jan 2022 (198 comments) Sneakers: Robert Redford, River Phoenix nerd out in 1992’s prescient caper - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29620095 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29620095 - Dec 2021 (7 comments) Sneakers (1992), the Film - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26111977 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26111977 - Feb 2021 (2 comments) Tool Recreating the “Decrypting Text” Effect Seen in the Movie “Sneakers” - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11643270 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11643270 - May 2016 (54 comments) Sneakers - movie about pen testing, crypto/nsa, espionage, and deception (1992) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6196379 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6196379 - Aug 2013 (5 comments) What it was like shooting the movie Sneakers - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4498985 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4498985 - Sept 2012 (46 comments) Sneakers (Film, 1992) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1499298 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1499298 - July 2010 (1 comment) Joybubbles: the blind phreaker whom Whistler was based off of in Sneakers - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1443241 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1443241 - June 2010 (1 comment)
- tpmx 4y agoHuh: https://archive.org/details/Sneakers_Film_Promotional_Floppy https://archive.org/details/Sneakers_Film_Promotional_Floppy (with inline emulator) Released in conjuction with the computer hacking movie "Sneakers" (1992), this floppy-based "computer press kit" contained many of the aspects of regular movie press kits, including cast bios, plots, and information on all aspects of production. It was intended for press, and as such is both "locked up" (via passwords) but also endeavored to help the same press get through the barriers as quickly as possible. The balancing act between technical complexity and simplicity to ensure promotion is quite notable. The program in question is DOS-based, and was released in 1992 as part of a package of both written and computer-based information.
- robotguy 4y agoHuh. Kind of a proto-ARG.
- awiesenhofer 4y agoStill one of my all time favourite movies. Be sure to check out this delightful article about a guy trying - and succeeding - to find the actual building of the "toy company" from the movie: https://mwichary.medium.com/toy-company-my-ass-421842476d06 https://mwichary.medium.com/toy-company-my-ass-421842476d06
- whoopdedo 4y agoWhich is now, according to Google Maps, an Amazon delivery warehouse and has had a new boxy front facade put on so it's no longer recognizable as from the movie. At the time of the filming it was the headquarters for Countrywide Home Loans.
- drewcoo 4y agoIt was not far ahead of its time. It was relevant then. It's still relevant-ish now, though the left-leaning hackers would likely embrace state agents in our own day and age. The bully would have to be a foreign adversary.
- RockingGoodNite 4y agoIt was a great movie except for the bits making Republicans and Nixon out to be bad. They're no worse than any Democrat. Other than than, great movie.
- bovermyer 4y agoThis is an odd comment. Of all the things to focus on in a movie, you choose this?
- locopati 4y agoYeah, truly a misstep, going after a criminal president from 2 decades earlier. Weird hill to die on, dude.
- defterGoose 4y agoI mean, if we choose the metric of "presidents capable of not resigning in disgrace", then Nixon is literally the worst, and by an infinite margin.
- onetokeoverthe 4y ago
- ok123456 4y agoNixon pioneered a lot of the modern culture war tactics. So it's in character that someone doing an anti-authoritarian stunt in the late-60s would do it against Nixon and his power structure.
- nullc 4y agoThough I doubt the writers disagreed, that closing bit was describing the choices/values of the characters. It completed the story that began in the movies first few minutes, and in that it was perfection regardless of whatever value judgement you'd place on those decisions yourself.
- pengaru 4y agoSneakers is in a league of its own. We've been desperate for more films of this type and quality ever since. Mr Robot was the only thing that came close in the first season. There must be a bunch of obscure B movies containing authentic tech/hacking/social engineering methods that just fly under the radar. Anyone know of a list?
- Maursault 4y agoI'm not sure how obscure it is, but Sydney Pollack's Three Days of the Condor includes social engineering and phreaking. I like to think of Sneakers as the second installment of a trilogy starting with Condor and concluding with Spy Game. Similarly, The Conversation just works as the prequel to Enemy of the State.
- pengaru 4y agoNoted, I haven't seen any of those, thanks.
- mike503 4y agoThank you for highlighting "first season" because it did go from "interesting" to "oh well, you've lost me" over time.
- wdr1 4y agoOne of the few movies with a mathematical consultant: Leonard Adleman -- The "A" in RSA
- iancmceachern 4y agoI love this movie, a staple of music childhood. My sister and I still make references to it. The various shooting locations around SF are cool, the meeting where he figures out they're not NSA is outside the Wharton building on the Embarcadero, my wife and I bike by every week.
- coloneltcb 4y agoSaw a post about Hackers being 27 years old on the front page. While that movie is fun and flawed, I think Sneakers was better in every way...
- nintendo1889 4y agoSome lines from Sneakers are a parallel to bitcoin: "I will destroy the financial credit system"
- sn0w_crash 4y agoSneakers was the movie that got me to download FreeBSD and start “learning Komputerz” What a beloved classic