It brings me great joy to see what Hollywood thinks they can get away with when it comes to computer hacking. Usually in the movie the hacker is using some beyond versatile software that allows him or her to easily turn off the city’s power grid or change traffic signals with either a click of a button or a few easy key strokes. Granted, Hollywood has to do this because computer illiterate viewers may not be able to keep up with what’s going on if they aren’t given something easy to follow. Plus, watching someone type out everything via command line could kill the pace of the movie and frankly is not very exciting or compelling to watch. Conversely, there are the times when the hacking is so over the top that you simply can’t turn away from the absurdity. With that said, here’s a retrospective of hacking in film.
Hackers
May very well be the poster child of hacking in movies. While certainly not the first movie to introduce hacking into film, it’s clearly one of the most unique and may be the only film to use viruses as weapons (as shown in the clip below) in a type of digital warfare complete with red cubes flying at the system core to show the amount of damage being done. And let’s not forget the lightning sparking from the servers to illustrate how much they’re being overloaded. From viruses like the “cookie monster” and “Da Vinci” to digital eye patches to flying through a computer system (literally) ”Hackers’ has shown that Hollywood can be completely ignorant on a subject and yet still make it extremely campy and fun.
“HACK THE PLANET!!!”
The Net
‘The Net’ showed audiences how easily Hollywood thinks hacking can allow someone to take over your identity. Sandra Bullock plays an computer analyst who stumbles upon “something she shouldn’t have seen”. From there a group of hackers replaces her identity while simultaneously wreaking havoc and killing anybody in their way by any indirect means possible, such as replacing medical charts that list someone as a diabetic when they’re taken to the ER.
War Games
Look how much fun hacking is!
Got a failing grade in high school? Don’t worry, hacking can fix that, as demonstrated by a young Matthew Broderick in only his second major film role. After changing his grade for the better, Broderick’s character David Lightman decides to get himself some free games by dialing every computer in Sunnyvale, California. Lightman finds a system that doesn’t respond to his pinging and after typing in a few commands leads him to a list of seemingly harmless games. The list of games continue until Lightman finds one he can’t easily access. By getting some help from a fellow hacker Lightman is able to use the “backdoor password” which of course is something as simple to guess as a name, Joshua in this case, and starts a game of “Global Thermonuclear War”. Fun for him behind the computer, not so fun for military officials shitting their pants at NORAD.
The Thirteenth Floor
Talk about bad timing. This virtual reality narrative came out barely two months after ‘The Matrix’ where people had already been wowed by the consequences of taking the red pill. The film was not received well by critics and tanked at the box office, not even being able to make up for its $12 million production budget. But it did offer up one unique item in our lineup: hacking into other people to control their bodies. Sounds similar to the upcoming Nevaldine/Taylor flick Gamer.
Live Free or Die Hard
“It’s called a fire sale because everything must go.” Based on a Wired article, A Farewell to Arms, the fourth movie in the ‘Die Hard’ franchise shows off what happens when hacking is put into the hands of a vengeful security adviser. Press that delete button and you’re entire house is going up in flames. Got a pension plan coming up? Gone. Essentially everything that’s powered by electricity is hackable and let’s not forget the underground cell networks and Kevin Smith’s “Command Center”.
Enemy of the State
Goodbye privacy. A reimagining of ‘The Conversation’ (1974) and similar to ‘Live Free or Die Hard’, the Will Smith thriller exhibits the repercussions of not having Big Brother on your side. While not as ridiculous as ‘Live Free’, it’s pretty close with the inclusion of cameras who’s feeds can be tapped into regardless of their location along with an all powerful satellite that can find you the second you step outside.
The Italian Job
This marks Seth Green’s second foray into hacking, initially seen as a government operative in ‘Enemy of the State’. The remake of the 1969 film features an all tech upgrade with Green, who demands to be called “Napster” claiming that he was the original developer of the file sharing software, as the computer ninja who can do whatever asked no matter how ridiculous. Napster’s hacking software is so advanced it makes Wolfram Alpha look like a child’s toy. Not only can he change traffic signals at will, which is easy as we’ve seen from ‘Hackers’ and ‘Live Free or Die Hard’ but he can actually compare the height three different trucks are off the ground based on data given via video feed. Impressive.
The Lawnmower Man
I'm pure energy!
Coming out during the virtual reality craze in the mid 1990s ‘Lawnmower Man’ doesn’t showcase hacking in the traditional sense. Jobe, the lawnmower man, gets a nice upgrade going from being mentally retarded to pure energy in a computer mainframe. His powers before merging with the mainframe include telekinesis, having mind blowing (literally) cyber sex and torturing young children with lawnmowers in their brains. Post pure energy upgrade, Jobe is able to make all the phones in the world ring simultaneously to signal his rebirth. Below is a clip of how the director envisioned people having cyber sex.
Ghost in the Machine
Similar to ‘Lawnmower Man’, ‘Ghost’ uses the pure energy principle of hacking. When serial killer Karl Hochman is placed in an MRI machine, after being nearly killed by a head-on collision with a truck, a surge caused by an electrical storm causes his consciousness to be transferred into a computer. From there he uses anything electrical at his disposal to take out his victims.
Mission Impossible
The first ‘Mission Impossible’ has one of the most elaborate hacks on this list. Initially we have Emilio Estevez as computer guru for the IMF team lead by Ethan Hunt. Unfortunately Estevez’s character isn’t a good enough hacker to stop the elevator from driving him head first into the ceiling (what the hell were those spike things that came down right before he hit them?). Taking Estevez’s place is disavowed intelligence agent Luther Stickwell played by Ving Rhames. Coupled with another disavowed agent, the team is able to penetrate and hack the CIA.
23
Inspired by a true story, the 1998 German film follows a young hacker named Karl Koch who has an obsession with the number 23 and a curiosity in conspiracy theories that drives him and fellow student David to hack into the global data network. From there, their belief in social injustice pushes them into performing espionage for the KGB. Under the pressure of the KGB, Karl eventually falls prey to cocaine addiction staying awake for days in front of the computer.
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Tags: Hacking
