A list of movies about hacking

https://github.com/k4m4/movies-for-hackers

by lucianosousa • 9 years ago

75 78 9 years ago

github.com

hprotagonist2• 9 years ago

No Real Genius? Shame.

krylon• 9 years ago

That movie was awesome!

andrei_says_• 9 years ago

It would be nice to include Black Mirror as most of the show's plots revolve around the social influence of advanced technology.

Not a movie but definitely required viewing.

sengork2• 9 years ago

No Mr. Robot?

JonRB• 9 years ago

I haven't seen enough of the titles on the list to know if any of them are series, but AFAIK this is only a list of movies.

sengork2• 9 years ago

That page ought to have a list of TV series in addition to Mr. Robot: X-Files and more so its spinoff show https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lone_Gunmen

deedubaya2• 9 years ago

Mr. Robot is the first "hacker" show I've watched that didn't have a single cringe moment when it comes to the "hacking".

DanielleMolloy• 9 years ago

Also check out the AI / Cognitive Science Movie Index by Indiana University:

https://www.indiana.edu/~cogfilms/index.php

Black Mirror is missing here too, unfortunately. Several episodes revolve quite intelligently around AI, dystopian technological future, cognitive science.

prions2• 9 years ago

Seeing this list inspired me to write about the list I keep for the books I read, many of them cyberpunk/scifi. After reading so many of these types of books, you can't help notice their elements in other media.

It's interesting in seeing the print inspirations for many of these movies. The term "The Matrix" was first coined in William Gibson's Neuromancer and considered to be the seminal Cyberpunk novel, even predating Ghost in the Shell.

Definitely a must read for any Cyberpunk fan!

virtualwhys• 9 years ago

Just read Neuromancer this summer. One of the benefits of renting random people's places are the libraries you run across; that was a great read (though somehow disturbing, mystical/mind blowing, and hollow inducing all at the same time).

prions2• 9 years ago

The two other books in the series (Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive) are both great as well, but I found that the first had the most magic.

In the same vein, Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson is great as well. Its essentially a parody of cyberpunk but hilariously well written.

lakkal2• 9 years ago

You might like Vernor Vinge's 'True Names', too. There was a PDF of the story on the web a while back; I'm not sure of its legality so I won't link to it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Names

MichaelGG• 9 years ago

And for newer stuff, Richard K Morgan's Altered Carbon (2003) and 2 sequels really hit the spot. It's hard to find good gritty cyberpunk these days.

And it's not that old works are bad, just that some of the tech misses distract and take you out of the atmosphere sometimes. Like on Star Trek, when they have to physically deliver email to people on holodiscs.

I'd also note that Asimov's Robot series are great if you like hardboiled type stuff - not cyberpunk, but has a slightly similar ambiance.

hprotagonist2• 9 years ago

meanwhile, i'm waiting for my damn smartwheels and knight visions over here. These sumerian wizards aren't going to defeat themselves, you know!

CalChris• 9 years ago

I'm 0 for Thrillers on this list and only 2 for SciFi. So my word is suspect. But still, I would recommend startup.com for the documentaries.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0256408/

I'd also recommend 2001, Repo Man, Dark Star and They Live on general principles.

ucaetano• 9 years ago

I'm sure this thread will go to the summaries:

http://n-gate.com/hackernews/

"An internet posts a 'movies for hackers' list on Git instead of using other reasonable publishing services as any human being. Hackernews spend hours complaining about how their favorite obscure movie that nobody knows or cares about wasn't included in the list"

pcmaffey• 9 years ago

Would be awesome to use InstantWatcher to show a link (if exists) to stream on Netflix or Amazon, etc.

And not a movie, but Halt and Catch Fire should be on there somewhere...

mayoff• 9 years ago

What makes a movie “must watch” for “every hacker and cyberpunk”?

Two criteria come to my mind:

- The movie is likely to teach you something that will make you a better “hacker” or “cyberpunk”.

- The movie depicts what it's actually like to be a “hacker” or “cyberpunk”.

Now, which of the movies on this list are going to do either of those? Probably some of the documentaries, and probably almost none of the fictions.

lmm• 9 years ago

Cyberpunk is a culture, a style and an attitude as much as a skillset. Fiction can convey these things, sometimes better than truth can.

nabla9• 9 years ago

cypherpunk vs. cyberpunk

cypherpunk: hacking, computing cryptography and related culture.

cyberpunk: subgenre of science fiction and related subculture.

fizixer• 9 years ago

Needs 'Triumph of the Nerds' in documentaries, and 'Pirates of Silicon Valley' needs to move to any of the film sections (it's not a documentary).

CobrastanJorji2• 9 years ago

This doesn't appear to be so much a curated list of much-watch movies so much as a list of all movies about hacking ever.

Here is my curated list of movies ever hacker and cyberpunk enthusiast must watch:

* Sneakers

* Ghost in the Shell

* Tron

Why is Tron there? Because the screenwriter loosely based the character around her husband. Who was her husband? Alan Kay. Tron's protagonist is Alan Kay.

bdrool• 9 years ago

For reference:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0531381/bio

sbuttgereit2• 9 years ago

I think WarGames really should be on the list. It's old, yes, but it did influence a lot of us that were in that first generation of kids growing up with computers at home (though not many homes). It definitely captures a moment of time worth thinking about.

My two bits. (I very much agree with Tron.)

nickpsecurity2• 9 years ago

Definitely. It was one of my early influences for looking into both AI and information security.

nickpsecurity2• 9 years ago

Blackhat should probably be on there for being about only one to get hacking right in recent times.

"Because the screenwriter loosely based the character around her husband. Who was her husband? Alan Kay. Tron's protagonist is Alan Kay."

Had no clue his wife wrote it or portrayed him. That's neat! Brings in some irony given Tron character is fighting the slavery of MCP but Kay told me here on HN he loved Burroughs B5000. Also implied its lead creator, Bob Barton, was a genius and revolutionary overturning all the bad software, hardware, and engineering that came before it in one fell swoop. As in, the movie could've just as easily had MCP as the hero. ;)

protomyth• 9 years ago

Sneakers is such a great movie, particularly the scene using sounds heard to track the route of a vehicle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuIheGaiFLM

Obviously watch the whole movie, but the clip gives the gist of the high quality of the script.

twic2• 9 years ago

I'm very pleased to see a comment repping Sneakers on the top of the pile. A highly underrated true hacker classic!

Ghost in the Shell rather than Patlabor?

CobrastanJorji2• 9 years ago

I've never seen Patlabor. Sounds like I should.

And Sneakers, asides from the magic, encryption-breaking MacGuffin, is some of the most realistic hacking in movies. What's the preferred tactic of these tech geniuses? Basic social engineering. Sure, they know a lot of other tricks, but why figure out a clever way through the badge system if a cake and some birthday balloons will work just as well?

bluejekyll2• 9 years ago

D.A.R.Y.L.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088979/

robteix• 9 years ago

As a young nerdy kid, this movie had such an impact on my at the time I saw it. I pretended I was a robot for months afterwards :)

bluejekyll2• 9 years ago

And the SR71 makes an appearance. This movie still inspires me. Reminds me, I should show it to my son... is 5 too young?

ourmandave• 9 years ago

Aw, I'm a hackerpunk so only 1/2 are watchable. I just don't know which half.

anton_tarasenko• 9 years ago

I found many must-see movies on these lists:

1. Directors Guild of America's The 80 Best-Directed Films: http://www.dga.org/Craft/DGAQ/All-Articles/1602-Spring-2016/...

2. TSPDT's The 1,000 Greatest Films: http://www.theyshootpictures.com/gf1000_all1000films_table.p...

They aren't about hackers, for sure. But these two lists are more diverse than IMDb 250.

Try movies from the 60s and 70s on these lists. Lots of gems among them.

ganfortran2• 9 years ago

No AKIRA? I thought this one is pretty acclaimed, and frequently hailed as a cyberpunk classic

blacksmith_tb• 9 years ago

The plot doesn't really have much to do with computers? It was perhaps the first anime to make a splash in the US, and it is worth seeing, but I don't think I'd use "hacker" or "cyberpunk" to describe it.

ganfortran2• 9 years ago

Well, Blade Runner or Inception are no different.

ekianjo2• 9 years ago

yeah same reaction here.

andrewclunn• 9 years ago

Or you can just watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEkrWRHCDQU

ekianjo2• 9 years ago

The social network is nothIng for hackers. Most of the facts and characters are in reality not as portrayed. And itS one of the weakest movies of Fincher.

deedubaya2• 9 years ago

But.... he's plugged in!

xyzzy4• 9 years ago

Missing Elysium and Children of Men.

pmoriarty2• 9 years ago

Children of Men was awful, and it had nothing to do with hacking or cyberpunk, from what I remember.

extra88• 9 years ago

Are you talking about the book? My wife read it and said it wasn't very good. The movie was great but I wouldn't call its gritty, near-future dystopian setting very cyberpunk either. Cyberpunk is generally "high tech, low life" but 'Children of Men' doesn't really have high tech. 'Minority Report' is more cyberpunk than 'Children of Men' (but still not that cyberpunk).

AnimalMuppet• 9 years ago

Off topic: Does anyone else get annoyed at bossy articles telling them what they must watch, or must read, or must do?

I know it's just an expression, but it bugs me...

SubiculumCode• 9 years ago

That is like 80% of huff post articles.

sbuttgereit2• 9 years ago

What bugs me has to do with the authors claiming their lists are "curated" when really all they've done is collect or list.

Curation indicates that there is a selectivity involved. That is not evident with this list, that or they're using a pretty un-obvious criteria.

(note the original title of the story indicated that this was a "curated list", and the actual repo still contains that language).

moomin• 9 years ago

Needs "The Conversation". A near perfect movie about surveillance, that doesn't feature a single computer.

mcphage• 9 years ago

It has "Enemy of the State", its spiritual sequel (with Gene Hackman playing an almost identical character). But I agree, The Conversation should be on there, too; I have to admit it's a better movie, even though I love Will Smith.

gordon_freeman2• 9 years ago

Not for the hacker or cyberpunk genre but I do think that 'Primer' needs to be in this list. Haven't seen more realistic time travel movie than this yet.

c22• 9 years ago

It's also a great engineering movie.

justinclift• 9 years ago

"Realistic time travel" movie?

ringshall• 9 years ago

The forward-only time machine in Futurama is probably the only paradox-free time travel premise that's possible. Even that had a giant plot hole re: the motion of the planet, solar system, etc.

gordon_freeman2• 9 years ago

there's a paradox here somewhere. ;)

lowglow• 9 years ago

My personal favorite:

"Hackers - Wizards of the Electronics Age" Starring a bunch of old school programmers/hackers!

Magnificently produced by Fabrice Florin -http://fabriceflorin.com/

Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOP1LNr70aU

csours• 9 years ago

I'd love to see earlier movies on this list, ie The Conversation (1974) [1]

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Conversation

nebulous1• 9 years ago

Some of these films are extremely bad, and that's not limited to the ones with low imdb scores. This list is in serious need of pruning.

nhebb• 9 years ago

Dot was a pretty good comedy that didn't get enough attention: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0371647/

It's on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/8919323

oblio2• 9 years ago

I'm going to go against the grain and say: don't watch these.

Or rather, don't prioritize watching these. Try to balance out movies and books related to your profession or hobby with those outside of it.

The world already has enough stereotypical geeks loving Ghost in the Shell, Star Wars and Star Trek, it needs more geeks having an interest in what "regular people" do and like.

GalacticCmdr• 9 years ago

That is rather offensively narrow-minded to think that "regular people" don't also enjoy those those movies. That simply having a job or hobby related to STEM somehow does not make you a regular person.

oblio2• 9 years ago

I'm not saying regular people don't enjoy these. I'm saying that people in our field have a rather unhealthy fascination with a rather narrow set of topics.

Instead of having a laser focus even for our hobbies I'd advocate a wider range of hobbies.

taneq• 9 years ago

You don't know any actual "regular people", do you? (Edit: I don't mean to put your friends down, I just mean that the people you know are probably smart, interesting people, sadly unlike a large portion of humanity.) I don't mean 'person working outside of tech'. I mean the kind of people who think Big Bang Theory is 'a show for smart people'.

Most of the world is like this. It's terrifying.

duskwuff• 9 years ago

Not to mention, a lot of these movies are awful. For instance, the first movie on the list is, inexplicably, "WarGames: The Dead Code". Not the classic "WarGames", but a horrible direct-to-video sequel released in 2008.

Animats• 9 years ago

Yes, "WarGames: The Dead Code" is indeed awful.

pmoriarty2• 9 years ago

For cyberpunk, I'd add:

- Tetsuo: The Iron Man

- Videodrome

Eric_WVGG• 9 years ago

I was very pleased to see The Italian Job make the list.

Hacking is about understanding, optimizing, and manipulating systems. One real-world analogue of a system is a Rube Goldberg machine; the dramatic analogue of a Rube Goldberg machine is a heist flick.

I'd add the Ocean's Eleven remake as an approachable introduction to the genre, and Kubrick's The Killing for vintage noir awesomeness. And maybe The Last Seduction as a curveball.

johnhattan• 9 years ago

Jeez, some of those movies are dreadful, and there's almost nothing on the list from before 1990.

1954 - Gog (robots that look like robots and not people in metal suits)

1957 - Desk Set (non-stupid treadment of an early computer)

1970 - Colossus : The Forbin Project (how is this not in there)

1971 - How to Frame a Figg (silly, but it's got a computer hacker)

1975 - Three Days of the Condor

1990 - The KGB, the Computer, and Me (PBS doc about "The Cuckoo's Egg")

dezzeus• 9 years ago

This list should have been posted weeks ago, when the StackOverflow's 2017 survey asked us about fictional characters and I wasn't able to recall any particular title...

artur_makly• 9 years ago

ok THIS was my #1 80s TV show growing up : Autoaman

http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0084978/

Can i get an amen please?!

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

prophesi• 9 years ago

It'd be nice if you could order by column. At least let the default order be by rating or alphabetical, instead of none whatsoever?

agentgt• 9 years ago

For action I would add Equilibrium (it has a cyberpunk feel to it) as well as the other movie he director did that I can't recall.

Also Existenz which has a female programmer and predates the Matrix and Inception.

Nexxxeh• 9 years ago

If you're adding (the excellent) Equilibrium, I'd say V for Vendetta too due to its influence on "Anonymous". And Fight Club because of what their end goal is.

That said, I can still remember seeing eXistenZ in the cinema:

Death to the demoness, Allegra Geller.

jack9• 9 years ago

This is a trash list. Live Free Die Hard is on there, because Kevin Smith? SMH

harry8• 9 years ago

Here's my list of must watch movies for actual hackers:

(list)

contingencies• 9 years ago

THX 1138 + GATTACA + The Element of Crime

donclark• 9 years ago

Its on the list, one of my favorites from last year. ZERO DAYS (2016) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VgIayOpjEc http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5446858/ https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/zero_days

lakkal2• 9 years ago

I think 'Real Genius' deserves a place on the list. Actual hacking is only a small part of the plot, but the rest of the movie fits the mindset well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Genius

A list of movies about hacking

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