[[quoteright:220:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/220px-Hackersposter_106.jpg]]

->''Hack the planet!''

A 1995 movie about a small group of [[PlayfulHacker underground computer hackers]] who discover a scheme being run by the security chief of a large corporation. In a prologue flashback, lead character Dade Murphy, age eleven, is found guilty of crashing 1,507 computers. Fast forward seven years, where his mother has just moved both of them to New York. Dade, reluctantly at first, falls in with a new hacking crowd. One of the hackers breaks into a supercomputer where, in a ContrivedCoincidence, he downloads a virus/worm program that the aforementioned evil security chief is using to steal many millions of dollars. In response, the security chief tries to frame the hackers for both the theft and a planned environmental disaster. Thanks to assistance from hackers world-wide, our heroes manage to prevent the disaster, clear their names, and Dade gets the girl.

''Hackers'' is known for referencing top-of-the-line computers of the time (now [[TechMarchesOn horribly, horribly outdated]]) and [[HollywoodHacking unrealistic depictions of hacking]], but it nevertheless remains quite entertaining. It's also notable as one of the earliest roles for AngelinaJolie. While real computer hackers will sneer at the movie in public (except for those who find the research failure to be funny as HELL), secretly they desperately wish that it were true: it's a world where hackers are slim and trendy, hackers save the world from evil corporations, and most importantly, Angelina Jolie ditches her jock boyfriend for a hacker.

Also shows a prototype of the racing game "wipEout"

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!!Tropes featured include:

* BigDamnHeroes: Razor and Blade get their moment, leading an army of hackers from around the world.
--> '''Blade''': "[[LampshadeHanging Are we fashionably late?]]"
* BlatantLies: Cereal Killer fingers [[ButtMonkey Joey]] as the fiend who finished all the french fries. Nobody falls for it, since Cereal has been [[BigEater munching on them for an entire scene]].
* BuffySpeak: "It's in that place I hid that thing that time!"
** Phreak was using his one prison phone call to tell Acid Burn where he hid the disk. [[FridgeBrilliance Probably being deliberately vague, since he has no idea who's listening in on his call.]]
** Incidentally, "that place" is behind a condom dispenser in the boys' bathroom. [[LampshadedDoubleEntendre What exactly was he hiding?]]
** [[TheMillenniumTrilogy A hacker named Plague?]]
*** [[SpellMyNameWithAThe '''The''' Plague. Mr '''The''' Plague is also acceptable.]]
* ChekhovsGunman: "Welcome to Hack the Planet..."
* CloudCuckooLander: Cereal Killer, partially crossed over with BunnyEarsLawyer.
* ContrivedCoincidence: Joey finds the worm before it finishes his run - and can't complete the download because his mother switches off his computer.
* CoolestClubEver: ''Cyberdelia'', an appropriate 'cyber-nightclub that has a full complement of skate ramps, a video game console about as large as a mid-sized room (featuring an alpha version of ''VideoGame/{{Wipeout}}''), and of course, [[CyberpunkIsTechno techno music]] ("Cowgirl" by Underworld). It's also by invite only.
* TheCracker: [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast The Plague]].
* CursedWithAwesome: [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Lord Nikon regarding his PhotographicMemory, after he explains that he has memorised the addresses and phone numbers of every girl at the party they attend:
--> '''Lord Nikon''': [[BlatantLies Eidetic memory - it's a curse...]]
* CyberPunkIsTechno: The soundtrack (released over ''three volumes'') was pretty much a pantheon of 90's electronic music.
* DoNotAdjustYourSet: How our hackers were cleared after being framed.
* DuelingHackers: Part of the climax.
** Earlier, the duel between Crash and Burn.
* EverythingIsOnline: Including school sprinkler systems.
* ExpectingSomeoneTaller: A RunningGag. Whenever Dade confesses he used to be Zero Cool (his hacker alias when he crashed 1507 computers), the other hacker says, "I always thought you were X." Where X is black/a girl/some defining feature of the other hacker.
* FunnyBackgroundEvent: When the FBI agent is being interviewed on the news, he is going on about how hackers are dangerous criminals, while the guy they just arrested can be seen in the background ''sucking his thumb''.
* GondorCallsForAid
-->''[[{{Irony}} Anarchists of the world, unite!]]''
* HollywoodHacking: TheMovie. Not just RapidFireTyping, but in spinning phone booths with VR goggles!
** Albeit oddly averted for one scene where they trace through page after page of hardcopy coredump, something familiar with many people trying to figure out why the OS entered kernel panic.
** Probably at least a little justified, as RogerEbert pointed out in his (positive!) review. What real hacking looks like, and what real hackers can actually accomplish are both pretty boring, at least for an audience to watch.
* HotMom: Dade's mom is still pretty good looking.
* HumiliatingWager: Dade Murphy and Kate Libby have a contest to see who's the best hacker. If Murphy wins then Kate will go on a date with him, if Kate wins Murphy will do scut work for her. In a later round of the contest they make another bet: whoever loses will have to wear a dress during their date.
* ItsPersonal: Dade, having an existing criminal record, avoided getting involved... until The Plague threatened his mother.
* KickTheDog: Does the FBI really raid hacker dens with SWAT teams and rip computers apart to the individual boards?
** Yes, they actually do.
* MeaningfulRename: The whole point to hacker handles.
** Dade got arrested ("crashed") but now he's back ("override").
*** Also , 'Lord Nikon', to reference the hacker's photographic memory'.
* MobstacleCourse: The heroes use the crowds at Grand Central Station to their advantage against the FBI who are coming to arrest them.
* MsFanservice: Kate
* OnePhoneCall: When Ramon gets arrested.
* OnlineAlias: Most people use two word phrases, like Acid Burn or Crash Override.
* PhotographicMemory: Lord Nikon has one. Among other things, he has memorised the addresses and phone numbers of every girl at the party they attend.
--> '''Lord Nikon''': [[BlatantLies Eidetic memory - it's a curse...]]
* PortmanteauCoupleName: [[invoked]] Played with, as parts of Dade's ("Crash Override") and Kate's ("Acid Burn") handles come together to make an amusing title. ("Crash and Burn")
* PlayfulHacker: There's even a quote from Loyd Blankenship's famous "Hacker's Manifesto".
* RapidFireTyping: every main character in the movie does this, but one particular scene is notable: when Dade uses Kate's new computer and the camera shows us that he's operating several ViewerFriendlyInterface programs at blinding speeds.
--> '''Kate''': I hope you don't screw like you type.
** Amusingly enough, it's painfully clear (especially in the TV station scene) that Miller is a very slow typer.
* RomanceOnTheSet: Leads Jonny Lee Miller and Angelina Jolie got married after the movie's release, but divorced a few years later.
* SamusIsAGirl: For the first half of the film, neither Dade nor the audience know that Acid Burn is actually Kate Libby.
* ShoutOut:
** Kate's boyfriend refers to Dade and his friends as 'Leopard Boy and the [[{{Transformers}} Decepticons]].'
** Cereal Killer's real name is "Emmanuel Goldstein," likely a reference to 2600 founder and editor Eric Corley, who himself uses the name as a reference to the figurehead enemy of Big Brother in George Orwell's "[[Literature/NineteenEightyFour 1984]]."
** Plague's alias in the aircraft was "Mr. Babbage." Charles Babbage was credited as the originator of the concept for the programmable computer.
** The elite [[MasterComputer supercomputers]] of the movie are called "Gibsons" which is a nod to WilliamGibson. This also counts as artistic license, as such machines are more typically called "Big Iron".
** [[TaxiDriver ''You talkin' to me?'']]
* SpellMyNameWithAThe: He's "The Plague," not "Mister Plague." (At which point, Penn follows up with "Mister The Plague")
* TechMarchesOn: 28.8 Kbps used to be fast. No more.
** Also, crashing 1507 computers in a day is no longer that impressive.
*** Dade did that ten years earlier. ''In TheEighties''. And he hit the market so hard the NYSE dropped four points across the board. Nowadays he'd be in Gitmo until his hair fell out. Or [[MyGreatestSecondChance working for the NSA, FBI]] or some other [[TheMenInBlack special government agency]], using his powers [[TheyFightCrime with other collared hackers to fight cyber-criminals]].
**** The NSA offers a scholarship program at MIT for students who will pursue a career with the agency. As he committed these hacks as a child, he'd probably be shortlisted for that program or something similar.
* ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish: Or at least it is when whoever chose the password didn't think things through.
-->'''The Plague''': ''Someone didn't bother reading my carefully prepared memo on commonly-used passwords. Now, then, as I so meticulously pointed out, the four most-used passwords are: love, sex, secret, and... GOD. So, would your holiness care to change her password?''
* TheNineties
* TwoPersonPoolParty: How Dade and Kate celebrate their victory.
* WagerSlave: If Kate Libby wins the contest to see who's the best hacker, Murphy will do scut work for her: "Scan, crack copyrights, whatever I want."
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Phreak's last appearance was his phone call to Acid Burn, and he's never mentioned directly again.
* WrongfulAccusationInsurance: [[spoiler:In the course of stopping stopped the tankers from capsizing([[[ClearMyName the crime for which they were framed]]) and obtaining the evidence of the [[BigBad real villain's]] embezzlement scheme, the heroes wreck an incredibly expensive supercomputer, but the FBI apparently doesn't prosecute them for it, since we see the main character and his girlfriend living (more or less) happily ever after at the end. This is most likely because the truth (which was [[DoNotAdjustYourSet broadcast worldwide]] by other hackers) embarrassed the FBI to no end - The Plague manipulated the FBI into assisting him in terrorism-for-blackmail.]]


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