Ask HN: Movies for Hackers? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Movies for Hackers?

40 pointspknerd59 comments

I will be interested to know what kind of movies will you recommend to hackers.

Primer.

Wonderful movie, the script is smart and complex, budget is tiny, ideas are huge. Watched it 5 times, still don't get parts of it, but it's brilliant.

Agreed!

True.

The best thing about Primer is that I come away with the feeling that I can go out to my garage and do something amazing.

I know it's poor HN etiquette to pile on 'Me too' responses, and I'm ordinarily very good at refraining, but in this particular case, Primer can't be recommended enough.

I've watched it about 8 times now, and I'm only 'mostly' sure that I understand all of it. It's brilliant beginning to end, and is sometimes on Netflix.

Glengarry Glen Ross

Kinda cliche but still a fantastic movie about hustling and desperation.

Of course, one simply cannot talk about this movie without referencing, at least once, one of the greatest motivational scenes in movie history.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kZg_ALxEz0

    * Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999)
    * Revolution OS (2001)
    * Code Rush (2000)
    * The KGB, the Computer and Me (1990)
    * Infinity (1996)
    * Antitrust (2001) -- mildly entertaining and fun

The Conversation(1974): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071360/

A great hardware hacker movie, and one of the greatest movies of all time. Excellent character study of the withdrawn hacker personality type. It's even set in San Franciso. Coppola's best work, bar none. And that's saying something.

At times this has been my very favorite movie.

Sherlock (TV series) very modern and high paced, love the way they put SMS messages in view http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1475582/

First time I saw it the thought on my mind was: "What did just happen? That was very cool. I like that. Why haven't this been done before"?

Has it been done before?

You see it a lot in Korean movies and TV from the last decade. Very cool effect. I appreciated it in the excellent Sherlock series too, although in general season one was much more enjoyable/original/faithful than the second.

The Millennium Triology (Thou shall watch the 2009 version. The Hollywood one is crap). 3 movies. Involving hacking + The hacking parts are not total garbage as in other movies. But there's one scene where they say that she needs a faster computer to download things faster -.- I dunno if the movies are available in English. But there should be at least swedish, norwegian and german ones.

Edit: I checked it. There's an English one too.

Brick (2005): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0393109/

Moon (2009)

These are some movies/tv series that I deeply enjoyed and (some I) wish I had known about earlier.

9.9 Hitchhiker's guide to the universe, BBC TV series

9.9 Contact (1997) based on a novel by Carl Sagan. Very few people seem to know about this movie.

9.3 War Games

9.0 most Akiro Kurosawa movies:

    Seven Samurai

    High & Low

    The Bad Sleep Well

    Ikiru

    Red Beard

9.0 Terminator 1 (watch again)

8.8 Terminator 2 (watch again)

8.7 Pirates of Silicon Valley

8.7 Matrix 1 (watch again)

8.7 The Italian Job (featuring Napster's original inventor)

8.7 Live Free or Die Hard

8.5 Track Down or Takedown (about social hacker Kevin Mitnick)

8.5 Revolution OS (2001)

8.5 Dr. Strangelove

8.5 2010 A space odyssey

8.3 Antitrust (2001)

8.3 Sneakers

8.3 COSMOS

8.2 Minority Report

8.2 2001 A space odyssey

8.2 Paycheck (2003)

8.0 The Thirteenth Floor (1999)

8.0 The Net

Some highly rated movies that I didn't like:

- Bladerunner

- Memento

- The Prestige

- Old Boi

Wasn't cosmos a TV series?

Inception (very interesting idea)

Source Code (also nice idea, but crappy end)

Old Boy. Fantastic South Korean thriller about the perils of the revenge mentality.

I can also recommend the The Chaser (2008): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1190539/

Great recommandation, I saw that last year.

In that case you probably also have seen I Saw the Devil (2010) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1588170/

Hackers (1995) WarGames (1983)

Can't believe I had to scroll down the entire page to see this. It's so obvious!

And so awful... (Hackers - not War Games)

That's an interesting way of spelling amazing

The man from earth (2007)

Amazing film.

Frequently asked questions about time travel - 2009: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0910554/

1. Ghost in the Shell 2. Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex - series not a movie 3. Primer 4. Zizek The Movie 5. Pi 6. Gattaca 7. Waydowntown

Waking Life (2001)

Pi (1998)

Southland Tales (2006) - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405336/

Macon County Line

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macon_County_Line

Limitless (2011) - A writer discovers a top-secret drug which bestows him super human abilities. With Robert de Niro.

Takedown (2000)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159784/

Sneakers (1992). Too many secrets.

Dragon: The Bruce Lee story (1993)

If you've had enough of thinking for one day, grab a cold one and put on: The Core(2003).

The Core has perhaps the highest degree of (ridiculousness times budget) of any film ever released.

I love it.

Castaway on the moon (2009)

The Andromeda Strain (1971)

Timecrimes

Timecrimes. One of the best time travel movies I have ever seen.

Pitch Black (2000)

District 9 (2009)

Buckaroo Banzai

Flatland (2007) - Hacker Jr. friendly!

Also, Ghost in the Shell.

Death Note (Anime series)

Swordfish (2000)

The Life Aquatic

Memento (2000)

Donnie Darko

It took me a couple of times to understand that it was a SciFi movie.

have watched it, really movies like Donie Darko and Memento can't be grasped in a go.

Real Genius

Cube (1997)

For all you A/B, MAB testers out there.

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