So we just watched Untraceable, and by god was it a horrible movie. But somewhere in the middle of it, I got to thinking about hacker movies. The whole genre has turned to... as the french say... caca.
Childhood and adolescence are filled with a few choice examples of hacker movies that have developed a cult-like status. War Games. Sneakers. The aptly named Hackers which is liked more for it's cheesiness than it's cinematic achievement. Some even consider Tron to be a hacker movie (which is due out for a sequel in the next few years).
But more recently, movies that involve high technology seem to be so utterly horrible. Firewall. Untraceable. Perfect Stranger. Swordfish. Antitrust.
So what is it? Is it just that there's this perceived interest in all things hacking? Is it some mythical area where writers go? Or is it a crutch for those that really have no idea what's involved in the processes?
3 Comments
1 Hungry Hank wrote:
I think it's that screenwriters don't know any way to put forward a script about hacking without altering so much to make it exciting that it all goes to hell. It would be quite boring to watch someone write code for three days in order to mess with Facebook.
Maybe one day, someone will get it right ... maybe.
2 B wrote:
Of all the events in the movies listed, I think War Games may have gotten it right the most... Dialing numbers sequentially on end and researching a lot to find the back door... Plus, we all know that playing tic-tac-toe will bring any computer to its knees.
3 Hungry Hank wrote:
True, true. Tic-tac-toe is the root of any good computer system.