MovieChat Forums > Hackers (1995) Discussion > Rollerblading - why?

Rollerblading - why?

posted 15 years ago by zalazalnik
37 replies | jump to latest

Hi all!
I just finished watching this movie. One thing I didn't get is: what's the connection between hackers and rollerblading? I mean what's the point in showing them move around on inline skates? I guess they have to move from one place to another on/with something but still ... I had some geeky computer friends in 90is and they weren't very athletic ;).

Besides I didn't find the skills that impressive. At one point, before they make traffic jam, I was thinking - wow I hope no one falls and brakes his/her laptop *evil grin*. If inline skating was a big part of hacker's life, he/she would look less wabbly blading down a road. I think :)

[–] Rob_T_Firefly 15 years ago

I don't think rollerblading was all that much an aspect of the hacker community, though a few hackers I knew back then were into it. I think it was in the film because rollerblading culture, like hacker culture, had sort of an underground culture about it that the mainstream was just starting to become aware of at the time. Alongwith the film's techno music, Playstation gaming, and style of dress, it was something new and subcultural that could impress a Hollywood audience and quickly show what sort of kids these characters were.

Of course some prophesies are self-fulfilling, and now there's a rollerblading group that meets up at the HOPE conference in NYC. http://wiki.hope.net/TNH/Midnight_Rollerblading

-- Rob
http://robvincent.net

[–] mojorecords 15 years ago

Yeah, it was more of just a trend at the time. Rollerblading was pretty big in the early to mid 90's.

[–] DikaWolf 15 years ago

Hey! I was a major computer geek in the 90's (it's what I was known for throughout junior high and high school) and I skateboarded and did a lot of inline skating especially in Malibu when I lived for a time in Southern California.

[–] gabby_bm 15 years ago

It's easier to lug around a laptop while on skates than to lug around a laptop AND a skateboard. Especially when you have to take stairs or an escalator (subway system, anyone?)

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[–] 15 years ago

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[–] Silvers34 14 years ago

Some of the characters looked like they might have toked....just never implied.

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[–] Odilwerk 14 years ago

Lillards character looks quite the wreckhead. If there were any character to symbolise the E-generation then it would have to be him.

The film isn't called wreckheads though :P so we'l never know.

[–] LinksLegionaire 14 years ago

One of them did. In the scene where one hacker (I don't remember what his name is) is waiting for the Garbage file to download. He lights up a joint.

[–] UltramanDeL 13 years ago

I think it was joey....the idiot who hacks using his home compu...to me joey was smoking MJs while or after hacking

[–] vindicator19 13 years ago

remember that in each decade hollywood tries to takethe superficial elements of that decade and put those things into its movies. In 60's movies characters were often displayed driving volkswagan vans with peace signs all of them. in the 70s everyone was depicted either going to or leaivng a disco. In the 80;s character seemd to have no rythm, they were all money hungry and on giant cell phones. in teh 90's, yes, rollerblading was something growing in populariity so the producers ofthe film tried to combine the hacking community with rollerblading because of how knew rollerblading seemd at that time.

[–] mojorecords 9 years ago

Joey never smoked anything other than cigarettes.

I've watched the movie at least 40 times and none of the characters ever smoke joints. And I smoke weed, so I'd be perfectly fine if they did, but drugs was never a part of any of these characters. Cereal Killer was just a goofball.

[–] stearic-1 13 years ago

He was smoking a cigarette, evident by him being shown smoking them through out the movie, and the ash tray he had on his bed.

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] neo-environmentalist 13 years ago

They were reasonably young and students...in New York city. I wouldn't expect them to have cars...

They also use public transport (the subway). The truly ridiculous thing was the plague and his skateboard.

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[–] PhrenicGermal 13 years ago

Well, Plauge was the pathetic adult loser who *wanted* to be a cool hacker teen.

[–] holdek01 13 years ago

I roller blade as I hack on my laptop. Sometimes I even grind.

[–] Fluke_Skywalker 13 years ago

The truly ridiculous thing was the plague and his skateboard.

While I thought the scenes of him rolling into the control room for the first time and being pulled alongside the limo were silly, I thought the fact that he rode a skateboard while the kids chose to rollerblade was subtly clever. The Plague was older, a 70s kid, and the fact that he rode a skateboard was a nod to that.

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[–] Oblivioid (1555) 2 years ago

You could be on to something there.

Something else, I don't know if the script writers knew it, but skateboarders during this time period, really had a hatred of inline skaters. You could say this made it even easier for The Plague to frame a crime on these kids.

[–] PhrenicGermal 13 years ago

I hope that you have a Panasonic Toughbook.

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] PhrenicGermal 13 years ago

Because they were in the 90s, and living in new york city, and were *beep* wicked cool, and totally independent, and were both bohemian in attitude but with loads of disposable income for wicked laptops and *beep* and loads of computer nerd kids wanted to be like them is why!