io9
There are a zillion near-future scifi flicks that have hackers in them doing highly technical things like "hacking the planet" or "bringing down the whole system." When filmmakers don't want to sound like total idiots, however, they call a real hacker to consult — a hacker like Fyodor, whose real-life software tool "nmap" was used by uber-hacker Trinity in The Matrix and shows up in a Bourne Identity cameo. Fyodor also consulted on the hacking scenes in Live Free or Die Hard (he's not convinced his input made the movie any more realistic). Though he thinks The Matrix is the best scifi hacking movie out there, Fyodor has a surprising pick for "good geek porn" in a hacker movie.
He says futuristic thriller and cheesefest Antitrust makes him smile:
Antitrust may not be realistic, but is good geek porn because what geek doesn't want to be flattered with the idea that Microsoft and other giant corps all respect your mad skills so much that they'll send out beautiful women (and, unfortunately, assassins) to try to pick your brain. Even Bill Gates was begging that guy to work for him, but he was chillin in his garage doing his own thing. It is a pretty terrible movie, but I did find it somewhat entertaining.Fyodor, whose hacker pseudonym comes from Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground, helped io9 get its name too. He was the proud owner of io9.com before we got root on his box and stole it away. Thanks, Fyodor!
Comments
Although it is not pleasing to hackers, one of my favorite movie representations of a hack was in Jurassic Park. After Samuel L. Jackson is killed off, they need somebody to reboot the park, and the only person available is the grand-daughter. As she sits in front of the computer, her eyes get wide and she says "It's a Unix System" like she had just found a million dollars. Makes me crack up every time.
I prefer robot tinkerer movies like "Hardware" myself. Then again "War Games" always made me WISH I was a hacker, while "Firewall" made that wish all go away. I think the next wave of crap hacker-esque movies will be less about programming and actual hacking and more about Wiki, web and texting hence --"Untraceable."
Swordfish is a favorite.
it's easier to find bad depictions of hackers in movies and TV then good ones.
It's hard to show hacking accurately, because it generally:
1. Takes lots and lots of time
2. is repetitive
3. Doesn't do anything all that impressive when you gain root/finder/admin access
The best hacking for movies or TV is hardware hacking because it's visual.
A friend once argued to me that the stuff in Hackers was supposed to be a metaphor, because of how boring actually showing people typing code is.
Maybe the killer website movie Untraceable will be better. Even if it does look like a complete rip off of the episode of Chris Carter's Millennium called The Mikado.
One can only hope.
Start a discussion:
Login with your username and password below. Or comment on this post via email.
Forgot your username or password? New User?