Director Iain Softley uses illuminated projection against character’s faces when they’re looking at the computer screens, and there are model cities of electronic data that the camera glides through, intercut with Koyaanisqatsi style footage of trains and cities. With the Secret Service on their tail (Wendell B Pierce from The Wire and Marc Anthony), the hackers have to work together to clear their names, stop corporate espionage and “hack the planet!” In a cyberpunk frame of mind at the moment, watching it again now, I appreciate Hackers more than I used to, particularly its distinctive fashions (motorcycle jackets, straps, a Quicksliver rashie at one point) and awesome electronica soundtrack (pump up the Halycon ‘On and On’!), and its attempts to make hacking cinematic. Meanwhile, one of their brethren is blamed for a corporate breach that could unveil an embezzlement plot by security expert The Plague (Fisher Stevens) and a PR executive (Lorraine Bracco). While at high school, Dade befriends others who are into hacking including the stylish Kate (Jolie) aka Acid Burn. On his eighteenth birthday, new kid in town Dade (Miller) aka Crash Override flies into NYC with his single mother, hiding a secret past as a notorious kid hacker named Zero Cool.
To represent hacking as cool and punk seemed naff and silly, particularly with attractive movie stars Jonny Lee Miller and Angelina Jolie as your “keyboard cowboys”. The first time I properly watched it was with friends to make fun of it, a studio picture that tried to market one sub culture (internet hackers) to another (teens). I never saw Hackers (1995) when it came out in cinemas.
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