As someone that was born in the '90s and didn't really get access to the internet until ~2005 I feel like the "hacker culture" that I saw referenced in movies l

As someone that was born in the '90s and didn't really get access to the internet until ~2005 I feel like the "hacker culture" that I saw referenced in movies like Hackers (1995) was just a dream. I continue to feel like I haven't yet met people that even come close and continue to hope I can find them, but perhaps it was all just an illusion (or an over-exaggeration by Hollywood) and they never existed or they became extinct once the 90s ended.