I unironically think the depictions of hacking and found family make this one of the best "computer" films, even if the actual computers are laughably bad.

For the 20th anniversary we had a big party with rollerblades and wipeout and a laser-etched plexi Gibson. This year I'm hoping to see the 4K re-release in a real theater and hack the planet with fellow nerds.
posted by autopilot at 9:04 AM on September 15 [9 favorites]

When Cereal Killer launched his social platform in 2002, I was really excited about it. But then it turned into a haven for right-wing extremists. When he endorsed Trump in 2016, I deleted my account and never looked back. And Zero Cool's moon-surface glamping resorts turned out to be a just a big Ponzi scheme. I stopped reading about Acid Burn after her third divorce from Elon Musk. The only one of these guys I really liked was Phantom Phreak, but then his submersible imploded and killed all those boy scouts.
posted by PlusDistance at 9:16 AM on September 15 [22 favorites]

I tried to watch Mr. The Plague's Bass Boating for Jesus after he got out of the can, but Evangelical Christianity and Fishing just doesn't work for me. I mean, pick one or t'other, man. The fish don't care and the Bible thumping scares them away.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 9:41 AM on September 15 [3 favorites]

> When Cereal Killer launched his social platform in 2002 [...]

Ow, right in the wistful nostalgia >_<
posted by postcommunism at 9:42 AM on September 15 [2 favorites]

Personally, I stopped watching after Razor and Blade took their anthem too literal and tried releasing sulfur dioxide aerosols into the stratosphere as a promo stunt. The acid rain that caused in Bogot¨¢ might as well have been an "Acid Burn!"
posted by pwnguin at 9:49 AM on September 15

I've never seen this movie. I just remember that when the commercial for it ran on TV back in 1995, my girlfriend at the time and I would both involuntarily stop whatever we were doing and stare at Angelina Jolie.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 10:18 AM on September 15 [8 favorites]

my girlfriend at the time and I would both involuntarily stop whatever we were doing and stare at Angelina Jolie.

I feel like this is the correct reaction.
posted by symbioid at 10:22 AM on September 15 [13 favorites]

Well that explains it popping to the top of my streaming recommendations this morning. And because I had two hours to kill on the bus I went ahead and watched it again. It's a great silly movie and I love it and its music unironically.

Also it's my head cannon that Wendell Pierce's character got put in Witness Protection after this movie (afterall he was already dead) and found himself a cop in Baltimore and hence The Wire takes place in the Hackers universe.
posted by Mitheral at 11:03 AM on September 15 [5 favorites]

Also in the news at the BBC: Hackers hacking cargo ships is on the rise.

I watched this film on VHS shortly after it became available, at a party with my BBS crew -- who were "hackers" in as much as any BBS people were hackers in the 1990s -- and enjoyed ourselves, but it was not influential enough for any of us to adopt the hacker wardrobes, mannerisms, or language found in the film.
posted by AzraelBrown at 11:28 AM on September 15

It's a pity my monitor won't project the text from this post onto my face as I read it.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:20 PM on September 15 [13 favorites]

This is coming from vague memories of a time that I am so entirely divorced from that I have a hard time reconciling the 20-something year old with me today, but when that movie hit I was pretty active on IRC and #hack channels, mostly ones frequented by kids in universities in Pennsylvania and New York (anyone else know 0phie?), plus some time on undernet and, of course, alt.2600 usenet nonsense. I was living on the outskirts of the Bay Area, working phone support for a fascinatingly boring product, so I had tons of time to be online and hang out and learn how to be a better hacker.

Anyhow. At the time the rumor was that some of the NYC 2600 crew were actually consultants for this movie about hackers, and they were actively screwing with the memetics and lingo, coming on to IRC and getting some really hilarious suggestions about what to say to the clueless idiots who were manning the helm of that film. Now, was any of that true? Did Phiber Optik or any of MoD actually do anything with the movie? Who knows. I mean, someone knows. I've told people over the years that, yes, before the weird wars between Texas and New York, before we all got busted a thousand ways, before fame was important, some kids screwed with a major Hollywood picture, and you don't have to look any further than some of the Easter eggs in the dialog and character names. Yeah it was not an accurate movie about the hacking scene but 1) what would a good movie about hacking in the 90s look like and 2) it had the manifesto, it had a shedload of hidden references to the scene, and it was campy stupid fun. Plus the cast was attractive and funny, and the graphics were bonkers. Stupid and wrong, but bonkers.

Saw it in the theater when it came out. Loved to rag on it, but never missed an opportunity to see it. I sometimes miss those days.
posted by blixco at 12:37 PM on September 15 [12 favorites]

plus some time on undernet

Oh, wow. That takes me back. I spent waaaaaay too much time on IRC as a teen up through undergrad. Mostly undernet.

I installed weechat a year or two ago and found out the most active server is liberia, but it looked mostly dead from the channels I tried. So did undernet and efnet.

Maybe I should give IRC another go. And also grab a bluray of Hackers and add it to the media pile.
posted by howbigisthistextfield at 1:17 PM on September 15

Hacking the Gibson will never not be funny
posted by kokaku at 1:28 PM on September 15 [8 favorites]

I thought Hackers was so cool, despite its cheesiness. I think it's probably also where I developed a crush on Angelina Jolie.

I haven't watched it in years, but I bet I'd still enjoy it.
posted by asnider at 3:06 PM on September 15

having the password for the ultra secure banking computer be 'GOD' which then got printed in flashing 4000 point font in the secret corp lair made me guffaw.
posted by Sebmojo at 3:45 PM on September 15

having the password for the ultra secure banking computer be 'GOD' which then got printed in flashing 4000 point font in the secret corp lair made me guffaw.

If only we could get the C-level execs to use such a secure password.

Anyway. I absolutely love this movie. It's a picture of a really cool scene that never truly existed, but really, really should have. It's corny as hell. The tech is all wrong. I don't care. Johnny Lee Miller should have gotten a spot in The Matrix.
posted by mrgoat at 4:40 PM on September 15 [3 favorites]

The 25th anniversary version of the soundtrack on Var¨¨se Sarabande is well worth checking out if you can find a copy. It turns out there's a good reason that some of the guitar solos sound a lot like David Gilmour.
posted by offog at 4:59 PM on September 15 [2 favorites]

This will always be one of my favorite movies, and watching it in the background right now, I'm struck again by how explicitly good it is. Not as a movie-- although of course it is-- but ethically. One of the first scenes has Zero Cool interrupting a racist, fascist broadcast (the tape he interrupts is labelled "AMERICA FIRST"). They're fighting the man and trying to avert an environmental catastrophe. None of the hackers are giving each other shit about their ethnicity or gender presentation. They're not working for personal gain. The heroes are intensely wholesome, and they get to be so fucking cool doing it. Despite Mister The Plague's declaration, evil looks boring. Good is fun.

It's a good movie, y'all.
posted by phooky at 6:40 PM on September 15 [14 favorites]

(Also I love the signifiers they use to tar The Plague as An Old. He's playing a VR game about gunslingers! He's still riding a skateboard! Old people shit!)
posted by phooky at 6:43 PM on September 15 [2 favorites]

As soon as Halycon came on I knew I was gonna love this movie. I was a tracker music-making kid who learned about things from CompuServe and Future Music magazine. It felt amazing to believe that there was a "scene" I could join one day. Even if it never really existed.

Glad it didn't attempt accuracy. It's hyperreal - that's why phrases like "Die like the rest," "I is here," "Hack the planet," characters like Razor and Blade, the Phantom Phreak, and everything else actually *don't* come across as cringe, they age GREAT.

This continues to be one of the movies I reach for when I need a pick-me-up, and man does it always deliver. Respect!!
posted by mathjus at 7:24 PM on September 15 [5 favorites]

I talked my former 90s hacker, slightly film snobbish partner into watching this, arguing that it was critical cultural material. He was certainly critical. And then a few days later this xkcd was published, and my argument was fully vindicated.
posted by EvaDestruction at 9:37 PM on September 15 [2 favorites]

My sexuality: Hackers. Glad I'm not the only one.

It's still one of my all-time favorites, for so many reasons.
posted by limeonaire at 9:48 PM on September 15 [6 favorites]

The only thing about this movie that I really dislike is the way Kate is made to wear a dress and then told that she looks great.
posted by Too-Ticky at 12:28 AM on September 16 [2 favorites]

I am a GenXer, the right age for when this movie came out, early 20s, but when it was in theaters I just never caught it. Actually, I probably thought it was aimed more at young teens so skipped it.

So a few years ago I gave Hackers a shot. Unfortunately the viewing was not successful; DNF. I can totally see watching it with a group of (drunken) friends, MST3K style, but watching alone with a critical eye was doomed from the start.
posted by zardoz at 5:38 AM on September 16

Eponysterical, zardoz
posted by clew at 8:48 AM on September 16 [2 favorites]

I feel like if my kid self who loved this movie and also loved the beginning of The Matrix showing Neo's apartment would approve of how I turned out. My current place has more light for the house plants, but it's the same vibe.

I like who I am.
posted by AlSweigart at 12:38 PM on September 16 [2 favorites]

For more 90s cyberculture nostalgia, I always recommend people take about 15 or 20 minutes to read the comic, The Guy I Almost Was by Patrick S. Farley. (Note that the https site won't load the images, you have to view it through http.)
posted by AlSweigart at 12:41 PM on September 16 [6 favorites]

Well, if it isn't Leopard Boy...and the Decepticons.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 2:18 PM on September 16 [3 favorites]

So a few years ago I gave Hackers a shot. Unfortunately the viewing was not successful; DNF. I can totally see watching it with a group of (drunken) friends, MST3K style, but watching alone with a critical eye was doomed from the start.

i saw it for the first time last week and yeah it's terrible, but the fun kind of terrible. music and fashion and design is great though.

i love how all the scenes are shot with a spotlight shining on their faces.
posted by Sebmojo at 6:30 PM on September 16 [1 favorite]

> The Guy I Almost Was by Patrick S. Farley.

Hah, I was looking for that comic everywhere a few weeks ago and could not for the life of me remember the title. Thank you for posting it!
posted by postcommunism at 5:43 AM on September 17 [1 favorite]

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