Movie Loner

Before The Matrix made Neo and Trinity household names there was Crash Override and Acid Burn, the hacker handles used by Jonny Lee Miller and a young Angelina Jolie. Hackers is a guilty pleasure for me; the script is thin, the acting over-the-top, and the cyber-geek characters a little too cool and little too perfect. That being said, the movie is loads of fun to watch.

Miller plays Dade Murphy, a teen wunderkind with a punkish wardrobe, who years before got busted by the Secret Service for writing a computer virus that crashed over 1000 systems in one day. Little Dade’s punishment resulted in his computer privileges being taken away until his 18th birthday. Well, you can’t keep a good hacker down, so Dade hooks up with a group of fellow cyber savants called the “elite.” Chief among them is Kate Libby (Jolie), a steely eyed vixen with a mean set of fingers. Naturally, Dade and Kate are immediately attracted to one another.

Things get serious when Dade and Co. uncover a dastardly plot by corporate pirates to steal money by unleashing a devastating virus. These nefarious villains are led by a security expert known as ‘The Plague’, a trenchcoat wearing, skateboard riding super-nerd joyously played by Fisher Stevens. With the Secret Service in hot pursuit, the gang of hackers try to bring down The Plague in an intense cyberspace duel where laptops are the weapons of choice.

Hackers was one of the first films to introduce the underground cyber counterculture. The story is somewhat implausible, but inventive graphics and a pounding electronic soundtrack make the movie wildly entertaining. Director Iain Softley injects the plot with large doses of cool, from tricky cinematography to cutting-edge costumes. Hackers doesn’t claim to be an authority on hacking protocol, it just tries to be fun. That’s where it succeeds.

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