I never understood the love for this movie, it just seems lame to see all of these caricatures being created that reinforce hacker stereotypes - and not even in a good way.
I think that's the reason I don't have the affinity for this movie that many do - it created incorrect stereotypes which still persist today.
Tron is literally about a hacker.
Sneakers is about spooks wanting to be hackers and hackers wanting to be spooks.
Sneakers is the point where the militarization of hackers became mainstream.
Stereotyping isn't inherently bad, it's just lazy. That having been said, I think Sneakers gets them all correct.
It feels like it's accidentally great.
But then again, maybe it just tickles to the surface the sense of wonder I had way back then.
But at the time, that was not at all clear. And I'm still not actually convinced. It certainly wasn't marketed as a comedy; it seemed to be drinking the same drama-aid as The Net and other breathless wankery at the time. In which case it's a terrible movie that only becomes watchable as an exhibit of wankery.
This feels like a special case of "suspension of disbelief".
Edit to add: Now consider the age and tech-savvy of most lawmakers.
Certainly far better than The Net, as low of a bar as that is.
(This is a compliment by the way. I agree, but with at least 10x more force than I feel from your comment ;)).
I still say things like "We're in" every time I login to a system with people looking over my shoulder.