A 1995 movie about a small group of 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 Contrived Coincidence, 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and Dade gets the girl.Hackers is known for referencing top-of-the-line computers of the time (now horribly, horribly outdated) and unrealistic depictions of hacking, but it nevertheless remains quite entertaining. It's also notable as one of the earliest roles for Angelina Jolie. 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"
Tropes featured include:
Big Damn Heroes: Razor and Blade get their moment, leading an army of hackers from around the world.
Contrived Coincidence: Joey finds the worm before it finishes his run - and can't complete the download because his mother switches off his computer.
Coolest Club Ever: 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 Wipeout), and of course, techno music ("Cowgirl" by Underworld). It's also by invite only.
Cursed with Awesome: Lampshaded by Lord Nikon regarding his Photographic Memory, after he explains that he has memorised the addresses and phone numbers of every girl at the party they attend:
Expecting Someone Taller: A Running Gag. 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.
Funny Background Event: 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.
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 Roger Ebert 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.
Humiliating Wager: 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.
It's Personal: Dade, having an existing criminal record, avoided getting involved... until The Plague threatened his mother.
Kick the Dog: Does the FBI really raid hacker dens with SWAT teams and rip computers apart to the individual boards?
Portmanteau Couple Name: 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")
Playful Hacker: There's even a quote from Loyd Blankenship's famous "Hacker's Manifesto".
Rapid-Fire Typing: 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 Viewer-Friendly Interface 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.
Romance on the Set: Leads Jonny Lee Miller and Angelina Jolie got married after the movie's release, but divorced a few years later.
Samus Is a Girl: For the first half of the film, neither Dade nor the audience know that Acid Burn is actually Kate Libby.
Kate's boyfriend refers to Dade and his friends as 'Leopard Boy and the 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 "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 supercomputers of the movie are called "Gibsons" which is a nod to William Gibson. This also counts as artistic license, as such machines are more typically called "Big Iron".
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.
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?
Wager Slave: 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."
What Happened to the Mouse?: Phreak's last appearance was his phone call to Acid Burn, and he's never mentioned directly again.
Wrongful Accusation Insurance: In the course of stopping stopped the tankers from capsizing([the crime for which they were framed) and obtaining the evidence of the 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 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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