Hackers (1995)
Growing up, I watched a movie called Twister almost religiously, starting from way too young an age, several times a week. I had the thing memorized front to back (and still do), and it's a big part of my obsession with storms and my eventual path into storm chasing in real life. As I got more invested into storm chasing, I had to start doing my own research. As a result, it's become painfully obvious to me how much of the tornado stuff is completely wrong. From the cloud formations, to the damage ratings, and pretty much everything else in between, it's just not an accurate movie. I imagine this is the same experience someone obsessed with Hackers growing up had. Hackers is by and large a very loose interpretation of how hacking works. Like Twister though, it doesn't matter to me because it's still a very entertaining movie. Even watching the infamous "Rabbit? Flu Shot? Someone talk to me!" scene (harpooned in the much more accurate Mr. Robot series), all I can think is "This is so cool". The beauty of movies like Hackers is that they exist as a time capsule, even if the contents are full of misinformation. As sad as it is that hacking isn't like taking a light superhighway and "jacking in", this movie is entertaining outside of the material it's trying to cover.
To beat a dead horse again, Twister has a lot in common in this movie in that it knows a few real terms, but doesn't really get the context or meaning behind them. There are some things like shoulder surfing (see above), social engineering, and a couple other things that are more or less accurate, but I wouldn't bank on anything in this movie being too true to life. The best way to watch is to soak in the smokey, neon and laser bathed atmosphere. And boy, does this game have an atmosphere. The leading edge of this atmosphere is brought forth by the phenomenal soundtrack. The Prodigy, Orbital, Massive Attack; all the classics are here, and it definitely affected my taste in music. Even if you never watch this movie, at least check out the official soundtrack.
Putting aside my love for Bristol-based bands, the movie has some interesting stylistic choices. The most obvious of these are unquestionably the hacking scenes. Is having a cowboy shootout the equivalent of trying to close someone's modem connection? No, not really. But it gets the point across, and it adds to the almost surreal feeling that the movie has when anyone starts to jack in. It gets almost comical with the scenes where the characters are looking at a particular encrypted file and to them it appears in thousands of calculus equations and spirals. If only. In my opinion, this movie wouldn't be as beloved as it is without the styilzed hacking montages.
The writing is also an interesting point of the movie for me. There's a particular line in the movie that a character says, which goes something along the lines of "I'm a nobody until I have a handle." It's rather prophetic for a silly hacker movie, but it seems relevant in this digital age. The plot itself is fairly simple, but the movie doesn't really live off it's plot, but rather the moments that connect it together. Does the 15 gazillion dollar ransom using the McGuffin virus really matter? Probably not. Is it important for the hacker crew to deduce how the worm that is stealing money works? No. But the movie exists in the moments in between, with the hacking scenes and the technobabble, and the trading of Linux books like they're the rarest finds on the planet. The movie excells when it's trying to be cool. I think that's the best way to describe this movie: cool.
At the end of the day, I think Hackers is a very interesting movie in the same way that Twister is. It's a movie that, even if it doesn't get much of anything right, shows some earnest interest in its source material. Hackers isn't here to show you how hacking works, but how it feels. It's about looking cool, sounding cool, being cool. You're nothing without a handle, and that handle better be something like The Phantom Phreak. Hack the Planet!
