• How Do Hackers Hack
• Hackers Movie Wiki Online

A security hacker is someone who explores methods for breaching defenses and exploiting weaknesses in a computer system or network. citation needed Hackers may be motivated by a multitude of reasons, such as profit, protest, information gathering, challenge, recreation, or to evaluate system weaknesses to assist in formulating defenses against potential hackers. Movie Info Alex is a young Ukranian immigrant, who supports his parents by doing illegal jobs on the internet. His best friend Sye is a black market dealer, who helps Alex make money.

Directed by Cyril Morin. With Pom Klementieff, Chris Schellenger, King Orba, Alena von Stroheim. A love story between two hackers, Soyan and Loise. Like many other hackers, Soyan works for a company he previously hacked. The MOVIECLIPS channel is the largest collection of licensed movie clips on the web. Here you will find unforgettable moments, scenes and lines from all your favorite films. Made by movie fans. About Hackers Edit. In 1988, 11 year old Dade 'Zero Cool' Murphy was arrested by the Secret Service for creating a computer virus the caused a seven-point drop in the New York Stock Exchange. Sentenced to seven years without a computer or a touch-tone phone, Dade uses the computer he receives on his eighteenth birthday to get back into the game. Jun 07, 2016  The MOVIECLIPS channel is the largest collection of licensed movie clips on the web. Here you will find unforgettable moments, scenes and lines from all your favorite films. Made by movie fans.

Hackers is a 1995 American crime film directed by Iain Softley and starring Jonny Lee Miller, Angelina Jolie, Renoly Santiago, Laurence Mason, Matthew Lillard, Jesse Bradford, Lorraine Bracco, and Fisher Stevens. The film follows a group of high school hackers and their involvement in a corporate extortion conspiracy. Made in the 1990s when the Internet was unfamiliar to the general public, it reflects the ideals laid out in the Hacker Manifesto quoted in the film: 'This is our world now.. the world of the electron and the switch [..] We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias.. and you call us criminals. [..] Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity.' Despite receiving mixed-to-negative reviews and failing at the box office upon release, Hackers has since achieved cult classic status.^[3]

• 3Production
• 4Soundtrack

Plot[edit]

In 1988, 11-year-old Dade 'Zero Cool' Murphy (Jonny Lee Miller) 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 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 where he meets Kate Libby (Angelina Jolie) who pranks Dade by claiming that there is 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) and Wallace is escorted to prison. 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 a relationship.

Cast[edit]

• Jonny Lee Miller as Dade Murphy / 'Zero Cool' / 'Crash Override'
• Angelina Jolie as Kate Libby / 'Acid Burn'. The director auditioned Hilary Swank, Heather Graham, and Liv Tyler for the role which ultimately went to Jolie. The part was originally offered to Katherine Heigl, but due to prior commitments to Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995), she had to turn it down.^[4]
• Renoly Santiago as Ramόn Sánchez / 'The Phantom Phreak'
• Matthew Lillard as Emmanuel Goldstein / 'Cereal Killer'. He is named for (the pen name of) the publisher of 2600 magazine, which is in turn a homage to Emmanuel Goldstein from the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
• Laurence Mason as Paul Cook / 'Lord Nikon'
• Jesse Bradford as Joey Pardella
• Fisher Stevens as 'The Plague' / Eugene Belford
• Lorraine Bracco as Margo Wallace
• Alberta Watson as Lauren Murphy
• Penn Jillette as Hal
• Wendell Pierce as U.S. Secret Service Special Agent Richard Gill
• Marc Anthony as U.S. Secret Service Special Agent Ray
• Michael Gaston as U.S. Secret Service Special Agent Bob
• Felicity Huffman as Prosecuting Attorney
• Max Ligosh as young Dade

Production[edit]

Screenplay[edit]

The screenplay, written by Rafael Moreu, is highly inspired by the hacker and cyberpunk subcultures.^[5] He saw the film as more than just about computer hacking but something much larger: 'In fact, to call hackers a counterculture makes it sound like they're a transitory thing; I think they're the next step in human evolution.'^[6] He had been interested in hacking since the early 1980s. After the crackdown in the United States during 1989 and 1990, he decided to write a script about the subculture. For research, Moreu went to a meeting organized by the New York-based hacker magazine 2600: The Hacker Quarterly. There, he met Phiber Optik, a.k.a. Mark Abene, a 22-year-old hacker who spent most of 1994 in prison on hacking charges.^[6] Moreu also hung out with other young hackers being harassed by the government and began to figure out how it would translate into a film. He remembered, 'One guy was talking about how he'd done some really interesting stuff with a laptop and payphones and that cracked it for me, because it made it cinematic'.^[6] The character Eugene Belford uses Babbage as a pseudonym at the end of the film, a reference to Charles Babbage, an inventor of an early form of the computer. The fictional computer mainframe named the 'Gibson' is a homage to cyberpunk author William Gibson and originator of the term 'Cyberspace', first in his 1982 short story 'Burning Chrome' and later in his 1984 book Neuromancer.

Pre-production[edit]

The cast spent three weeks getting to know each other and learning how to type and rollerblade. They studied computers and met with actual computer hackers, including Tristan Louis, Kevin Mitnick, and Nicholas Jarecki, who served as a technical consultant and credits his experience on Hackers as inspiring his later career as the screenwriter and director of the award-winning film Arbitrage.^[7] Actor Jonny Lee Miller even attended a hacker's convention.^[8]

Shooting[edit]

The school scenes were filmed in Stuyvesant High School and the surrounding areas in the TriBeCa and East Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in November 1994. Many scenes included real school seniors as extras.^[9][10]

The interior scenes for the Cyberdelia nightclub were filmed at the disused Brentford Public Baths^[11] on the outskirts of London. Producer Ralph Winter noted, 'We never knew why, but the pool was designated a historic landmark, so great care had to be taken not to damage anything and to return it to its original state.'^[12] The exterior set was filmed in downtown Manhattan.

Post-production[edit]

Softley did not use CGI for any of the sequences in cyberspace. He said they used 'more-conventional methods of motion control, animation, models, and rotoscoping to create a real, three-dimensional world, because.. computer graphics alone can sometimes lend a more flat, sterile image.'^[5] Video game developer Psygnosis created the CGI for the Wipeoutarcade game sequence.^[13]

Shortly after the filming ended, Jonny Lee Miller and Angelina Jolie were married, and after divorcing, remain good friends.

Marketing[edit]

MGM/UA set up a website for Hackers that soon afterwards was allegedly hacked by a group called the 'Internet Liberation Front.' A photograph of the film's stars Angelina Jolie and Jonny Lee Miller were doodled upon, and the words 'this is going to be an entertaining fun promotional site for a movie,' were replaced with 'this is going to be a lame, cheesy promotional site for a movie!' The studio maintained the site during the theatrical run of the movie in its altered form.^[5][14][15]

The movie poster shows Acid Burn and Crash Override with various words and ASCII symbols superimposed on their faces, with the words:

• Hacker names from the movie, including Lord Nikon, Acid Burn, and Crash Override.
• Most commonly-used passwords, noted by Plague, such as God, Sex, Love, and Secret.
• Phreak, a 'phone freak' hacker whose specialty is telephone systems, with the main Phreaker in the hacker group Phantom Phreak.

Soundtrack[edit]

The music soundtrack combines electronica, pulsating tribal rhythms and techno/house music of early hardcore groups like Prodigy, Underworld and Orbital. Well Acclaimed with 4.0 of 5 stars from 54 reviewers,^[16] it was released in 3 separate volumes over three years. The first volume was composed entirely of music featured in the film (with the exception of Carl Cox's 'Phoebus Apollo'), while the second and third are a mix of music 'inspired by the film' as well as music actually in the film. The most featured song in the movie is 'Voodoo People' by The Prodigy.

Most of the music in the film, however, including much of the techno and electronic music, was composed and performed by UK film composer Simon Boswell.

Hackers: Their Only Crime Was Curiosity: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack[edit]

1. 'Original Bedroom Rockers' – Kruder & Dorfmeister
2. 'Cowgirl' – Underworld
3. 'Voodoo People' – The Prodigy
4. 'Open Up' – Leftfield (featuring John Lydon)
5. 'Phoebus Apollo' – Carl Cox
6. 'The Joker' – Josh Abrahams
7. 'Halcyon + On + On' – Orbital
8. 'Communicate' (Headquake Hazy Cloud Mix) – Plastico
9. 'One Love' – The Prodigy
10. 'Connected' – Stereo MCs
11. 'Eyes, Lips, Body' (Mekon Vocal Mix) – Ramshackle
12. 'Good Grief' – Urban Dance Squad
13. 'Richest Junkie Still Alive' (Sank Remix) – Machines of Loving Grace
14. 'Heaven Knows' – Squeeze

Hackers²: Music From and Inspired by the Original Motion Picture 'Hackers'[edit]

1. 'Firestarter' (Empirion mix) – The Prodigy
2. 'Toxygene' – The Orb
3. 'Little Wonder' (Danny Saber Dance Mix) – David Bowie
4. 'Fire' – Scooter
5. 'Narcotic Influence 2' – Empirion
6. 'Remember' – BT
7. 'Go' – Moby
8. 'Inspection' (Check One) – Leftfield
9. 'Cherry Pie' – Underworld
10. 'To Be Loved' (Disco Citizens R&D Edit) [Mix] – Luce Drayton
11. 'Speed Freak' (Moby Remix) – Orbital
12. 'Get Ready to Bounce' (Radio Attack) – Brooklyn Bounce
13. 'Offshore' (Disco Citizens Edit) – Chicane
14. 'Original' – Leftfield

Hackers³: Music From and Inspired by the Original Motion Picture 'Hackers'[edit]

1. 'Why Can't It Stop' – Moby
2. 'Godspeed' (BT Edit Mix) – BT
3. 'Absurd' (Whitewash Mix) – Fluke
4. 'Quiet Then' – Cloak
5. 'I Am Fresh' – Monkey Mafia
6. 'Phuture 2000' (radio edit) – Carl Cox
7. 'An Fhomhair' – Orbital
8. 'Fashion' (Ian Pooley Mix) – Phunky Data
9. 'Psychopath' (Leftfield Mix) – John Lydon
10. 'Stop & Panic' – Cirrus
11. 'Strong in Love' – Chicane
12. 'Hack the Planet' – Brooklyn Bounce
13. 'Diskette' – Simon Boswell
14. 'Launch Divinci' – Simon Boswell

Additional information[edit]

Songs featured in the film but not appearing on any soundtracks:

• 'Connection' – performed by Elastica
• 'Real Wild Child' – written by Johnny O'Keefe, Johnny Greenan and 'Dave Owen (VIII)' (as Dave Owens)
• 'Protection' – performed by Massive Attack
• 'Combination' – performed by Guy Pratt
• 'Grand Central Station' – performed by Deep Cover

Reception[edit]

Some critics praised the film for its stylish visuals but criticized its unconvincing look at hackers and their subculture. Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars and wrote, 'The movie is smart and entertaining, then, as long as you don't take the computer stuff very seriously. I didn't. I took it approximately as seriously as the archeology in Indiana Jones'.^[17] On the show Siskel & Ebert, Ebert gave the film thumbs up while Gene Siskel gave the film thumbs down, saying, 'I didn't find the characters that interesting and I really didn't like the villain in this piece. I thought Fisher Stevens was not very threatening.. The writing is so arch.'^[18]

In his review for the San Francisco Chronicle, Peter Stack wrote, 'Want a believable plot or acting? Forget it. But if you just want knockout images, unabashed eye candy and a riveting look at a complex world that seems both real and fake at the same time, Hackers is one of the most intriguing movies of the year.'^[19]

USA Today gave the film three out of four stars and Mike Clark wrote, 'When a movie's premise repels all rational analysis, speed is the make-or-break component. To its credit, Hackers recalls the pumped-up energy of Pump Up the Volume, as well as its casting prowess'.^[20] In his review for the Toronto Star, Peter Goddard wrote, 'Hackers joy-rides down the same back streets Marlon Brando did in The Wild One, or Bruce Springsteen does in Born To Run. It gives all the classic kicks of the classic B-flicks, with more action than brains, cool hair and hot clothes, and all the latest tech revved to the max'.^[21]

Chicago Reader critic Jonathan Rosenbaum noted that, 'Without being any sort of miracle, this is an engaging and lively exploitation fantasy-thriller about computer hackers, anarchistic in spirit, that succeeds at just about everything The Net failed to—especially in representing computer operations with some visual flair.'^[22]

The Los Angeles Times David Kronke wrote, 'imagination of Rafael Moreu, making his feature screenwriting debut, and director Iain Softley..piles on the attitude and stylized visuals, no one will notice just how empty and uninvolving the story really is'.^[23] In his review for the Washington Post, Hal Hinson wrote, 'As its stars, Miller and Jolie seem just as one-dimensional—except that, in their case, the effect is intentional'.^[24]Entertainment Weekly gave the film a 'D' rating and Owen Gleiberman wrote, 'the movie buys in to the computer-kid-as-elite-rebel mystique currently being peddled by magazines like Wired'.^[25]

The film has a metascore of 46 by critics on Metacritic^[26] and a 33% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 45 reviews.^[27]

Home media[edit]

Hackers was released on VHS and laserdisc in 1996 and to DVD by MGM Home Video on August 25, 1998 as a Region 1 widescreen DVD and on October 5, 2010 as part of the 4 movie, 2-disc set 4 Sci-Fi Movies. Shout! Factory released a 20th Anniversary Blu-ray of the film on August 18, 2015.^[28]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^'Hackers Poster IMP Awards Gallery'. impawards.com. Retrieved 2010-07-08.
2. ^'Hackers at Box Office Mojo'. Retrieved May 20, 2012.
3. ^Hackers may have been of its time, but it was also ahead of it · The New Cult Canon · The A.V. Club
4. ^Hackers (1995) - Trivia. IMDb. Retrieved 2010-09-06.
5. ^ ^abcHackers MGM DVD 8-page booklet featuring trivia, production notes and a revealing look at the making of the film.
6. ^ ^abcMcClellan, Jim (January 8, 1995). 'Cyberspace: The Hack Pack'. The Observer.
7. ^'Jonny Lee Miller and Angelina Jolie - The Happy Couple'. Empire. June 1996.
8. ^Penfold, Phil (May 3, 1996). 'Good Work If You Can Hack It'. The Herald.
9. ^Hackers (1995) - Trivia - IMDb
10. ^'Stuyvesant High School Alumni Association, Inc. - SHS Stuyvesant High School'. SHSAA. 2006-05-06. Retrieved 2010-04-16.
11. ^'Hackers (1995) filming location - Cyberdelia nightclub interiors'. www.british-film-locations.com. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
12. ^'Hackers (1995) history: production'. ibiblio.org. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
13. ^Yin-Poole, Wesley (22 March 2013). 'WipEout: The rise and fall of Sony Studio Liverpool'. Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Retrieved 22 March 2013.
14. ^'Hacked website'. Archived from the original on February 29, 2000. Retrieved 2017-03-22.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link) - Original MGM/UA website after defacement by the Internet Liberation Front
15. ^'Original MGM/UA website'. Archived from the original on December 1, 1998. Retrieved 2017-03-22.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
16. ^Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: Hackers
17. ^Ebert, Roger (September 15, 1995). 'Hackers'. Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2009-09-02.
18. ^Gene Siskel & Roger Ebert (September 15, 1995). Siskel & Ebert At The Movies: Hackers (Television Production). Chicago, IL: Buena Vista Television. Retrieved 2010-04-23.^{[permanent dead link]}
19. ^Stack, Peter (September 15, 1995). 'Hackers Computes Visually'. San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2009-09-02.
20. ^Clark, Mike (September 15, 1995). 'Hackers accesses thrills'. USA Today. pp. 4D.
21. ^Goddard, Peter (September 16, 1995). 'Great road movie for info highway'. Toronto Star. pp. C8.
22. ^Critic Reviews for Hackers - Metacritic
23. ^Kronke, David (September 15, 1995). 'Hackers: World of Hip Computer Nerds'. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2009-09-02.
24. ^Hinson, Hal (September 15, 1995). 'Hackers'. Washington Post. Retrieved 2009-09-02.
25. ^Gleiberman, Owen (October 6, 1995). 'Hackers'. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2010-05-25.
26. ^Hackers. Metacritic. Retrieved 2010-04-20.
27. ^Hackers. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2015-09-12.
28. ^Hackers 20th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray. Retrieved 2015-09-11.

External links[edit]

• Hackers on IMDb
• Hackers at Rotten Tomatoes
• Hackers at Metacritic
• Hackers at Box Office Mojo

18 Nov The Complete List of Hacker And Cybersecurity Movies, Version 2.0

You can learn a lot about cybercrime by watching these flicks

– Steve Morgan, Editor-in-Chief

Sausalito, Calif. – Aug. 1, 2019

We’ve often been asked by our readers if we know of some good cybersecurity movies. So our editors set out to compile a list.

Most of the movies we selected have a central theme around hacking. Others have a certain character or enough footage on the subject matter to be included. These movies can make a boring topic (for some) entertaining. Whatever it takes to get more people interested in combating cybercrime and the cybersecurity field, we’re all for it.

Is there a movie you know about, and we should too? Tell us what we’re missing. We’ll be making updates on the fly until we publish the 2019 edition.

THE LIST

1969 — The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes — Dexter Reilly (Kurt Russell) fixes a computer during an electrical storm and gets shocked. The computer’s brain has fused with his, and he’s a genius.

1969 — The Italian Job — A robber (Michael Caine) recently released from prison gets help from a group of Britain’s most infamous computer hackers to steal gold bullion from underneath the noses of the Italian police and mafia. One of the film’s most famous scenes is a massive traffic jam caused by hacking the city’s traffic control computer.

1970 — Colossus: The Forbin Project — Massive computer systems from the U.S. — “Colossus” — and Russia — “Guardian” — connect to each other. Nuclear war is threatened.

1974 — The Conversation — Gene Hackman plays a surveillance expert using high-tech equipment (back in the day) to spy on a couple he fears may be in danger. Nominated for three Oscars.

1975 — Three Days of the Condor — CIA codebreaker Robert Redford tries to figure out why his own agency wants him dead.

1982 — Tron — One of the earliest hacking films. A computer engineer learns an executive at his company has been stealing his work and is launched into the world of virtual reality.

1983 — War Games — High school student (Matthew Broderick) hacks into a military supercomputer in this classic and activates the U.S. nuclear arsenal, at a time when most people didn’t know what hacking was.

1984 — Cloak and Dagger — When 11-year-old Davey sees the murder of an FBI agent, the dying man hands him an Atari video game cartridge with military secrets. With Dabney Coleman.

1984 — Hackers: Wizards of the Electronic Age — This documentary about the hacker community includes footage of interviews with some of the programmers that created the PC revolution, including Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple. Filmed at a hacker conference held in Sausalito, Calif.

1985 — Prime Risk — Computer-savvy lovers scam Automated Teller Machines and plot to sink the Federal Reserve.

1985 — Weird Science — Teenagers Gary and Wyatt design their ideal woman on a computer, and a freak electrical accident brings her to life in the form of the lovely, superhuman Lisa.

1993 — Jurassic Park — Not a hacking movie… BUT Seinfeld’s nemesis “Newman” (Dennis Nery) plays an IT guy who hacks his way into a coup that involves him stealing dinosaur DNA to sell to the highest bidder.

1992 — Sneakers — A Hacker (Robert Redford) leads a team of experts who test the security of San Francisco companies. They discover a black box that can crack any encryption, posing a huge threat if it lands in the wrong hands… including rogue NSA agents.

1993 — Ghost in the Machine — A computer-powered MRI machine extracts a serial murderer’s soul, and becomes a deadly technological weapon.

1994 — Disclosure — A high-tech executive (Michael Douglas) unexpectedly finds himself attempting to hack into his firm’s database to defend his reputation and career and to defeat Meredith (Demi Moore). E-mails from “A Friend” direct his moves.

1995 — Hackers — A teenage hacker is back on the scene seven years after being banned from computers for writing a virus that caused the biggest stock exchange crash in history. He and his friends must prove that a sinister superhacker is framing them for a plot to embezzle funds from a large oil company with a computer worm. With Angelia Jolie.

1995 — The Net — A computer programmer (Sandra Bullock) who lives a reclusive life is looking forward to time off when she becomes aware of a conspiracy. Her vacation turns into a nightmare when someone tries to kill her and her identity is stolen. She must prove who she is while trying to figure out why someone wants her dead.

1995 — Ghost in the Shell — In this animated Japanese sci-fi epic, a cyborg policewoman and her partner hunt a cybercriminal called the Puppet Master, who hacks into the brains of cyborgs to get information and use it to commit crimes. (Scarlett Johansson stars in a 2017 live-action remake.)

1995 — Johnny Mnemonic — A computer chip implanted in his brain allows a human data trafficker (Keanu Reeves) to securely store and transport data too sensitive for regular computer networks. When he gets a valuable package that exceeds the chip’s storage capacity, the mnemonic courier must deliver the data within 24 hours or die. Assassins are intent on helping him do just that.

1997 — Masterminds –The new security chief at a prestigious private school plans to even a score by kidnapping several of the wealthy students and holding them for ransom. A teenage computer hacker, expelled from the school for pulling pranks, thwarts his plans.

1998 — 23 — After an orphan invests some of his inheritance in a home computer, he begins discussing conspiracy theories inspired by a novel on bulletin boards. He’s soon hacking military and government computers with a friend. Based on a true story.

1998 — Enemy of the State — A lawyer (Will Smith) isn’t aware that a videotape in his possession proves a congressman was murdered for opposing surveillance legislation. When he becomes the target of a corrupt NSA official and his life begins to fall apart, he enlists the help of an ex-intelligence operative (Gene Hackman).

1998 — Pi — Is there a mathematical key that can unlock the universal patterns in nature? If found, can that key predict anything — even the stock market? A brilliant, obsessed, and paranoid mathematician who barricades himself in a room filled with computer equipment intends to find that key, but might go mad while doing so.

1998 — Webmaster — In this Danish sci-fi thriller, a powerful crime leader hires a hacker to monitor the security of his computer operations. When someone else hacks into the database, the webmaster must go to extremes to find him, or die within 35 hours.

1999 — Pirates of Silicon Valley — This biographical drama about the development of the personal computer and the rivalry between Apple Computer and Microsoft spans the years 1971 – 1997. Noah Wyle portrays Steve Jobs and Anthony Michael Hall stars as Bill Gates.

1999 — Office Space—They’re supposed to be part of one big happy family, but three computer programmers hate their jobs and their boss. They concoct a scheme to embezzle small amounts of money from the high-tech company that employs them, but a mistake results in a bigger theft than planned. With Jennifer Anniston.

1999 — NetForce — In the year 2005, NetForce, a division of the FBI, is tasked with protecting the Net from terrorism. A loophole in a browser allows someone to gain control of the Internet and all the information it holds. Now the commander of NetForce must stop him, as he also tracks down a killer.

2000 — Takedown — Also known as “Track Down,” the controversial movie version of the manhunt for legendary hacker Kevin Mitnick is based on the book by Tsutomu Shimomura, “Takedown: The Pursuit and Capture of Kevin Mitnick, America’s Most Wanted Computer Outlaw – By The Man Who Did It.”

2000 — Hackers in Wonderland— This documentary on hackers in the United Kingdom and in the United States includes interviews with prominent hackers who reveal what drives them. The hackers include ColdFire, Phobos, and cyberjunkie.

2001 — Antitrust — When a college graduate (Ryan Phillippe) gets a job writing software at a multi-billion dollar computer company, he has no idea that the founder (Tim Robbins) and new mentor is hiding dark secrets. Is there anyone he can trust?

2001 — Swordfish — A spy named Gabriel (John Travolta) plots to steal a large fortune. He enlists Ginger (Halle Berry) to persuade Stanley (Hugh Jackman), who spent two years in prison for hacking an FBI program, to help. But what is Gabriel really up to, and who or what is really behind the plot?

2001 — Revolution OS — The history of GNU, Linux, and the open source and free software movements is traced in this documentary. It features several interviews with prominent hackers and entrepreneurs.

2001 — Secret History of Hacking — The focus of this documentary is phreaking, computer hacking, and social engineering occurring from the 1970s through the 1990s. John Draper, Steve Wozniak, and Kevin Mitnick are prominently featured.

2001 — Freedom Downtime — This documentary covers the plight of convicted computer hacker Kevin Mitnick, from the standpoint that Miramax misrepresented him in the film “Takedown.” It includes the story of several computer enthusiasts who confront Miramax reps about their discontent with aspects of the script, including the film’s ending.

2001 — The Score — An aging safecracker (Robert De Niro) plans to retire, but his fence (Marlon Brando) talks him into one final score, stealing one of Canada’s natural treasures hidden in the basement of a Customs House. He joins forces with another thief (Edward Norton) who hires someone to hack into the Custom House’s security system, but things go wrong.

2002 — Minority Report— It’s 2054 and a specialized Pre-Crime police department in D.C. stops crimes before they are committed based on information from Pre-Cogs, three psychic beings who channel their visions into a computer. When they accuse the unit chief (Tom Cruise) of a future murder, he becomes a fugitive, hunted by his own department.

2002 — Storm Watch — A champion player of virtual reality games must suddenly race against time to stop a criminal mastermind who has stolen his identify from destroying the world with a weather satellite. Also known as “Code Hunter.”

2002 — Terminal Error — A former employee of a major software company gets even with the president by planting a computer virus on an MP3 and giving it to his son. His plan is to crash the computer terminals, but the virus has a mind of its own and begins to take out large portions of the city. Father and son must create their own virus to stop the chaos.

2003 — Paycheck — Michael Jennings (Ben Affleck) makes good money working on top-secret projects and then agreeing to have his memory erased, until a payment of $92 million for a three-year-assignment is cancelled. With his life in danger, he must get help from a scientist (Uma Thurman) he doesn’t remember dating to figure out the importance of seemingly random items.

2003 — The Matrix Reloaded — With the help of Neo (Keanu Reeves), Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), and other freedom fighters, more and more humans have been freed from the Matrix and brought to Zion. But 250,000 machines are digging towards the stronghold and will reach them in 72 hours, so they must prepare for war.

2003 — In the Realm of the Hackers — This documentary reveals how and why two Australian teenager computer hackers, Electron and Phoenix, stole a restructured computer security list in the late 1980s and used it to break into some of the world’s most classified and secure computer systems.

2004 — Paranoia 1.0 — A computer programmer receives mysterious empty packages inside his apartment and tries to find out who’s sending them, why, and who he can trust. Also known as “One Point O.”

2006 — Firewall — When his family is taken hostage, a security specialist (Harrison Ford) who designs theft-proof computer systems for financial institutions must break into his own system and steal millions of dollars to pay off their ransom.

2006 — Hacking Democracy — This documentary investigates allegations of election fraud during the 2004 U.S. presidential election. It follows Bev Harris, the founder of Black Box Voting, a nonprofit consumer-protection group, and other citizen-activists who set out to uncover flaws in the voting system.

2006 — The Net 2.0 — A young computer systems analyst arrives in Istanbul to start a new job, but finds out her identity has been stolen. She must catch who did it to get her life back.

2006 — Pulse — In this remake of a Japanese horror film, a student is shocked when her boyfriend, a computer hacker, commits suicide. Then she and her friends receive online messages from him, asking for help. Another computer hacker must help her stop a supernatural plague traveling through the network.

2007 — Live Free or Die Hard — As the nation prepares to celebrate Independence Day, a disgruntled government security agent launches an attack on America’s computer infrastructure. Veteran cop John McClane (Bruce Willis) and a young hacker must help the F.B.I.’s cyber division take him down.

2007 — Bourne Ultimatum — Operative Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) teams up with an investigative reporter to find the people who betrayed him, while a ruthless CIA official and his team continue to track him down in the hopes of assassinating him before he gets his memory back.

2007 — Breach – This docudrama is based on the events leading up to the capture of FBI Agent Robert Hanssen, convicted of selling secrets to the Soviet Union. A low-level surveillance expert gets promoted and assigned to work with Hanssen, unaware that he is to find proof that he is a traitor.

2008 — Untraceable — Agent Jennifer Marsh (Diane Lane) of the Cyber Crimes Division of the FBI in Portland tries to track down a psychopathic hacker killing people online in live streaming video. As his site gets more hits, victims die faster.

2008 — Eagle Eye — Two strangers, Jerry and Rachel, come together after receiving mysterious calls from a woman they never met. She threatens their lives and family to push them into a series of dangerous situations, controlling their actions using cellphones and other technology.

2008 — Hackers are People Too — Hackers created this documentary to portray their community and break down negative stereotypes. It describes what hacking is, how hackers think, and discusses women in the field.

2008 — WarGames: The Dead Code 2008 — Is an American teen hacker playing a terrorist-attack simulator game online a real terrorist intent on destroying the United States? That’s what Homeland Security believes and they set out to apprehend him.

2009 — The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo — A journalist searches for the killer of a woman who has been dead for forty years, with the help of a young female hacker. When they unravel dark family secrets, they must protect themselves. This Swedish language film was remade in English in 2011.

2009 — Gamer — Controlled by a teenage gamer’s remote device, death-row inmate Kable must battle fellow prisoners every week in a violent online game. Can he survive enough sessions to gain his freedom, free his wife from avatar slavery, and take down the game’s inventor?

2009 — Hackers Wanted — This unreleased American documentary originally named “Can You Hack It?” follows the adventures of Adrian Lamo, a famous hacker, and explores the origins of hacking and nature of hackers.

2010 — The Social Network — Jesse Eisenberg portrays Harvard student and computer genius Mark Zuckerberg in this drama about the creation of a social networking site that would become Facebook.

2010 — Inception — A thief (Leonardo DiCaprio) who can enter people’s dreams and steal their secrets begins using his gift for corporate espionage. Can he also plant an idea into someone’s mind? The film won four Oscars.

2010 — Tron Legacy — In this revamped Tron continuation, Sam (Garrett Hedlund) searches in and out of the computer world for his father, Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), a brilliant computer programmer.

2012 — Underground: The Julian Assange Story — This Australian film follows the early career of the WikiLeaks founder, from his start as a teenage computer hacker in Melbourne.

2012 — Skyfall — James Bond (Daniel Craig) must prove he still has what it takes as he tracks down the source of a cyber-terror attack at M16 headquarters and goes up against a genius hacker.

2012 — Code 2600 — This documentary explores the rise of the Information Technology Age through the eyes of the people who helped build it and the events that shaped it.

2012 — Genius on Hold — The downfall of Walter L. Shaw, a telecommunications genius who became destitute, and his disillusioned son, who became a notorious jewel thief, are the subjects of this documentary.

2012 — Reboot — A young female hacker can’t remember a traumatic event that leaves her with an iPhone glued to her hand. The phone’s timer is counting down to zero and fellow hackers must help her solve the puzzle.

2012 — We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists — Filmmaker Brian Knappenberger documents the hacking group Anonymous, including interviews from group members.

2013 — Disconnect — Three intersecting stories center around the impact of the Internet on people’s lives. The characters include a victim of cyberbullying, a lawyer who communicates constantly through his cell phone but can’t find time to connect with his family, and a couple whose secrets are exposed online.

2013 — Goodbye World — More than one million cellphones simultaneously receive a two-word message, followed by the collapse of the power grid and widespread panic. A group of people who find shelter in a cabin soon find out what it’s like to live in a post-apocalyptic world.

2013 — Fifth Estate — Based on real events, the film begins as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Daniel Domscheit-Berg join forces as underground watchdogs and create a platform for whistleblowers to leak covert data to expose government secrets and corporate crimes.

2013 — Terms and Conditions May Apply — This documentary exposes how much the Internet and cellphone usage allows corporations and governments to learn about people.

2013 — Mickey Virus — In this Bollywood hacker comedy, Delhi Police must seek the help of a lazy hacker to solve a case.

2014 — Algorithm — A computer hacker who specializes in breaking into secure systems, including the telephone company and people’s personal accounts, hacks a government contractor and discovers a mysterious computer program, thrusting him into a revolution.

2014 — Ex Machina — A young programmer wins a competition that makes him the human component in a groundbreaking experiment where he must evaluate the capabilities and consciousness of Ava, a breathtaking A.I.

2014 — The Signal — Nic, who is a student at MIT, is on a road trip with two companions when an annoying computer hacker distracts them. They track him to an abandoned shack. After strange occurrences, Nik wakes up wounded and disoriented, wondering what has happened to his friends, and who are these people in space suits?

2014 — The Imitation Game — M16, the newly created British intelligence agency, recruits mathematician Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) and his team to crack the Germany’s Enigma code during World War II. Nominated for 8 Oscars.

2014 — The Hackers Wars — This documentary discusses hacktivism in the United States, including the government’s surveillance and persecution of hackers and journalists.

2014 — Who Am I — A subversive hacker group intent on gaining global fame invites a young German computer whiz to join them.

2014 — Open Windows — A blogger finds out he’s won a dinner with an actress he devotes his website to and is disappointed when she cancels. When he gets a chance to spy on her every move with his laptop, his life gets crazy.

2014 — Citizenfour — This documentary by Laura Poitras about whistleblower Edward Snowden and the NSA spying sandal includes interviews of Snowden in Hong Kong in 2013 and features work by journalist Glenn Greenwald.

2015 — Blackhat — Convicted hacker Nicholas Hathaway (Chris Hemsworth) joins a team of American and Chinese technical experts to track down a Balkan cyberterrorist operating in Southeast Asia.

2015 — Deep Web — Filmmaker Alex Winter interviews the people behind the Deep Web and bitcoin and follows the arrest and trial of Ross Ulbricht (“Dread Pirate Roberts”), founder of online black market Silk Road.

2015 — Debug — Six young hackers assigned to fix the computer system on a vessel drifting in deep space become prey to an artificial intelligence source intent on becoming human.

2015 — Hacker’s Game — A cyber-detective working for a human rights organization and a hacking expert with shady connections meet on a rooftop and bond over a game of virtual chess. Will their romance survive deception?

2016 — Nerve — Friends pressure a high school senior to join the popular online game Nerve. She becomes caught up in the thrill of the adrenaline-fueled competition, partnered with a mysterious stranger, but the game takes a sinister turn.

2016 — Snowden — Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Edward J. Snowden in Oliver Stone’s biopic of the former National Security Agency contractor who becomes disillusioned with the intelligence community and leaks classified information, becoming a fugitive from law and a hero to many.

2016 — Gringo: The Dangerous Life of John McAfee — Complex antivirus pioneer John McAfee made millions before leaving the U.S. to live in a compound in the jungle in Belize. This Showtime documentary, which he calls fiction, portrays his life in Belize and 2012 departure after a neighbor was murdered.

2016 — Zero Days — Alex Gibney’s documentary focuses on Stuxnet, or “Operation Olympic Games,” a malicious computer worm developed by the United States and Israel to sabotage a key part of Iran’s nuclear program.

2016 — Risk — Laura Poitras spent six years making this documentary about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who gave her the opportunity to closely film him but later tried to censor the film.

2016 — I.T. — Aviation tycoon Mike Regan (Pierce Brosnan) hires an I.T. consultant on a temporary basis to do some work at his house and is so impressed he gives him a full-time job. He’s fired when he oversteps boundaries and seeks revenge against the businessman and his family.

2016 — Anonymous — A young Ukrainian immigrant turns to hacking and identity theft to support his parents, with help from a friend who is a black-market dealer. Petty crimes soon escalate. The film is also known as “Hacker.”

2017 — Ghost in the Shell — Major (Scarlett Johansson) is saved from a terrible crash and cyber-enhanced as a soldier to stop the world’s most dangerous criminals. She soon discovers that her life was actually stolen and determines to recover her past, find out who did this to her, and stop them before they do it to others.

2017 — Kim Dotcom: Caught in the Web — This documentary tells the story of Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom, a super-hacker, entrepreneur and notorious Internet pirate accused of money laundering, racketeering, and copyright infringement.

2017 — The Circle — Mae (Emma Watson) lands a dream job at a technology and social media company called the Circle. She is soon handpicked by the founder (Tom Hanks) to participate in an experiment that takes transparency to a new level.

2018 — Anon — In a world where everyone’s lives are transparent, traceable, and recorded by the authorities, causing crime to almost cease, a detective (Clive Owen) tries to solve a series of murders that may involve a mysterious hacker (Amanda Seyfried).

Stay tuned for the 2019 edition, version 3.0, with more movie listings.

How Do Hackers Hack

– Steve Morgan is founder and Editor-in-Chief at Cybersecurity Ventures.

Hackers Movie Wiki Online

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