Hackers at 30

Our only crime was curiosity…

I’m not sure of the exact date, but it was the fall of my 8th grade year in 1995. There were maybe four or five of us out on a Friday night. Tickets were cheap enough that we could go in without caring much ahead of time which movie we saw… the only real currency that mattered to us was time, and even that felt endless at that age. I only remember two things clearly about that night: the film was “Hackers,” and my friends thought I was one (no, I didn’t correct them). Beyond that night, however, the film stuck with me in ways very few films have.

On this 30th anniversary of “Hackers” release I want to share some thoughts about the film (in no particular order)…

The Cast…

”Hackers” followed in the long tradition of 20-somethings portraying high school students. But the ensemble just worked: Jonny Lee Miller (23 at time of filming), Angelina Jolie (20), Matthew Lillard¹ (25), Laurence Mason (25/26), Renoly Santiago (21), and Jesse Bradford (bucking the trend at 16). Darren Lee and Peter Kim are perfect as the eccentric TV hosts Razor and Blade. Throw in Fischer Stevens and Lorraine Bracco as the villains and Penn Jillette as a sysadmin with one of the best earrings ever. It’s just great. And the whole cast would still be perfect if they were to pick up with the same characters in 2025. And let’s be honest, Joey would be the villain as a tech bro running some VC-funded AI company.² I mean, just look at them now(ish):

That soundtrack…

The techno soundtrack introduced me to Underworld, Orbital, The Prodigy (RIP Keith Flint), Machines of Loving Grace, and Carl Cox. (It’s still a crime that “Connection” by Elastica was prominent in the TV trailers but conspicuously absent from the film and soundtrack.) I was already enjoying electronica and this soundtrack further cemented the expansive genre into my musical collection. So much so that I would eventually buy the 2nd and 3rd “soundtracks,” which still did not include “Connection” by Elastica.

The tech…

Computers were about to be cool in ways never before seen and never (yet) to be repeated).The bondi blue iMac would debut in 4 years and the wave of translucent casing in electronics was strong. We never quite got the face-projecting laptop screens, but computers were about to be more portable and connected in new ways. They were insanely great with a 28.8 kbps modem³. I never did hack a mainframe in a spinning phone booth, but grabbing a long phone cord and sitting on the couch to dial into the Internet felt magical a few years later.

The silly fun…

From the same era of ”The Net” and “Lawnmower Man”, ”Hackers” stood out. It wasn’t trying to be anything more than a fun story. It took pains to be credible by referencing books, lingo, literary characters, and Jolt cola and at the same time throws that credibility out the window with, well… everything else, including robotic arms fighting over tapes in a TV station machine room.

The optimism…

For all its quirks and inaccuracies, the story was still somehow optimistic. Ragtag nerds and geeks who were somehow cool were curious and wanted to learn more about this new world. An FBI agent could go to an apartment party and dance to techno with the same people they were supposedly investigating. Rollerblading was a viable form of transportation. Computer geeks around the world could rally to stop a worldwide ecological disaster. A mom could stand up to federal agents in a bland office building in defense of her son (and impress his soon-to-be girlfriend⁴). And you could tailgate your own limo on a skateboard to grab a 3.5" floppy from a high-school kid on a rainy street.

Hack the planet!

30 years on and I never became a hacker. But I’ll still find myself remembering certain scenes (“Type ‘cookie’ you idiot.”), thinking about how cool that tech could have been, or listening to albums or artists I can connect with a near straight line back to this soundtrack. It’s dated and ridiculous, but I still love it after 30 years.