Hackers (1995)

Hackers are blamed for making a virus that will capsize five oil tankers.

Director:

Iain Softley

Writer:

Rafael Moreu

Stars:

Jonny Lee Miller, Angelina Jolie, Jesse Bradford

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jonny Lee Miller	...	Dade
Angelina Jolie	...	Kate
Jesse Bradford	...	Joey
Matthew Lillard	...	Cereal
Laurence Mason	...	Nikon
Renoly Santiago	...	Phreak
Fisher Stevens	...	The Plague
Alberta Watson	...	Lauren Murphy
Darren Lee	...	Razor
Peter Y. Kim	...	Blade
Ethan Browne	...	Curtis
Lorraine Bracco	...	Margo
Wendell Pierce	...	Agent Dick Gill
Michael Gaston	...	Agent Bob
Marc Anthony	...	Agent Ray

Storyline

Dade Murphy was a hacker even as a kid in Seattle. He got arrested for the computer virus that he planted and was banned from using any computer until the age of 18.Then he moves to New York to meet a group of hackers. He also falls in love with Kate Libby.

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Plot Keywords:

computer virus | computer | cyberpunk | hacker | fight the system | 

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Taglines:

Boot up or shut up!

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some sexuality and brief strong language

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English Italian Japanese Russian

Release Date:

15 September 1995 (USA)

Also Known As:

Hakeri

Filming Locations:

Battery Park, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$20,000,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$7,564,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

United Artists, Suftley

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min

Sound Mix:

DTS-Stereo DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The bearded London hacker is Dave Stewart of Eurythmics.

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Goofs

When the pool on the roof "springs a leak", you hear a sound effect for an "impact" type sprinkler. This is the type you would use on your lawn or garden with the little arm that slaps back and forth to move the head, and they have a very distinct sound due to the way they operate. Fire sprinklers have fixed spray heads with no moving parts, and can not make that noise.

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Quotes

[Reading from "The Hackers' Manifesto."]
Agent Bob: "This is our world now. The world of the electron and the switch; the beauty of the baud. We exist without nationality, skin color, or religious bias. You wage wars, murder, cheat, lie to us and try to make us believe it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals. Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto." Huh? Right? Manifesto? "You may stop me, but you can't stop us all."

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Connections

References Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)

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Soundtracks

One Love
Written by Liam Howlett
Performed by The Prodigy (as Prodigy)
Courtesy of XL Recordings

User Reviews

Light hacker fantasy

Obviously this movie is not an academy award winner. So it's going to score or not score points solely based on entertainment value.

Here's why I rate it a 7...

* The music - a great soundtrack, if you enjoy the era and genre ( Prodigy being one of the coolest bands featured) * The characters - They are all fun - especially Cereal Killer and the phone phreak guy * A pretty hot Angelina Jolie * The dialog - Some of it is pretty amusing, if you don't take the movie seriously * The overall presentation - I enjoy the signs of the time; grunge music posters, early virtual reality, etc; I enjoy the attempts at portraying what goes on inside of a computer even though it's totally wrong * I enjoy the attempt of the movie to be technical. Especially amusing is the discussion of Kate's laptop..."It has a killer refresh rate", lol; You kind of have to laugh at such things; They get some things right though. Like calling the compiler design book the Dragon book...it was named that when I was in college

Obviously weak is the portrayal of computers and hacking. As a computer professional, I can still live with it. Movies rarely get any of this stuff right, so you just put up with these things.

The plot is quite weak. But what do you expect? It suffices as a vehicle for the situations, dialog and music.