Sneakers: Robert Redford, River Phoenix nerd out in 1992’s prescient caper

theguardian.com

24 points·pseudolus··7 comments

best hacker movie ever

Better than even WarGames, The Matrix or Blackhat? Better than Swordfish or Live Free or Die Hard? Hackers even?

I always considered Sneakers a spy movie rather than a hacker movie, properly sandwiched in a triple-feature between Three Days of the Condor and Spy Game.

The difference is mostly in plausibility of tools and techniques. Other hacker movies let themselves get wildly ungrounded and metaphorical. Sneakers feels authentic, which I suppose also positions it as more of a spy thriller.

I'd also nominate Cloak & Dagger for the "hacker spy thriller" category, albeit it's driven by a child protagonist, which is both unique and highly implausible.

> albeit it's driven by a child protagonist

Right, the E.T. star, but that Dabney Coleman never gets old

Really? I remember hating the movie because it was about as plausible as Lawnmower Man. Even with quantum computers here a mysterious black box that can decrypt anything is as of now outside the realm of a state actor.

>Better than even WarGames,

Well, WarGames was early, so it has that, but otherwise is a naive 80s teen movie, and the hacking is... well...

The Matrix is decent, but is basically an action movie with some wholesale "philosophy" thrown in.

Swordfish is not even worthy of a mention. And Live Free or Die Hard is downhill of Swordfish.

Hackers is decent-ish, if one ignores the depiction of hacking.

Sneakers is not very good, but better (and with better actors) than all the above.

>I always considered Sneakers a spy movie rather than a hacker movie

Well, one of the main hacker employments is spying, no?

Still one of my favorite movies. Such a great cast.

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