Hackers (film)

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Hackers
Directed by Iain Softley
Written by Rafael Moreu
Starring Jonny Lee Miller
Angelina Jolie
Jesse Bradford
Matthew Lillard
Cinematography Andrzej Sekula
Distributed by MGM
Release date(s) September 15, 1995 (USA)
Running time 107 min.
Language English
IMDb profile
Ratings
Argentina:  13
Australia:  M
Denmark:  13
Germany:  12
Ireland:  15
Netherlands:  12
Singapore:  PG
Spain:  13
United Kingdom:  12
United States:  PG-13 (certificate #33561)

Hackers is a 1995 film that follows the misfortunes of the young hackers Dade Murphy ("Crash Override"/"Zero Cool", played by Jonny Lee Miller), Kate Libby ("Acid Burn", played by Angelina Jolie) and their friends. It was written by Rafael Moreu and directed by Iain Softley.

The movie failed to make a profit at the box-office, but has developed a cult following from its video release despite (or, in many cases, because of) egregious inaccuracies in its portrayal of hacking and hacker culture. Metaphorical and graphical sequences are used as a substitute for the real actions involved in hacking and systems administration.

It is the first major film to star future Academy Award-winner Angelina Jolie, and helped to launch the career of Matthew Lillard.

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In 1988, Seattle youth Dade "Zero Cool" Murphy (Jonny Lee Miller) is arrested and charged, at the age of 11, with crashing 1,507 systems in one day and causing a single-day 7-point drop in the New York Stock Exchange. Upon conviction, he is banned from owning or operating computers or touch-tone telephones until his 18th birthday.

Shortly before Dade turns 18, his mother (now divorced) takes a new job in New York City. Upon turning 18, Dade calls a local television station, dupes the security guard into giving him the modem's phone number (using a tactic known as social engineering) and successfully hacks into the station's computer network, changing the current television program to an episode of The Outer Limits. However, Dade is "attacked" by a hacker on the same network, (who goes by the handle "Acid Burn") and is eventually kicked off.

Dade enrolls in the prestigious Stuyvesant High School, where he meets the beautiful Kate Libby (Angelina Jolie), who is responsible for taking him on a tour of the school. After being told of a "pool on the roof" (which results in Dade and several other students being locked on the roof during a rainstorm) a feud erupts between Dade and Kate. This duel, which spans most of the movie, is umpired by Kate and Dade's mutual friends in the hacking community, Emmanuel Goldstein a.k.a. Cereal Killer, Ramon Sanchez a.k.a. Phantom Phreak, and Paul Cook a.k.a. Lord Nikon.

The real trouble erupts when Joey Pardella (Jesse Bradford), the younger, novice hacker of the group, successfully breaks into the supercomputer of a petroleum company, Ellingson Mineral Corporation, to prove to the rest of the clique that he is more than a mere script kiddie. In order to validate this feat, he downloads part of a garbage file. Unfortunately, the company's IT staff detect this unauthorized entry into their systems and summon computer security expert Eugene "The Plague" Belford (Fisher Stevens), himself a former hacker turned amoral corporate backstabber, to deal with the problem. After investigating the matter, however, The Plague realizes that the seemingly innocuous file that was downloaded is more than just a garbage file - he himself had been using it as an unsuspect location, from which he had been running an illegal program for years, stealing money from the company via salami slicing. Knowing a hacker would instantly recognize the tricks of the trade and his otherwise cleverly disguised handiwork, The Plague resolves to cover his tracks. He creates an insidious virus ("The DaVinci Virus") and installs it across Ellingson's entire network, then enlists the United States Secret Service to arrest Joey, dismantle his equipment and confiscate the file for him.

In order to "motivate" Ellingson and the Secret Service in this matter, The Plague's virus leaves a message: unless Ellingson allocates five million US dollars into a numbered bank account within a week, the virus will capsize a large portion of Ellingson's automated tanker fleet, causing a global ecological catastrophe. The full source code for the virus, The Plague claims, is located in the file, and he will need it in order to track down and fully disable the virus that Joey allegedly distributed throughout the system.

When the file is not found, however, due to some quick thinking on Joey's behalf, he is released pending a trial regarding the many other illegal wares discovered in his possession. He brings the file to Kate, Dade and the others in order to see what they make of it in light of his computer having been stripped by The Plague. In doing so, he unwittingly invites the Secret Service and the sinister and driven Mr. Belford to target them one-by-one through arrest, intimidation, and blackmail in an attempt to dissolve all the evidence of the millions upon millions of dollars The Plague has secretly embezzled over the years.

What follows is a frantic battle against The Plague and the Secret Service to exonerate the six friends and reveal the truth before Mr. Belford's program can complete its run, allowing him to disappear with the money and engage his virus, causing untold devastation and permanently erasing all evidence of his crimes.

[edit] Background

Hackers movie poster (Germany)
Enlarge
Hackers movie poster (Germany)

The protagonist, Zero Cool, is based on Robert Tappan Morris. The Phantom Phreak, a character in the film, may have gotten his name from an early hacker who wrote for Phrack magazine.

The name for the Phantom Phreak, may have also come from the fact that gaining access to employee only features and the manipulation of phone systems in general is called "phreaking". In addition, the Phantom Phreak refers to himself as "The King of NYNEX" when he introduces himself to the protagonist, a reference to the telephone company which served the New York City area at the time the movie was produced.

The film quotes the Hacker Manifesto (written by Loyd Blankenship, also known as The Mentor) from Phrack magazine, issue 07, file 03 in 1986. In the film, the character reading the manifesto was holding a copy of 2600 magazine, not Phrack. Also, the name of one character, Emmanuel Goldstein ("Cereal Killer"), is borrowed from the pseudonym of Eric Corley, one of the editors of 2600 (Corley got the name from George Orwell's 1984). Corley helped advise the filmmakers on the hacker subculture, but remains a critic of the film's accuracy.

The racing game briefly featured in the movie was a video prototype created during development of Wipe Out. The movie also includes a fictional television show called Hack the Planet.

[edit] Trivia

  • "Hack the Gibson" is a phrase used in the movie that refers to the hacking of a Gibson supercomputer, a fictional brand of supercomputer probably referring to science fiction author William Gibson, father of the cyberpunk genre and coiner of the term "cyberspace". It is used colloquially to impugn an achievement, particularly as regards to computers (for example, "Brian thought he was totally hacking the Gibson but ended up formatting his hard drive instead").
  • The real name of Matthew Lillard's character, Emmanuel Goldstein, is taken from George Orwell's novel 1984, which Goldstein mentions at one point during the movie; the fact is also alluded to in a dream sequence when an image of Agent Richard Gill tells The Phantom Phreak (also known as Ramon Sanchez) that "I'm watching you." Emmanuel Goldstein is also the pseudonym of Eric Corley, who was a technical consultant for the film. A copy of Corley's 2600 also appears briefly hanging on a wall during the movie.
  • When Eugene "The Plague" Belford, is on the plane near the end of the film, he uses the pseudonym "Mr. Babbage". This is a tribute to Charles Babbage, the inventor of the first finite state logic machine, a predecessor to the computer.
  • In the climax of the movie one of the characters displays a sign saying "trust your techno lust"; this line has become the closing phrase to the hacker show Hak.5.
  • The music soundtrack was released in 3 separate volumes over a number of years. The first volume was composed entirely of music featured in the film, while the second and third are a mix of music "inspired by the film" as well as music actually in the film. Among others, the song "Protection", by Massive Attack plays during the scene where Angelina Jolie's character is on a balcony during the party setting, and the song does not appear on any of the three soundtracks.
  • The name Lord Nikon in the movie was given because of the character's photographic memory.
  • Jonny Lee Miller was the first husband of actress Angelina Jolie.
  • The English tagline (Their Crime is Curiosity) is taken from a line of the Hacker Manifesto ("My crime is that of curiosity").
  • The handle Crash Override is taken from Flash Override, the highest priority level in the Autovon system.
  • Hacker Bill From RNOC, also known as Dave Buchwald, worked as a technical hacker consultant on set and behind the scenes, coaching the cast and assisting the crew during pre-production and filming.
  • From the DVD release booklet: "Hackers Hacked! When MGM/UA set up a website for Hackers, it was like dangling candy in front of a child. Soon after the site was established, it was hacked! A group calling itself the Internet Liberation Front managed to 'doodle' all over the photograph of Hackers stars Angelina Jolie and Jonny Lee Miller, and replaced verbiage, 'this is going to be an entertaining, fun promotional site for a movie,' with 'this is going to be a lame, cheesy promotional site for a movie!' The studio good-naturedly decided to maintain the site during the theatrical run of the movie in its altered form."

[edit] Technical

[edit] Soundtrack

Label: Edel America
Original Release Date: June 25th, 1996 (U.S.A.)

[edit] Tracks

  1. "Original Bedroom Rockers" by Kruder & Dorfmeister
  2. "Cowgirl" by Underworld
  3. "Voodoo People" by The Prodigy
  4. "Open Up" by Leftfield
  5. "Phoebus Apollo" by Carl Cox
  6. "The Joker" by Josh Abrahams
  7. "Halcyon & On & On" by Orbital
  8. "Communicate" (Headquake Hazy Cloud Mix) by Plastico
  9. "One Love" by The Prodigy
  10. "Connected" by Stereo MC's
  11. "Eyes, Lips, Body" (Mekon Vocal Mix) by Ramshackle
  12. "Good Grief" by Urban Dance Squad
  13. "Richest Junkie Still Alive" (Sank Remix) by Machines of Loving Grace
  14. "Heaven Knows" by Squeeze

[edit] Non released tracks

Some musical pieces were not released on the official soundtrack, but do make a significant impact on the movie, such as the 'worm hacking' scene and the music around and in Grand Central Station

  1. "Protection" by Massive Attack
  2. "Inspection Check One" by Leftfield
  3. "Original" by Leftfield
  4. "Combination" (suggested title) by Guy Pratt
  5. "Grand Central Station" (suggested title) by Guy Pratt
  6. "Real Wild Child" (Wild One) by Iggy Pop, this song is sung by Joey under the shower

[edit] External links

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