Sneakers (1992)

Complex but lighthearted thriller about computers and cryptography, government and espionage, secrets and deception and betrayal.

Director:

Phil Alden Robinson

Writers:

Phil Alden Robinson, Lawrence Lasker,

Stars:

Jo Marr, Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jo Marr	...	College-Aged Cosmo (as Jojo Marr)
Gary Hershberger	...	College-Aged Bishop
Robert Redford	...	Martin 'Marty' Bishop
Sidney Poitier	...	Donald Crease
David Strathairn	...	Irwin 'Whistler' Emery
Dan Aykroyd	...	Darren 'Mother' Roskow
River Phoenix	...	Carl Arbogast
Bodhi Elfman	...	Centurion S&L Night Guard
Denise Dowse	...	Bank Teller
Hanyee	...	Bank Secretary
Timothy Busfield	...	Dick Gordon
Eddie Jones	...	Buddy Wallace
Time Winters	...	Homeless Man
Mary McDonnell	...	Liz
Jun Asai	...	Piano Prodigy

Storyline

Martin Bishop is the head of a group of experts who specialise in testing security systems. When he is blackmailed by Government agents into stealing a top secret black box, the team find themselves embroiled in a game of danger and intrigue. After they recover the box, they discover that it has the capability to decode all existing encryption systems around the world, and that the agents who hired them didn't work for the Government after all...

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Plot Keywords:

computer | encryption | cryptography | russia | scrabble | 

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Taglines:

A burglar, a spy, a fugitive, a delinquent, a hacker, and a piano teacher... and these are the good guys.

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for brief sexual references

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Russian Chinese

Release Date:

9 September 1992 (USA)

Also Known As:

Héroes por azar

Filming Locations:

2nd Street Tunnel between Hill and Figueroa, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Gross:

$51,433,000 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

126 min 118 min (Ontario)

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When Liz goes to the Dim Sum bar with Werner Brandes under the assumed name of Dorris, there is a group of singers singing the song "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" in Chinese. In the English version of the song, Leroy Brown gets in trouble over a girl named Dorris.

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Goofs

When Liz and Werner Brandes are dining in Chinatown late into the night, it is clearly getting light outside the window at one point, but then returns to being dark.

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Quotes

Cosmo: I cannot kill my friend.
[to his henchmen]
Cosmo: Kill my friend.

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Crazy Credits

The next several cast credits are seen only in normal spelling, but they each come and go letter by letter, as though each was being unscrambled from the one before.

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Connections

Referenced in Mr. Wonderful (1993)

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Soundtracks

"Waltz In E Minor"
Composed by Frédéric Chopin
Performed by Jun Asai

User Reviews

Interesting hacker movie for its time

Given that this came out in 1992, the level of technology in it is amazing. I watched this twice, the latest in 1999, and still am amazed at some of the things they can do with computers. Of course, some hacking techniques are commonplace and outdated now, but it is still engrossing to see these acts in action.

Watching it a second time gives you a sense of perspective though. Back then, to think that a chip that can control the world was preposterous, but now, with almost everything microchip-controlled, and the ubiquity of the Internet, that thought is not too farfetched.

Talking in movie terms, this ranks as one of the better ones that center around computers. There is some solid acting, and though there are sub-plots within the main plot, they do not grow so much so as to overwhelm the main storyline, which is basically a group of men hired to find the chip-that-controls-everything.