So it was Friday afternoon and I was bored. So twitter it was.
If you know me then you would immediately understand that I was just trolling for fun. "Hackers" is a fun movie, not necessarily a master piece in the history of film making, but clearly an important movie for many hackers who got inspired by it. I personally don't care much for it and love Sneakers or Swordfish more.
But there are a couple of points that get missed in these "Best Movie Ever" type of questions. First , the very basis for enjoying a movie is the suspension of disbelief. You have to accept that whatever is about to happen on screen has been carefully scripted to tell a story in a way the creators intended. When people argue wether or not the on-screen hacking is real, they are fundamentally missing a point. The hacking is merely a device to tell a story and move the plot forward, the screenwriters, cinematographers, director of photography, the props department, art department and ultimately the director all are trying to tell a story.
Well but it should be realistic!
Ideally , yes, however the problem is that the hacking scene as a plot moving forward device has to fit within a couple of seconds of screen time because the movie has to end within a reasonable amount of time and it has to tell the whole story of the movie and have you emotionally commit to the characters in it.
Say you have 145 minute film where the hero has to save the world, how many minutes can you dedicate per hacking scene to tell this story?
Remember the hero has to save the world while fighting off some evil mastermind with alien dinosaurs.
Ever sit in a room of CTF competitors trying to fight their way through a CTF, the action is so fast it feels like Michael Mann is directing your life..... not..
So the issue is that the hacking has to tell an aspect of the story with maybe 20 seconds of screen time. Hence the "UPLOADING VIRUS TO STOP EVERYTHING" scene.
The other aspect of this is that film making is a business. I used to work with a firm that specialized in product placements (putting sponsored items into the scene). They had two teams, one was the screenwriters who would tear through a script line by line to see if there was an opportunity to put some commercial item in a scene. This is also why some movies have different scenes based on what region they get released. (Demolition Man , US version vs Global. Top Gun Global vs China. etc etc)
The other team was a team of lawyers that had to clear everything in a scene, from the furniture to the little clock in the background on the bar counter. Everything in a scene is carefully planned and legally cleared these days to avoid any risks. I'll skip the movie funding stuff, but you can google about it.
Now granted some movies are better than others, The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo (the original) has some great hacking scenes in it.
But here is the other point, reality can be boring. If you have ever been caught in an actual brawl or street fight, its nothing like the UFC or prowrestling. Is brutal and raw and painful to be part of or to watch.
Once again the screen writers are trying to get an emotional commitment from the viewers but they have to do it based on the lowest common denominator and not an expert. Neil deGrasse Tyson often points out how science fiction movies get the constellations wrong. But does the majority of viewers care about it? (remember that the movie must make some profit) Can the producers spend an extra $10,000 per day on having some astronomer work with the art department to get it right?
But is there a "Best" ever?
I often feel like this is asking like "Who is the best person ever to have lived or lives now?" Its a fundamentally flawed question.
Do I have a favorite hacker movie ever ?
Yes: Sneakers or The Conversation .. Girl with a Dragon Tattoo...Swordfish..
I can't pick one, I love all of them and will watch them according to how I feel that day.
Are any of them the BEST EVA ? probably not for someone else.
Unlike twitter, in real life its ok to disagree with your friends or have different opinions on things. You do not have to be right on everything and you probably aren't. Ask your loved one, they will tell you that you hold some fucked up beliefs and preferences.
Also remember a movie is fiction, if you can easily accept the premise of bath robe wearing saviors of humanity (not Jesus) are fighting an all out war with an evil empire whose soldiers can't aim for shit and get beat up with glow sticks then suspending your disbelief for technical aspects of a movie isn't a stretch.
I understand that over the top bullshit hacking can take you out of a movie's plot but so does shitty fake-Asian shit in movies for me. Those things are emotional cooler to my commitment to suspension of disbelief to follow the plot, and yes Hollywood should do better, but also the "no fucking way that can be done" is only true at the point in time when that movie was made. We have all seen real life innovations and incidents that mimic the movies. Someone, somewhere got inspired and decided to make or do whatever it was a reality, and this is the most entertaining aspect of the film industry for me.
To see some out of this world thing come to reality.
So sit back end enjoy, Hugh Jackman dance around 9 screens while getting drunk.
References:
A list of movies with hackery stuff in it:
https://forum.defcon.org/node/222165
If you are interested in Science Fiction and User Experiences/Interaction design a must read is
"Make it So: Interaction Design Lessons from Science Fictions"
Prologue: Every movie on the original twitter pole is not a good movie, you do not need to see any of them. Cybergeddon is mildly enjoyable but ... WarGames : The Dead Code is horrible.. And to all Mr.Robot fans, Mr.Robot is not a movie so it doesn't count based on a a technicality.