
A list of movies about hacking - lucianosousa
https://github.com/k4m4/movies-for-hackers
======
CobrastanJorji
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.

~~~
sbuttgereit
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.)

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

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

~~~
mcphage
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.

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prions
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
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).

~~~
prions
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.

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Eric_WVGG
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.

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johnhattan
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")

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

[https://www.indiana.edu/~cogfilms/index.php](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.

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andrei_says_
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.

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oblio
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
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.

~~~
oblio
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.

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

1\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Conversation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Conversation)

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nebulous1
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.

------
anton_tarasenko
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/...](http://www.dga.org/Craft/DGAQ/All-
Articles/1602-Spring-2016/80th-Film-Poll.aspx)

2\. TSPDT's The 1,000 Greatest Films:
[http://www.theyshootpictures.com/gf1000_all1000films_table.p...](http://www.theyshootpictures.com/gf1000_all1000films_table.php)

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.

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agentgt
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
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.

------
AnimalMuppet
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...

~~~
sbuttgereit
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).

------
CalChris
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/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0256408/)

I'd also recommend _2001_ , _Repo Man_ , _Dark Star_ and _They Live_ on
general principles.

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

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

~~~
blacksmith_tb
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.

~~~
ganfortran
Well, Blade Runner or Inception are no different.

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hprotagonist
No Real Genius? Shame.

~~~
krylon
That movie was awesome!

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

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fizixer
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).

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gordon_freeman
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.

~~~
justinclift
" _Realistic time travel_ " movie?

~~~
ringshall
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.

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sengork
No Mr. Robot?

~~~
JonRB
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.

~~~
sengork
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](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lone_Gunmen)

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pcmaffey
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...

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andrewclunn
Or you can just watch this:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEkrWRHCDQU](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEkrWRHCDQU)

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lowglow
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/](http://fabriceflorin.com/)

Watch it here:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOP1LNr70aU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOP1LNr70aU)

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bluejekyll
D.A.R.Y.L.

[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088979/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088979/)

~~~
robteix
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 :)

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

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lakkal
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](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Genius)

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

It's on Vimeo: [https://vimeo.com/8919323](https://vimeo.com/8919323)

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

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jack9
This is a trash list. Live Free Die Hard is on there, because Kevin Smith? SMH

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dezzeus
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...

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ekianjo
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.

~~~
deedubaya
But.... he's plugged in!

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prophesi
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?

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harry8
Here's my list of must watch movies for actual hackers:

(list)

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pmoriarty
For cyberpunk, I'd add:

\- Tetsuo: The Iron Man

\- Videodrome

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contingencies
THX 1138 + GATTACA + The Element of Crime

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xyzzy4
Missing Elysium and Children of Men.

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

~~~
extra88
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).

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

[http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0084978/](http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0084978/)

Can i get an amen please?!

¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

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

[http://n-gate.com/hackernews/](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"

