the hackers movie im the keyboard cowboy

He falls in with a cartoonish band of hackers that includes an incredibly annoying Matthew Lillard ( Scooby Doo), a multi-racial pack of weirdos, and a very young Angelina Jolie as Kate, AKA “Acid Burn,” resplendent in pleather, hideous magenta eye-shadow and a pixie hairdo. Jumping ahead to 1995, we find that the kid is now a hacker nicknamed “Crash Override” (Jonny Lee Miller, then fresh off Trainspotting), a high school senior at a new school following his parents’ divorce.

An 11-year-old computer genius wrote a virus (on his Tandy 1000 TL, no doubt) that took down 1,500 networks in one day, resulting in a $45,000 fine and probation, including a prohibition on using computers or a touch-tone phone until his 18th birthday. Here’s what we have to work with: When the film opens, we’re in a scene that took place seven years prior. It’s more of a “how done it” than a “who,” but it manages to be amusing at times. The plot is pretty straightforward, and we don’t have to worry about spoilers, since every plot point arrives like a freight train, announcing itself from a long way off, and you’ll know who the villains are the second you see them. Approach it as if it were a Sharknado movie and you’ll have a great time with it.

And so it is with Hackers, now enjoying its first Blu-Ray release to commemorate its 20th anniversary.Įqual parts time capsule and cheese fest, Hackers mixes a compelling cyber-heist caper plot with ridiculous computer graphics, bizarre hacker parties, large-screen video game battles, and some of the most ill-advised fashion choices ever committed to film.

Twenty years later, when our phones have more processing power than any computer from that era, once-serious films about technology can become unintentionally hilarious. In 1995, the internet was still exotic and movies about computer hackers were starting to become a thing.

The hackers movie im the keyboard cowboy