Hackers

Plot synopsis:
In 1988, 11-year-old Dade "Zero Cool" Murphy is arrested and charged with crashing 1,507 computer systems in a single day and causing a single-day 7-point drop in the New York Stock Exchange. His family is fined $45,000 for the events and he is banned from using computers or touch-tone telephones until he is 18 years old. Seven years later, Dade (Jonny Lee Miller), is now living with his divorced mother in New York City. On Dade's 18th birthday, he receives a computer and uses social engineering to hack into a local television station's computer network, changing the current TV program to an episode of The Outer Limits. However, Dade's intrusion is countered by another hacker (handle "Acid Burn") on the same network, and they briefly converse, with Dade identifying himself by a new alias: "Crash Override".
Dade enrolls in a local high school (for which Stuyvesant High School is used as the filming location) where he meets Kate Libby (Angelina Jolie) who pranks Dade by claiming that there's a pool on the roof of the school. Ramon "The Phantom Phreak" Sanchez (Renoly Santiago) observes Dade accessing the school network during computer class to put himself in the same English class as Kate, and invites him to a hacker nightclub, Cyberdelia, where Dade beats Kate's high score in the Wipeout arcade game. Soon after, Dade exacts revenge for the earlier prank by scheduling a test of the school's sprinkler system the next day. Dade begins integrating himself into Phreak's circle of hacker friends: Emmanuel "Cereal Killer" Goldstein (Matthew Lillard), Paul "Lord Nikon" Cook (Laurence Mason) (so named for his photographic memory), and Joey Pardella (Jesse Bradford), an aspiring novice hacker without an alias. At a party, Dade learns that Kate is "Acid Burn", the hacker that kicked him out of the TV network earlier.
Meanwhile, Joey, out to prove his skills, successfully breaks into "The Gibson", an Ellingson Mineral Company supercomputer. He attempts to download a garbage file as proof of his feat, but his mother disconnects his computer so he'll sleep, leaving Joey with a fragmented file. However, prior to Joey's disconnection, the company's IT employee Hal (Penn Jillette) detects this unauthorized entry and summons computer security officer Eugene "The Plague" Belford (Fisher Stevens), a former hacker. While going through the files, Plague realizes the garbage file being downloaded is a worm he inserted to defraud Ellingson. The Plague pretends the hackers are to blame and enlists the US Secret Service to recover the file, claiming it is the code to a computer virus (named "Da Vinci" for an image of the Vitruvian Man that accompanies it) that will capsize the company's oil tanker fleet. In fact, The Plague had inserted the virus as a red herring to cover for his worm.
Soon after, Joey is arrested and his computer is searched, but the Secret Service doesn't find anything, as Joey had hidden the disk containing the files. In response, Dade and Kate decide to settle their disagreements with a bet, with Dade choosing a date with Kate as his prize and Kate electing to have Dade perform menial computing tasks. The hacking duel focuses on harassing Secret Service Agent Richard Gill (Wendell Pierce), "Hacker enemy number one", who was involved in Joey's arrest. After various pranks including canceling Gill's credit cards, creating a fake embarrassing personal ad in Gill's name, fabricating a criminal record, and changing his payroll status to "deceased", the duel remains in a tie status.
After being released on parole, Joey reveals the disk to Phreak in a public park; but they quickly realize that they are being followed by the Secret Service. The next day, Phreak is arrested and uses his phone call to inform Kate that he hid the disk in a boys' bathroom at school. That evening, Kate and Cereal Killer ask Dade for his help; but he declines, stating he has "a record". Kate then asks Dade to copy the disk so that, if anyone else is arrested, they have the disk as un-tampered evidence. After determining that Dade is not the one who hacked into Ellingson, The Plague attempts to enlist Dade's help to find the one who did. First, he sends Dade a high-powered laptop that displays a video message from The Plague encouraging Dade to join him. Later, he threatens to have Dade's mother incarcerated with a manufactured criminal record. At this, Dade agrees to deliver Kate's copy of the disk.
Meanwhile, Kate, Lord Nikon, and Cereal Killer attempt to discern the contents of the disk. Dade joins them; and, after working all night, they learn the purpose of its code—a worm designed to salami-slice $25 million from Ellingson transactions. Dade confesses that he knows Plague is behind this scheme, admitting that he gave him the disk and revealing his hacking history as "Zero Cool". Determined to stop the scheme, the assembled hackers plan to hack the Gibson again. Kate and Dade go dumpster-diving for employee memos with passwords; Cereal Killer installs a phone tap in the Ellingson offices; and Nikon poses as a delivery boy wandering the Ellingson cubicles, memorizing employee passwords as they enter them into their terminals.
Reading the memos, they discover that the Da Vinci virus is set to capsize the oil fleet the next day, which would provide the perfect cover to distract from the salami-slicing worm. In need of help, Dade and Kate seek out Razor and Blade, the producers of a hacker-themed unlicensed TV show, "Hack the Planet." Razor and Blade are at a club where Urban Dance Squad is performing and Dade and Kate manage to convince Razor and Blade to join them in disrupting The Gibson enough that the garbage file can be located and copied. Lord Nikon and Cereal Killer learn through their Ellingson phone tap that warrants for their arrest are to be executed at 9AM the next day.
The next morning, after being paged by Kate, Nikon and Cereal roller-blade from Washington Square Park, evading the Secret Service after exploiting the traffic system and using a payload that reconfigures traffic lights and converge on Grand Central station, where they use payphones and acoustic couplers to begin their assault on the Gibson. At first, their attempts are easily rebuffed by Plague, who calls Dade to taunt him to escape before he is arrested. However, Razor and Blade have contacted hackers around the world, who lend their support with virus attacks, hampering the Gibson and distracting Plague long enough for Joey to download the incriminating file to a floppy disk.
Shortly after crashing the Gibson, Dade and company are arrested. As they're being led away, Dade surreptitiously informs Cereal Killer, hiding in the crowd, that he's tossed the disk in a trashcan. As Dade and Kate are being interrogated, Razor and Blade jam the local television signals and broadcast live video of Cereal Killer, revealing the plot and Plague's complicity, along with the account number with the stolen funds. Plague is arrested while attempting to flee to Japan under the alias "Mr. Babbage" (itself a reference to Charles Babbage). Their names cleared, Dade and Kate go on a date at a swimming pool on the roof of a building, their friends showing off their latest hack—the lights in several adjacent office buildings spelling out "CRASH AND BURN." Confirming that they have had dreams about each other, the two begin to make out.

Tags: pornographic, boring, cult, action, sci-fi, prank

Review:
Instead watch the movie because its exciting, fun and a great throwback to the early 90's..
So when a film's whole theme involves computers, like THE NET, or HACKERS, you can't take the technology end too seriously, even if much of it is bogus, as is the case of Iain Softley's paean to teen-aged computer freaks.
Hackers are, of course, not romantic, adventurous daredevils who are trying to right wrongs by attacking evil conglomerates via an expertise in computer programming; they are generally over-educated anarchists who create worms and viruses for the simple joy of seeing the disruption and destruction of EVERYONE'S computers, just to know that they can do it.Having said this, let me say that the true joy of HACKERS is seeing a group of young 'Stars in the Making', early in their careers.
Of course the most recognizable and famous of these is Angelina Jolie, who looks butch and adorable with short hair, and 'an attitude', but the film also offers a dazzling performance by Matthew Lillard (Shaggy in the live-action SCOOBY-DOO), who has become one of the finest young comic actors around; gifted British actor Jonny Lee Miller, playing an American, here, who would go on to TRAINSPOTTING, DRACULA 2000, and the title role in the TV production of BYRON; Jesse Bradford, star of last year's CLOCKSTOPPERS; Laurence Mason (BEHIND ENEMY LINES, A.I.); and Renoly Santiago (CON AIR).
So, if you skip over the dated attempt to be 'cutting edge', and just sit back and enjoy the performances, HACKERS is a fun movie that can be appreciated as a 'Preview of Coming Attractions' from a remarkable cast....
While the computer screens depicted aren't realistic so to speak (I'll get to that in a moment) it was exciting, and made computers exciting again, it also didn't hurt the fact that everyone I knew used Macs just like the Hackers in the movie, so as you can imagine, it inspired many of us to see if we had the potential to do similar things but ultimately gave up (popping in a few CD-ROM games was much more entertaining;;)  ).
Anyways, now I own the film on DVD and I believe I've come to a revelation regarding the computer screens shown in the film...what we see is not what is actually happening on the screen, what they're showing us is what the hackers are doing, as visualized in their mind, they picture the data on the screen in a way in their head where it comes together, and what we see is that picture in their head, if maybe only an enhanced picture...anyways, thought I'd share that.Oh, and isn't it funny to see computer geeks drooling over a laptop with a 28.8 modem?::).
Angelina Jolie and Jonny lee Miller (from trainspotting) are really great in this movie although you can see they're still pretty young and unexperienced.
First of all: The movie does not rate "Hackers" as bad guys, but then again, neither does the good, old "Wargames" feat M.
if you could put FUN in a box (not to mention Johnny Lee Miller and Angelina Jolie) the box would say "Hackers" on it.
you get the picture.Anyhow, the really important thing I have to say is this:A.) Hackers is NOT a "B-movie"; the budget was large and the actors have major talent; it's a slick production, and it shows.B.) Contrary to the belief of some cyber-dorks out there (who mainly get their jollies by pretending they know more than other people about computers) it doesn't matter if the computer interface is somewhat unrealistic.
So it's going to score or not score points solely based on entertainment value.Here's why I rate it a 7...* The music - a great soundtrack, if you enjoy the era and genre ( Prodigy being one of the coolest bands featured) * The characters - They are all fun - especially Cereal Killer and the phone phreak guy * A pretty hot Angelina Jolie * The dialog - Some of it is pretty amusing, if you don't take the movie seriously * The overall presentation - I enjoy the signs of the time; grunge music posters, early virtual reality, etc; I enjoy the attempts at portraying what goes on inside of a computer even though it's totally wrong * I enjoy the attempt of the movie to be technical.
I rate this movie 2 for some shocking stupidity and frightening inadequacy.P.S. If you don't know anything about the way internet and computers work - it's a nice teen crime/comedy - 4.5/10.
When I went in to watch Hackers, I was worried because some ofthe reviews here.I don't think we saw the same movie.
More like a very young Angelina Jolie stars in hackers, a tale of a bunch of kids who hack into systems and networks for fun.It does drag on a bit, but there's some good performances, a perfectly respectable script and some good directing.
Just like the above films, which vary in genre, it is completely engrossing, and it is all the elements in the movie woven together in a finely-crafted fabric that is Hackers.
(ANGELINA JOLIE SHOULD WEAR THESE CLOTHES EVERYDAY!!!!!!!!!!!)ANYWAYZZZZZZZ------  I'm sure most of you reading have probably already seen it, but let me assure to those of you who haven't:1) This is NOT a B movie!
No F___N WAY!!2) You will glamourize the use of computers and techno style once you're done watching this.3) It's soundtrack will swallow you whole.4) I'm a straight girl and I thought Angelina Jolie was the sexiest thing on the planet when I saw this film!Hope my points are tantalizing enough to persuade y'all!
There is the evil guy (who is incredibly cool) who rides around on a skateboard, the main good hackers who all have souped up mac laptops with mad crazy cool graphics on them, and the crazy japanese people as well as the people that don't really fit into the hacking world.
Hackers is very much fun to watch and anyone who didn't like this movie may be lacking in taste in awesome movies or a sense of humor or both.
I sure didn't miss much except knowing that it's one of the most poorly made movies ever made.Okay, since when did hacking involve all these 3D computer graphical game-like images?
I think Sandra Bullock (in the movie "The Net") did a better job "pretending" to know a lot about computers then these actors.
This movie was very corny and the feeling was much like a TV movie."The Net" with Sandra Bullock which also happened to be released in 1995 was a lot better and actually had thrilling moments unlike this movie.I would of probably skipped the movie K-PAX if I saw Hackers back in 1995 knowing Iain Softley directed them both.
Now, when I watch this film, I see clichéd characters, an uninvolved plot, complete disregard for the law, and extremely cheap computer graphics, which heavily stamped a date on this feature.
We needed stronger actors to accompany their characters, a tighter story that dove deeper into the hacker culture, and we needed stronger CGI, which wouldn't date this early 90s film.Jonny Lee Miller was decent, Angelina carried her own, Jesse Bradford was wasted, but overall the most hurtful part of these characters was that they never quite "gelled" together.
It does star a young Angelina Jolie (who oddly looks like an elf) as well as Matthew Lillard (who is unbearably bad).There's no plot and the effects make no sense.
A movie like this shouldn't be judged as a piece of quality film making but instead as an entertaining couple of hours.
However Hackers ends up being one of those movies that's not quite bad enough to be fun and far from good enough to be watchable.My recommendation is see WarGames for a second time and ignore Hackers completely..
Closing in on his 18th birthday, Johnny Lee Miller ends up making new friends with the local roving gang of hackers and battling the nefarious corporate nemisis-former-hacker who's out to take everyone's money.Bottom line: the script is unimaginative, the characters have almost no depth, the technology is completely, totally, 100% made-up (long live MovieOS!).
Jonny Lee Miller isn't too bad, Angelina Jolie can be as bad as she wants to be ('cause she looks so good)...the rest of the cast is just kinda there, picking up another rent check.As many have already stated, recognize this movie for what it is (psuedo-intellectual, wanna-be-techie pulp) and try and enjoy it.
It is yet another cheezeball Kalifornia take on "the future", the future in the eyes of some sleezball movie producers trying to cash in on some boring segment of society (hacker kids?) that they totally did't know anything about but wanted to make a few bucks off of because they heard it was "the next big thing".The 'costumes' are so effected, the acting is terrible, Angelina Jolie is here, 20 years old and playing a troubled teenager and her acting is garbage.
The computers that have no basis in reality, except for a few screen shots from Macintoshes; the "kooky" hacker types who wear Battlestar Galactica-inspired jackets and New-Wavey clothes; the evil villain and his secret-service style minions; the edgy attraction (are they gonna get together by the end?) between the two main characters, etc.
Even allowing for it's age, this film is basically a clunker.The plot is ridiculous, the script is dreadful, the acting dire and the special effects are laughable.Anyone who knows anything about computers will cringe at lines like "the new RISC architecture will change everything." "yeah, RISC is cool." or "it has a 28 point 8 bps modem" (even when 28.8 modems were state of the art, who called them 28 point 8 BPS modems?)If you are teenage boy and a fleeting glimpse of Angelina Jolie's nipples is the most exciting thing you can think of, watch this movie.
The Sci Fi channel has been playing the movie Hackers over and over now since Angelina Jolie is in Tomb Raider.
Some people, mostly real hackers, didn't like this movie and I don't know why.
This movie's okay for a dose of cheap entertainment but little more: don't expect to learn any insights into what hackers are actually like..
Every little character gives this film that touch, i have and will continue to watch Hackers continuously, and one day i hope it will be recognised as an all time classic..
While this may seem very generic it has it's unique charm that it adds.The movie isn't super serious, it has a lot of comedy that keeps the light mood and silly 90s visuals of what hacking looks like.
The light tone makes this movie enjoyable and fun for multiple viewings.The acting is okay, nothing great or bad.
If the film would have been made with the generic songs of the era it probably wouldn't be as great.Hackers is a long time favorite of mine.
Just killer.Costumes: 9 This isn't the way people actually dressed in the 90's, especially hackers, but who cares, the costumes just work.Characters: 8 Great characters with their own personalities, a lot of energy in the main characters, and even though some characters play on old tropes (stuffy FBI agent, cartoonishly evil villain), at their worst, they still don't feel too clichéd.Plot: 7 This movie manages to mix a few interesting plots into each other somewhat naturally.
The cool hacker comments and aliases  have a definite 80's feel.Hackers would have gotten a 1 or 2 vote if it had not been for three things; the need for passwords, something that I rarely see in computer movies, the method of obtaining them, which was accurate for a long time and perhaps still is (searching trough dumpsters for printouts) and lastly Angelina Jolie who's a definite plus in any movie..
Anyone who has any familiarity with the internet, computers, or common sense should track down all the original prints of the film and throw them into the nearest ocean, never to be seen again.The movie's one saving grace:  Angelina Jolie.
Even with all this said, I liked this movie very much, and still believe that it's great acting, and well-written story should be considered when viewing this movie.Hackers begins by showing us the early life of Dade Murphy or `Crash Override' to his hacker buddies.
Fast-forward to his birthday, and he and his mother have since moved, and Dade now knows no one, and cleverly introduces himself to Kate Libby known to her friends as `Acid Burn'.Hackers is a movie about a group of friends who are framed for setting up an oil tanker to spill over into the ocean, which is owned by a company that employs Eugene Belford or `The Plague' played by Fisher Stevens.
The always funny and crazy Matthew Lillard completes the cast of hackers.As good as this movie is, you can really tell that they had a very small budget, and they rushed to put it together.
This movie will only be liked by those who know nothing about computers, or those willing to sit back and enjoy a very well written story with a very good ending.
The story was interesting at a time when hackers went public and it's written like a thriller.
Moreover, the hacking is depicted like a dream which it's against its nature: computing isn't mathematics law flashing in the air or scintillating towers and pushing buttons.In conclusion, this movie has surely offended both the real hackers and its audience!.
Even more importantly, the main character looks and acts like a douchebag, and sucks even worse than the movie.
Angelina Jolie even briefly gets her nipples onto film for the first time.The downside comes in the fact that the characters are very one dimensional.
Real hackers shine through their hacks, not their clothes (but, that would be a boring movie, either).All characters are stereotypes and could not convince me.
After watching it, I felt really bad about losing an hour and a half of my life that could've been spent doing something more worthwhile.Even if you try to keep an open mind about how "unrealistic" the film is, the movie just does not work on any level whatsoever.
most of the effects were pretty cool, albeit not really related to computers or hacking, still works in the movie quite well.
Released during the same year that The Net, Virtuosity, and Johnny Mnemonic came out in the era of the first generation of VR and early internet, Hackers was Angelina Jolie's second film (her first was Cyborg 2) and the one in which she dated then married Johnny Lee Miller in his movie debut before breaking up with him and marrying Brad Pitt before breaking up.
This film was fun in the nineties, but my major complaint is it made hacking look like playing a video game with excellent graphics rather than staring at and frantically typing into a black screen of white text for hours.
I wonder if anyone watched it and thought that was what hacking was actually like in 1995!Hackers was silly and enjoyable, and its soundtrack was pretty decent.
A few real hackers admitted to me they enjoyed the glamorization it gave them and didn't care that it all looked like silly gaming.More to the point, teenage-closeted-bisexual-schoolgirl-me immediately developed a crush on Angelina Jolie in her cute brunette pixie cut and tight black leather.
But I have to say, when I look at it later on, I can't help but laugh at a good majority of the movie, especially the whole Hacker term.
the acting isn't bad, and the cast it's really good, I think this film has potential..
It is too bad the movie was not written more around her acting skills.A touch I did like was the way the characters got around their city with dazzling speed on roller blades.
Revisiting 'Hackers' after a long time, not because it's a great movie or anything but the reasons are nostalgic.
'Hackers' is pretty much another teen saves the world movie, this time using technology.
Jonny Lee Miller, Angelina Jolie, Fisher Stevens, Lorraine Bracco and Matthew Lillard do a good enough job.
Every geeky kid wants to be as good looking as Johnny Lee Miller, have Angelina Jolie fall for him, beat some skeezy bad guy at his own game, and live in a psychedelically manic underground world where you rollerblade everywhere with your best friends, secure in the knowledge that you're "elite".For anyone who knows anything about computers, the "hacking" and technology parts of this movie are the best (funniest, most ludicrous) parts.
Of course, we all know now how irrelevant the plot of this movie is to legitimate hacking, but it's still a great laugh for those of us that use computers too much..
Well this isn't a realistic movie, but you don't want to see a realistic hacking film.
This wasn't done to please those with enough computer knowledge to know that it isn't realistic, but to please a more general audience, with little computer knowledge.With all this in mind, in order to enjoy "Hackers", one should not expect to see a great movie or a realistic approach to the world of computer security experts.
The cast is cool too, with early sighting of Sick Boy from trainspotting (John Lee Miller), Angelina Jolie, and Matthew Lillard (Scream and other teenie movies)..
I think Angelina Jolie gave a great performance like she always does in her films.
I can see how this movie got started in a Hollywood meeting: "We need to have a youth hit" "Well, teenagers like computers, I read something about computer hackers in the paper" "Cool, we'll throw in a love story"This would be as much research as they put into it.
Now, if you're not one of those that needs absolute realism, love cyberpunk/computer movies and can enjoy a light-hearted approach to things, then Hackers is a must see.
Angelina Jolie looked so wonderful in her breakout(?) role in this movie.
Great film, good actors (Angelina Jolie is soooo sexy in this movie!).