Hollywood and Hacking: Information wants to be free! Hack the planet!
May 17, 2020 12:11 PM Subscribe
There had been movies about computer hacking before 1995, most famously in John Badham¡¯s Cold War classic WarGames (YT trailer) (1983), where Matthew Broderick almost triggered World War III after hacking a supercomputer to ¡°play a game¡± of intercontinental nuclear armageddon, but Iain Softley¡¯s Hackers (YT trailer)
is more interesting for being released at the brink of the Internet Age. It seems crazy now, but this movie was released barely a month after Windows 95 debuted (YT clip)
. 1995 doesn¡¯t seem that long ago, but [25] years has been an ice age in technological terms. Surf on in for more links, critiques, music and actual hackers.
The technology partially realistic (
Wired) and the hacks are a mix of ludicrous and close enough to factual (
Medium). And then there's the (full) soundtrack!
But if
Hackers doesn't scratch your computer wizardy itch, New Atlas has a three-part feature on the history of hacking as portrayed in films, including video clips, under the header of Hollywood and Hacking
- The 1980s - kid hackers, nerds and Richard Pryor
- The 1990s - Techno, virtual reality and Steven Seagal¡¯s Apple Newton
- Into the 21st Century - Real life hackers, computer punks and Hugh Jackman dancing
Schneier on Security posted links to the series, and the comments fill in a few gaps. There's also a section on hacking in Wikipedia's list of films about computers, and TV Tropes for Hollywood Hacking, which includes a much broader list of media.
And if you want see "vintage" hackers in person,
Hackers '95 is a 90 minute part documentary, part spoof. Phon-E and R.F. Burns cover the hacker related goings on of 1995. SummerCon 95, Defcon 3, Operation Cyber Snare, Area 51, an interview with Erik Bloodaxe and more are covered. A distinct lack of CGI, romance, and techno soundtrack. "It's not fancy, but it's a start."
posted by filthy light thief (25 comments total)
22 users marked this as a favorite
Mr Robot is a television series that is nothing but a series of hacking incidents most of which are portrayed very realistically according to the hacking community.
It came out 20 years after Hackers, (and the same year that The Net [trailer] and Johnny Mnemonic [trailer]), when Mr. Robot was one of four new TV series about hacking, as reviewed by a security company, Cloudbric.
Going into the 4th and final season, Sam Esmail shared a lot about how much of himself there was in the series, which reminded me how much that show was the opposite of Hackers. Esmail said "A lot of the movies that came out of Hollywood, especially in the late '90s and even then in the 2000s, were very corny and had nothing to do with realistically what hacker subculture was all about."
posted by filthy light thief at 12:22 PM on May 17, 2020 [1 favorite]