Hackers: The 1995 movie about hacking: A Review
Hack the planet!
What is Hackers About?
Whoa buddy, slow down! First a little information about the 1995 campy, dated, techy (yet so terribly wrong when it comes to actual technical accuracy) thriller Hackers.
Hackers stars Angelina Jolie, Jonny Lee Miller, Matthew Lillard, Renoly Santiago, Jesse Bradford, Laurence Mason, Fisher Stevens and even has a very young version of singer Marc Anthony.
Basically, the film is centered around teenage computer nerds, elites, geeks, and hackers who unravel a money making conspiracy from an evil l33t uber-nerd hacker.
It all starts out when a young Dade Murphy aka Crash Override aka Zero Cool (played by Jonny Lee Miller who you may know from Æon Flux) is arrested as a bratty young boy by Secret Service for writing a computer virus.
Needless to say, his legendary computer virus takes down 1,507 systems in one day and causes a 7-point drop in the New York Stock Exchange!
Oh Noes! They’re in ur computer stealin ur systems!
1507 computers crashed? Nice!
Due to his amazing eliteness, Zero Cool is banned from using a computer (and a touch tone phone?) until his 18th birthday. Of course, laws, prison time, and massive fines don’t deter this troubled hacker youth, and Dade “Crash Override” Murphy gets back to his old tricks and starts to hack some more.
After moving to a new school and finding new like-minded hacker friends, Dade and his dudes (and one lady named Acid Burn aka Angelina Jolie) discover a plan to unleash a dangerous computer virus that will release oil into the oceans (kinda like BP Oil did just recently … Hackers did it?).
They now have to save planet Earth! (in between hacking and playing PlayStation that is)
Sweet PlayStation Wipeout concept used in the movie
The Hackers save the whales
Of course, the kids must use their elite computer hacking skills to find the evidence while being pursued by the Secret Service and the evil computer genius behind the virus by navigating a serious 3d simulated master computer server that controls all the oil rigs in the world without getting pinned for the oil spill… all the while dealing with everyday teenage problems and school amongst their ever changing world or wonder and life. And stuff.
Just take a look at the insides of a Gibson supercomputer:
Still not sold?
For those that thought “TL;DR“, there’s also a hefty serving of Angelina Jolie’s boobs. Yep her tits are a supporting role in this film (though you will struggle to understand why).
Well I guess it makes sense. It ... erm.. develops the plot. Yea.
So if you do one nerdy thing all year, go watch Hackers. It will make you a more well-rounded person.
It’s clearly outdated, misinformed, and very campy, but it still features a ton of joy and character. You can even Netflix instant queue it!