RETRO REVIEW! - 'HACKERS' (1995)

Hackers (1995)

The computer lingo and imagery in 1995’s “Hackers” admittedly shows us just how much we didn’t know about computers or the internet at the time. Still, as Roger Ebert said in his own review when the film came out, I take the computer stuff in this movie about as seriously as I take the archeology in an Indiana Jones movie. What the film gets right is the cyberpunk hacker culture of the day and it includes likable characters, a delightfully over-the-top villain, and a fun action thriller story.

The movie’s main protagonist is Jonny Lee Miller as Dade Murphy, a.k.a. “Crash Override”, a character that was sentenced to never using a computer until he was 18. That’s because he crashed over 1500 computer systems. Now, he’s been forced to move to New York and soon finds fellow hackers including Jesse Bradford’s Joey, Matthew Lillard’s “Cereal Killer”, Laurence Mason’s “Lord Nikon”, and Renoly Santiago’s “Phantom Phreak”.

He also gets into a rivalry with Angelina Jolie’s Kate Libby, a.k.a. Acid Burn. Soon, though, all the hackers become a target of “The Plague” (Fisher Stevens), a hacker that works for cyber security for a mineral company. He created a worm in order to extort money from the company, but after Joey discovers the “garbage” file that the worm is in, he decides to pin the blame for the worm on Joey and his fellow hackers while Plague eventually escapes with the money along with his accomplice, Margo Wallace (Lorraine Bracco).

Crash Override and his fellow hackers
prepare to take down the Plague in 'Hackers'!

The first thing to note are the likable characters. Miller is great as Crash Override while Jolie shows off her early yet still formidable acting talents as Acid Burn. These two are obvious love interests for each other, but their rivalry also feels real. There is a secret service character named Richard Gil (Wendell Pierce) that gives our hackers some trouble in addition to the Plague. One of the best sequences in the movie is when Crash Override and Acid Burn enter into a competition to see which one can cause more grief for Agent Gil.

Not only are the characters likable, the world they live in is fun to visit as well. Whether they’re at school or at a place where hackers go to hang out and talk shop, you feel like this world is real even though it is over-the-top.

The movie’s music is also worth noting. It is a techno fueled soundtrack and, along with the first “Mortal Kombat” film, it helped raise techno music’s popularity at the time. The music helps sell this crazy techno world that our characters reside in.

Visually speaking, the special-effects featured on the computers are complete nonsense. They’re just made to make you feel like the hackers are diving deep into a computer to retrieve data and information. Surprisingly, these visual effects still work to help sell the story as well even though we now live in a world where people are far more literate when it comes to computers.

The movie didn’t do well when it was released in theaters. It only made $7 million against a $20 million budget and seemed destined to be forgotten. Thankfully, “Hackers” went on to become the cult classic that it deserves to be. The computer lingo and effects may be nothing more than eye candy, but the fun story, interesting world, and great characters keep you engaged in what turns out to be a fun ride straight out of the ‘90s!

A blast from the 1990s that holds up surprisingly well!