Hackers is underrated - Hackers (1995) Discussion

[–] greendots 17 years ago

Actually it's:

NIKON
What, your mom buy you a 'Puter for Christmas?
(to Phreak)
Does he know anything?

PHREAK
Sure man, he's elite.

NIKON
(pausing, checking Dade out)
Come in.

and occurs at about: 30:40

check out the script here:
http://sfy.ru/sfy.html?script=hackers

| The nice thing about standards is there are so many to choose from |

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[–] redcoat75 17 years ago

I totally agree with you, foreman, this movie is a cult-classic. In my humble opinion, given the exponential advancement in computers and technology over the past 12 or 13 years, this film still holds up quite well. Yeah, maybe the script's a little silly, and the story's a little silly, but "Hackers" exudes coolness and style.

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[–] jinqui242 17 years ago

It's dumb, but it's such a fun movie that it holds up well even after 13 years.

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[–] user-19604 17 years ago

I think it's rated just fine. This is hardly a classic, it fails on many levels, acting and directing style most of all.

Since this film is so bad it doesn't deserve going in to depth why.

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[–] nicver 15 years ago

I give this movie at 3, and only with favorable wind.

Like others, I am in IT, been doing this since I was 11, now I am 40. The newness wore off a while ago :) It's still a fun kind of job, though.

Hackers in real life are overrated idiots, but this is not why I think this movie is overrated. I have never seen one good hacker movie, not one, except for that one with Robert Redford. And yes, I realize they have to make them enjoyable and technically inaccurate. Just like cops laugh internally at cop movies but still enjoy the show.

This movie just plain sucks, I could argue forever about why, but really, why? It just sucks.

As for why my opinion of hackers? Because I personally have the skills to do all of that and could have done a heck of a lot of damage several times in the past and never did, simply because I am a moral person. Hackers are the equivalent of the 10 year-old kids who ring at someone's door bell and run away laughing. You don't do that because you're not an idiot and because you have some sense of morality.

Ok, I did hack one idiot's account because he claimed I would be unable to do it. Did not help the login and password database was homebrewed and had everything in plain text, plus the mSQL port open, no password, baah... Note I could have ruined other people's lives as well, but I just needed one hit.

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[–] bizzach34 14 years ago

I now feel terrible.

This is the saddset post I've ever seen on imdb. I regret reading it.

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[–] antartica-1 16 years ago

I work in IT and I have watched this movie so many times.

I think the secret is though the computer visual elements were highly stylized (rightly), they researched the subject heavily so the characters seemed believable, and had a group of characters who seemed to fit (never mind how they dressed!).

I saw an Open University program for a Computer Science module on hacking here in the UK which used scenes from the film, and interviews with some of the production team (think it was the writer and director).

Most of the hacks in the movie were all based on real life incidents they had found during research, (even the tankers capsizing was based on an incident where tanker models in an oceanographic lab were capsized by playing with the ballast), the only ones they said hadn't been done in real life which was the Video cassette dual at the TV station and Razor and Blade's TV hack at the end.

Most of the techniques used to get information were real life, like dumpster diving and "social engineering attacks" when Dade calls the security guard pretending to be an exec from accounting.

As far as fictional computer orientated films for entertainment go this the best, followed maybe by Antitrust (which I'm sure ripped off the public TV broadcast at the end from Hackers).

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[–] kriss3d 16 years ago

Hackers is very real in many ways. If you can look beyon the otherwise nice graphics you will see how much it reflects both how the culture was back then as well as how people view hacking even today.

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[–] greendots 16 years ago

...they researched the subject heavily...

This is true. I think some of the production team of Hackers posted messages on the alt.2600 newsgroup asking for input and ideas for the title of the then unnamed film.

| The nice thing about standards is there are so many to choose from |

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[–] madcowdzz 16 years ago

Emmanuel Goldstein, editor of 2600 Quarterly, is credited in the film... plus they used Emmanuel's name for Cereal Killer's real name.

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[–] mojorecords 9 years ago

You do realize that Emmanuel Goldstein is a name derived from the book '1984' and not the editor's actual name, right?

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[–] l_KingpiN_l 16 years ago

Ah, what an insight.

See, I enjoy this film; I can't quite put my finger on what's so right about it...

It's entertaining and I can't fault it, even for whatever inaccurate depictions they may have made, regardless of the genuine background stories mentioned above.

And to use the name Gibson as a supercomputer name. Quality biscuits...

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[–] vance-37 16 years ago

Aaaah the movie I grew up with. It's the soundtrack, the mid 90s, the cool characters, the plot... classic.

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[–] l_KingpiN_l 16 years ago

I do enjoy the soundtrack :)

Voodoo People is a great track, as is One Love and some other suited tracks in there.

I can almost hear the feint sound of an IBM Model M keyboard clicking away til all hours....

In fact, I just found one we have and will be giving it a clean before beginning to annoy my housemates with it... :)

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[–] e_esben 15 years ago

The reason Hackers has such a low rating is that the movie is made for a "closed audience". It doesnt really have a very wide appeal. So people who arent part of the "closed audience" hate on the movie. That is why top 100 on IMDB are all mainstream movies.

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[–] plutony59 16 years ago

I think what makes this film a classic is how in almost every scene, they're showing you how effected we are by computers in today's (and 1995's) world. Every connection, ever relationship and conversation in the movie is another example of the digital age and where we are in it. It's pretty convincing because using hackers as main characters, they point out the soft points we rarely consider or question. This, in turn, is an insight as well as pure entertainment, educating the main public just how dependent we are with lines of code in so many forms. This is why the script was sold, and why "Hackers" had two horrible sequels following it, because it's inevitably smart with how to tell a story, which no one could copy.

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[–] WavesBeneath 16 years ago

What are some other 'cult classics' much like this one?

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[–] kriss3d 16 years ago

There arent really any.

Hackers is a good movie no doubt, but its shown with the hightech flashing like the average audience wants it. But id guess you should try out Operation Takedown and Anti-trust to begin with.

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[–] SirLoyne 15 years ago

Exactly! I'm an old-school 70s-80s computer guy who grew up with 300-baud dial-up, and despite the sometimes hilarious dialogue I still find it entertaining. It has a charm, and some of the hacks depicted were actually real.

The early 1990s were special because there was still a mystique to the online world for those who knew how to navigate it, until AOL unleashed Grandma & Grandpa into the newsgroups. Ugh.

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[–] kriss3d 15 years ago

Thank god I live in a contry where we didnt have to coop with AOL.
It was a true pain in the neck for most IRC channels. Basicly it was easiest just to have a perm ban on anyone using AOL.

I grew up with computers costing a fortune, only thing was DOS. dual discdrives (5-1/4" floppies) with no colors. (well actually some computers like the older atari had a nice sickly green color but thats it)

After a while we started using modems and spoke to various BBS around the world. Those were the days.

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[–] mojorecords 9 years ago

AOL and IRC are two totally different things.

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[–] calem-paine 9 years ago

It was never insinuated that they were the same, only that people connecting through AOL created some issues for the IRC channels, why it was easiest to permaban any connection from AOL.

Officer, I've had a doozy of a day...

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[–] brackster 16 years ago

It's most definitely underrated. This is the film that introduced me to electronic dance music as a young teen, aside from 90s dance hits. And it was the first film I saw featuring Angelina Jolie, which I developed a huge crush on after seeing this film. It could've easily been a gimmicky film, but the strong and solid cast and interesting script make it well worth watching.

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[–] sarchiorama 15 years ago

this is our world now
the world of the electron and the switch
the beauty of the bargue
we exist without nationality skin color
or religious bias
you wage wars murder cheat
lie to us for our own good
we are the criminals yes I am a criminal
my crime is that of curiosity
I am a hacker and this is my manifesto
you may stop me but you cant stop us all

one of the bbc film critics when interviewing
jolie earlier this year said he was a committed
fan of the movie which was rather funny
cause jolie had to smile
that was the interview.. ;)

I like war games too especially the scenes in
the bedroom

http://gizmonaut.net/bits/suspect.html

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[–] memoric 9 years ago

[...]the beauty of the baud[...]

__________________
The Matrix Has You...

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[–] aurelie_ledoyen 15 years ago

Hackers is SO underrated.

It introduced me to Underworld, Prodigy and Angelina Jolie.

.."There is nothing so stable as change." -Bob Dylan

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[–] george_mase 15 years ago

It's no Sneakers of course, Sneakers is the greatest hacking movie ever. But this was entertaining.

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[–] mojorecords 9 years ago

The best movies are the ones that are the most entertaining. 'Sneakers' was good, but I'd argue that 'Hackers' is more entertaining.

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[–] supercyberedu 8 years ago

Both are excellent movies, they appeal to different public and aim different goals.

Hackers is a little more into teens and hacking skills, with a little of political /philosophy

Sneakers is like a great and very deep battle between two friends like brothers, one that could escape a fatal destiny and the one who had been caught and 'reprogrammed'.
I tend to agree sneakers is a little better because of it content. And it was in fact the very first movie to sketch how important social engineering is to hacking.

In the other hand I like Hackers so much because it is a movie to enjoy the ride, as it was a roller coaster which goes uphill all the time.
It doesn't get old, except the technology used at that time like 28.8kbps modem would be a joke Today and even at the time of that movie, or how the sysadmins were "killing" the "bunnies" or trojans (but I still find it as a good joke, it is really funny to think somebody actually hitting buttons to get rid of a virus one by one, I think we should make an antivirus like that, it would be like playing a get to disinfected). And the music, what an amazing score!! with Massive Attack feat Tracy Thorn!! is just amazing, and Halcyon on & on Orbital music, that theme just stroke me, it was like an instant drug in my mind at the age of 15 when the movie came out. What a wonderful movie.

And btw yes, this movie Hackers, is totally completely underrated. Very misunderstood by the hacking community at the time, this movie wasn't supposed to depict accurately the hacking culture/environment it was more like hey there are good hackers, bad hackers or phreakers, each group had their own values or greediness, and this is how we make a movie to make look hackers very cool and stylish.

I myself, am not a hacker but had to work and find out bugs and backdoors to avoid hacking attacks in the worst time for MS IIS (with WIN NT4 epoque around 2000s) what a POS it was at that time. And I still watch Hackers movie as a great entertaining movie, it is just movie, it is not a documental or sort of like Tsutomu Shimomura Hackers movie about catching Kevin Mitnick.

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