The Youth Hackers

Versus Movie #140. The movie "Hackers" was a great example of pop culture cyberpunk in the mainstream. Many will argue, the nerdy cyberpunks, whether this was true cyberpunk or not but it I say it's cyberpunk enough so quit arguing. I mean we all know it's not the sub genre you all grew up with where seedy punks with wild hair tried to rob corporations and lived under bridges in high tech hideouts but still... it is cyberpunk. You won't find any VR in here but you will find plenty of hacking animations! Back then they had animations to scare the living crap out of you on a crappy computer. This movie is an...

Versus Movie #140. The movie "Hackers" was a great example of pop culture cyberpunk in the mainstream. Many will argue, the nerdy cyberpunks, whether this was true cyberpunk or not but it I say it's cyberpunk enough so quit arguing. I mean we all know it's not the sub genre you all grew up with where seedy punks with wild hair tried to rob corporations and lived under bridges in high tech hideouts but still... it is cyberpunk. You won't find any VR in here but you will find plenty of hacking animations! Back then they had animations to scare the living crap out of you on a crappy computer. This movie is an anarchic visage of youth gone wild in the information age. Now days kids all know everything about computers from early on and they're all smarter than they used to be. So if some corporation is up to something really smart kids might counteract this. That's the basic idea here with a mysterious corporation keeping a secret of some sort. All these kids are like trendy brainiacs if there is such a thing. What's scary is they seemed cool but they're so smart and usually you associate smarts with nerds. Not here. That's because it's cyberpunk, not the nerdy version of cyberpunk that some might see floating around. The version where the only hackers are criminals phishing in emails from other countries or stay at home doing homework nerds with glasses. That view really had to be shattered. At one point we have a computer whiz in a bout with another hacker who happens to be a hot chick. Ironic? Kinda. Now I have to imagine a hot chick being able to hack. Not likely anyways. The wonder of movies for ya. What's great is how the kids are so well connected and able to surmount this threat by conscripting an army of hackers from all over the world. How true to life that part is at least since kids have so many friends on Facebook and know tons of people. The well connected youth have a way of networking that older people just don't do. And go figure two hackers may find love here. It's entertaining if not brainy or dark and brooding like the rest of the cyberpunk genre. They all wear cool motorcycle leather and dark sunglasses, yet they know more than you. Kinda funny.


Guest Commentator BONE COLLECTOR says: "I once hacked a flat screen t.v. with only a butter knife and a jar of grease. True story!"