History Film / TheNet

Several films are name the Net, including:

* An American film from 1995: ''Film/TheNet1995''.
* A South Korea film from 2016: ''Film/TheNet2016''.

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[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_net_1995_poster.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Identity theft is hell.]]

->''"Just think about it. Our whole world is sitting there on a computer. It's in the computer, everything: your, your DMV records, your, your social security, your credit cards, your medical records. It's all right there. Everyone is stored in there. It's like this little electronic shadow on each and every one of us, just, just begging for someone to screw with, and you know what? They've done it to me, and you know what? They're gonna do it to you."''
-->-- '''Angela Bennett'''

''The Net'' is a 1995 techno-thriller film starring Creator/SandraBullock and directed by Irwin Winkler.

Angela Bennett (Bullock) is an unassuming, nerdy computer analyst and reclusive loner who works from home, helping her company debug games and other software. She becomes embroiled in an intricate conspiracy when her co-worker sends her a disk of security software called "Gatekeeper", containing a secret backdoor into various government agencies, hospitals and any computer system Gatekeeper supposedly protects. This makes Angela a target of the Praetorians, a dangerous group of hackers who use their manipulation of [[EverythingIsOnline everything online]] to kill or ruin the lives of anyone who threatens them.

Bennett becomes a wanted fugitive when her identity is replaced with that of a known criminal, her credit cards rendered null, her car stolen and her house sold without her knowledge. With everyone believing she is someone she is not, and a charming assassin on her tail, Bennett can only count on her former therapist, Dr. Alan Champion (Creator/DennisMiller), to protect her and ensure her mother, who suffers from Alzheimer's, is safe. It will take all of her skill and wits to uncover the real identity and motives of The Praetorians and bring down the conspiracy before they have undetectable access to every major computer system.

A ''[[Series/TheFugitive Fugitive]]''-esuqe spin-off TV series in the USA was created, which turns the plot of the film into an episodic narrative pitting runaway Angela against the Praetorians, a cyber-terrorist organization that makes her a target of the FBI by swapping her identity with one of the 10 Most Wanted List. A DirectToVideo sequel (in actuality the same premise under different circumstances), ''The Net 2.0'', was made in 2006, about a female computer analyst who gets her identity stolen while in Istanbul.

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!!This film includes examples of the following:

* ActionSurvivor: Crosses over into ActionGirl towards the end, but for the most part Angela is flung into the mayhem and caught unawares.
* AdultFear: Alan dies due to a medical error. Even worse, it's not because of an error or negligence on a doctor or nurse's part, it's because the bad guys have tampered with hospital records to list him as a diabetic, leading the nurse to give him a dose of insulin that she genuinely thought he needed, but in a normal person, was fatal.
* BatmanGambit: [[spoiler: Angela emails the FBI, blowing the lid off the conspiracy, so Devlin hacks the FBI to get rid of the email. Knowing he would do this, Angela puts a disk in the computer containing a virus she found early in the movie, which Devlin triggers when he hacks the FBI, destroying all elements of Gatekeeper.]]
* BigBad: [[spoiler: Jeff Gregg, the CorruptCorporateExecutive that orchestrates web attacks to make people buy his backdoor-enabling program]].
* BigBrotherIsWatching: The (then-) new version of it, [[NewMediaAreEvil where Internet means]] EverythingIsOnline, is the central concept of the film.
* CaptainErsatz: Jeff Gregg for Bill Gates, [[spoiler:down to the fear of his programs enabling him to hack everything in the world]].
* ChekhovsGun: The disk containing the virus [[spoiler:used to bring down Gatekeeper]].
* CoincidentalBroadcast: Towards the end of the movie, Angela has the news on and literally every single story on it is conveniently related to Angela's plot line.
* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: A computer disk with a virus is colored red.
* ConspiracyThriller: Exploiting the brand-new ParanoiaFuel of TheNineties -- the Internet!
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: [[spoiler: Jeff Gregg. He wants control over everything and has created Gatekeeper with a deliberate backdoor for his conspiracy to exploit, as well as orchestrated a situation that will hopefully make people buy his program.]]
* TheCracker: The BigBad aka [[spoiler:Jeff Gregg, leader of the Praetorians]].
* DisneyVillainDeath: [[spoiler:Devlin's demise, crashing with the roller cage of a forklift a couple of floors down like a sack of flour. Ouch.]]
* DrivenToSuicide: Undersecretary of Defense Michael Bergstrom, when told that he has AIDS. [[spoiler:His medical records were changed to make it look like he did.]]
* EvilBrit: Devlin. A purely remorseless assassin.
* EverythingIsOnline: The film explores and dissects the over-reliance of computers in important facets of modern society. Angela Bennett bemoans this point when talking to her provided attorney.
* ExtremeGraphicalRepresentation: Actually not as gratuitous as one might think, but the effects of a computer virus are shown as pixels slowly degenerating and floating away.
* {{Fanservice}}: What else do you call Sandra Bullock (not one known for doing this, mind you!) in a black bikini, lounging on a beach?
* FauxAffablyEvil: Devlin. He keeps treating Angela like a lover even after it's been made clear he will kill her without batting an eye.
* HeKnowsTooMuch: Angela and her friend killed early in the film. The worst part is, neither of them even realize it until things go to hell.
* HerBoyfriendsJacket: Angela Bennett wraps herself with Jack Devlin's sports coat while aboard his boat. When she finds a gun with a silencer in one pocket, she begins to suspect that Jack intends to murder her.
* HollywoodNerd: You know nerds have made the big-time when one is played by Sandra Bullock.
* HopeSpot: [[spoiler:The FBIAgent friend Dr. Champion mentions early in the film turns out to be a Praetorian plant (if he ''was'' the man Champion was talking about to begin with). Angela goes from hopeful to despairing to full-on furious within the space of a few (unnecessary) repeats of him asking "did you made a copy of the disk?".]]
* TheHunterBecomesTheHunted: Inverted, as Angela spends most of the film on the run, avoiding attempts to kill her and trying to find out who is out to get her and why. She finally turns the tables in the last act.
* IHaveYourWife: [[spoiler:Almost. Angela is pretty sure that her mother will be exploited as bait, so she begs Dr. Champion to put her somewhere safe. He does, and even if Devlin makes it clear that she can be found eventually, he and Ruth and the rest of the conspiracy are killed or otherwise disabled before they are able to]].
* ItAmusedMe: The temporary computer crashes experienced by Wall Street and LAX appear to have been caused by cyber pranksters who did it for the lulz.
* ItWorksBetterWithBullets: Angela removes the clip from Jack's gun. Despite holding it for several minutes while he talks to her, he fails to notice the weight difference and doesn't realize that it's empty until he tries to use it.
* LonersAreFreaks: Angela Bennett exemplifies the idea of computers and the Internet facilitating the lifestyle of extreme reclusiveness. Her mostly solitary existence might have been a bit too solitary, to the point where her neighbor can't even vouch that she ''existed''.
* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: Devlin's ploy to steal Bennett's disk.
* MedicationTampering: Dr. Alan is killed by the movie villains via hacking and [[HollywoodHacking changing both his pharmacy and medical computer records]], causing him to receive lethal doses of medications.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Jack '''Devlin''' is not really a man you want to meet, especially if you're the person he's been hired to kill.
* NerdsAreSexy: Especially when played by Sandra Bullock and Jeremy Northam.
* NewMediaAreEvil: The film is a reaction to the dawning Information Age, and attempts to make the Internet seem all-powerful and scary.
* NonIndicativeName: Dr Alan Champion. [[spoiler: He dies from insulin poisoning]].
* OhCrap: Most of Angela's reactions to various things, including her house being sold, her car being stolen, her fake criminal record and so on.
* PlotCoupon: "Give us the disk and we'll give you your life back". [[spoiler:Too bad it melted in the Mexican sun.]]
* ProfessionalKiller: [[spoiler: Jack Devlin is an assassin working for the Praetorians and Gregg.]]
* PursuedProtagonist: And how. She's constantly on the run.
* RageBreakingPoint: [[spoiler:When the FBIAgent that is a friend of Champion unmasks himself as a Praetorian plant because he keeps insisting on asking Angela whether or not she copied the disk (after she already told him it's been destroyed) Angela has finally had enough and after a short rant about how she's fed up she struggles for control of the car with him, making them crash and killing him, and then runs off to search a way to destroy the conspiracy.]]
* SinisterSurveillance: Any and all close-ups of a security camera panning slightly are an indication of something ominous.
* VillainousCrush: Devlin for Angela. It doesn't stop him to try killing her, though.
* WesternTerrorists: The Praetorians are crazy hackers that destroy things for the hell of it.
* WrongfulAccusationInsurance: An insurance policy is provided courtesy of the film's villains. While Angela commits a few crimes in her quest to her life back, she does so while her identity has been switched with one Ruth Marx -- the Ruth Marx that [[spoiler:ends up dead along with Jack Devlin at the computer fair.]] Once Angela undoes the identity swap, it's easy to imagine the police assigning most or all of Angela's criminal acts to Ruth and closing the case.
* XanatosGambit: [[spoiler: Jeff Gregg]] engineered all the cyber attacks and made it seem like this was the work of pranksters, in order to get the US Government to [[spoiler:[[WarForFunAndProfit buy his anti-virus software to protect their system]]. The software was purposely engineered with a backdoor, giving Gregg the access he previously had to steal. He could still get in before, but this way is undetectable and easier and he made some money. Whether or not the software was bought he still had the fruits of the initial attack.]]

%% ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.

* DisneyVillainDeath: [[spoiler: Devlin's demise, crashing with the roller cage of a forklift a couple of floors down like a sack of flour. Ouch.]]
* DrivenToSuicide: Undersecretary of Defense Michael Bergstrom, when told that he has AIDS. [[spoiler: His medical records were changed to make it look like he did.]]

* IHaveYourWife: [[spoiler: Almost. Angela is pretty sure that her mother will be exploited as bait, so she begs Dr. Champion to put her somewhere safe. He does, and even if Devlin makes it clear that she can be found eventually, he and Ruth and the rest of the conspiracy are killed or otherwise disabled before they are able to]].

* BigBrotherIsWatching: The (then-) new version of it, [[NewMediaIsEvil where Internet means]] EverythingIsOnline, is the central concept of the film.

%%* BigBrotherIsWatching

%%* ConspiracyThriller
%%* CorruptCorporateExecutive: [[spoiler: Jeff Gregg]]
%%* TheCracker: The BigBad aka [[spoiler:Jeff Gregg]].
* DisneyVillainDeath: [[spoiler: Devlin's demise.]]

%%* EvilBrit: Devlin

%%* FauxAffablyEvil: Devlin.

%%* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Jack '''Devlin'''.

%%* ProfessionalKiller: [[spoiler: Jack Devlin]]

%%* BigBad: [[spoiler: Jeff Gregg]].

%%* CaptainErsatz: Jeff Gregg for Bill Gates.

%%* IHaveYourWife: [[spoiler: Almost]].

%%* WesternTerrorists: The Praetorians

* ChekhovsGun: the disk containing the virus [[spoiler:used to bring down Gatekeeper]].

* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: a computer disk with a virus is colored red.

%%* IHaveYourWife: [[spoiler: almost]].

* LonersAreFreaks: Angela Bennett exemplifies the idea of computers and the Internet facilitating the lifestyle of extreme reclusiveness. Her mostly solitary existence might have been a bit too solitary, to the point where her neighbour can't even vouch that she ''existed''.

* MedicationTampering: Dr. Alan is killed by the movie villains via hacking and [[HollywoodHacking changing both his pharmacy and medical computer records]] giving him lethal doses of medications.

* NonIndicativeName: Dr Alan Champion. [[spoiler: he dies from insulin poisoning]].

* WrongfulAccusationInsurance: Insurance policy is provided courtesy of the film's villains. While Angela commits a few crimes in her quest to her life back, she does so while her identity has been switched with one Ruth Marx -- the Ruth Marx that [[spoiler:ends up dead along with Jack Devlin at the computer fair.]] Once Angela undoes the identity swap, it's easy to imagine the police assigning most or all of Angela's criminal acts to Ruth and closing the case.

A ''[[Series/TheFugitive Fugitive]]''-esuqe spin-off TV series in the USA was created, which turns the plot of the film into an episodic narrative pitting runaway Angela against the Praetorians, a cyber-terrorist organization that makes her a target of the FBI by swapping her identity with one the top 10 Most Wanted List. A DirectToVideo sequel (in actuality the same premise under different circumstances), ''The Net 2.0'', was made in 2006, about a female computer analyst who gets her identity stolen while in Instanbul.

* ActionSurvivor: crosses over into ActionGirl towards the end, but for the most part Angela is flung into the mayhem and caught unawares.

* FanService: What else do you call Sandra Bullock in a black bikini, lounging on a beach?

%%* HeKnowsTooMuch

** Likely invoked here by Angela's friend who sent her the disk, so she could remember what disk had the virus on it.