Film

Hackers

Name: Hackers
Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller, Drama
Released: 1995
Cast: Jonny Lee Miller, Angelina Jolie, Matthew Lillard, Jesse Bradford, Renoly Santiago

Hackers is 90s tech-thriller as fashion show: rollerblades, trench coats, and cascading green code while a crew of teenage hackers out-type the Secret Service. The plot is thin, the computer science is fantasy, but the attitude is the whole point — cocky, neon-lit, gloriously dated. Watch it for the vibe and the young Angelina Jolie, not for accuracy.

TMDb rating

6.4

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Mr. Robot2015

The true heir to Hackers' outsider-genius fantasy, stripped of the neon and rebuilt as a paranoid, gorgeously shot character study — Rami Malek's Elliot is what happens when the cool hacker kid grows up depressed and dangerous.

But It's slow-burn and psychologically heavy where Hackers is breezy — four seasons is a real commitment, not a Friday-night lark.

Sneakers1992

An older, funnier, more grown-up hacker heist with Redford and a ridiculously charming ensemble cracking safes and stealing black boxes for a living. It's the film Hackers wishes it had the wit to be.

But The tech is even more dated and the pace is gentler — this is a hangout movie, not an adrenaline ride.

WarGames1983

The original teen-hacker-nearly-ends-the-world movie, and still the best argument that a kid with a modem and too much confidence is a genuinely terrifying idea. Matthew Broderick before Ferris Bueller.

But The Cold War stakes and dial-up-era tech will feel quaint if you want something slicker or faster.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Dog Day Afternoon1975

Same shape as Hackers — a scrappy crew, cocky and outmatched, versus federal agents and the media — but played for real, decades earlier, with the cool completely stripped away.

A doomed, sweaty, brilliantly human bank robbery that turns into a media circus — Pacino at his most electric, playing a small-time crook who becomes a folk hero the longer the siege drags on.

But It's a true story with no glamour and no clean ending — tragedy, not the triumphant crew-beats-the-Feds finish you're used to.

The Net1995no page yet

Same year, same neon-paranoia energy, but told from the other side — Sandra Bullock as a woman erased from existence by the internet itself. A fascinating time capsule of 90s tech dread.

But It takes itself more seriously than Hackers and the thriller mechanics creak badly by modern standards.

Swordfish2001no page yet

If you wanted Hackers with an actual budget, a heist plot, and Travolta chewing scenery as a terrorist mastermind, this is the trashier, louder cousin — pure early-2000s hacker-action excess.

But It's dumber, meaner, and far more interested in explosions than in anything resembling real computing.

Live Free or Die Hard2007no page yet

Takes the cyberterrorism-as-apocalypse idea from Hackers and blows it up into a full Bruce Willis action movie, complete with a hacker villain smart enough to bring down the whole country's grid.

But It's a Die Hard sequel first and a hacking movie second — expect helicopters and fistfights over actual code.

Blackhat2015no page yet

Michael Mann's chilly, gorgeously photographed take on cybercrime treats hacking as genuinely dangerous, global, and unglamorous — the serious, adult answer to everything Hackers romanticises.

But It's slow and moody, and was a famous flop for a reason — this rewards patience, not popcorn energy.

Antitrust2001no page yet

A young coding genius gets recruited by a charismatic tech titan and slowly realises the company he idolises might be murderous. Ryan Phillippe and Tim Robbins make an oddly gripping pair.

But It's a minor, largely forgotten thriller and the twists are easy to see coming a mile off.

Now You See Me2013

Not about hacking, but the same cocky-young-crew-outsmarts-the-authorities engine, dressed as a magician heist instead. Same swagger and style-over-substance charm as Hackers, just with card tricks instead of code.

But The plot logic falls apart if you look at it directly, and the magic gimmick wears thinner each film.

Citizenfour2014

Same fear that powers Hackers — the government watching everything, one person's knowledge making them a target — except this is documentary footage of it actually happening, and nobody's having fun.

The Edward Snowden story filmed as it happened, in a Hong Kong hotel room, in real time — the actual version of the paranoid, surveillance-state fear Hackers only pretends to take seriously.

But There's no soundtrack, no rollerblades, no fun — just a quiet, unbearably tense document of someone actually risking everything.

Summer Wars2009no page yet

Almost the same plot as Hackers — teen genius, runaway virus, race against a digital clock — but swapped from leather-jacket cool to warm, family-driven Japanese animation.

A Japanese animated film about a teenage math genius who accidentally unleashes a rogue AI that threatens the world, and has to fix it with his crush's entire enormous family. Gorgeous, warm, and surprisingly tense.

But It's subtitled anime with a slow, family-comedy first act — patience required before the digital chaos kicks in.