Hacker 3: E equals MC squared.

Hacker 1: The directories were all hidden, it was "/././."

Hacker 3: It was Workspace, so it would've been Eclipse [open-source software framework], right?

Laughter.

Hacker 2: They all did this on acoustic couplers, on payphones, the baud rate was, like, 3.3.

Hacker 4: Why did they need to capsize the ships on top of stealing the money? [The villain's nefarious plan is stealing money from an oil company and capsizing oil tankers with faulty code as a distraction.]

Hacker 3: That was a cover to bring in the secret service to confiscate things and harass the hackers. A private corporation doesn't have the legal authority to confiscate property.

H&F: I will say that for a movie made in 1995, the views on law and order and policing were pretty nuanced and ahead of their time. It was edgy for a movie at that time to say, "Maybe the law isn't always good?"

Hacker 3: I watched Sneakers again recently, too, another excellent hacking movie, and the major plot point is that the NSA is spying on its own citizens. In '96. That's avant-garde. Sneakers is a really good movie. It was objectively a better movie.

Hacker 1: Just by being as cartoony as it was it takes the edge off of it being bad.

H&F: I think the one thing that sets it apart was the styling, the outfits are really good, even kinda believable for the 90s. Not enough leather dusters though.

Hacker 3: Also, the scene where he brings out the books was kinda authentic.

Hacker 1: I had all those books!

Hacker 4: You can suspend disbelief because it's so cartoony, it's really enjoyable.

Hacker 5: Why don't you see more Hackers-era Angelina Jolie cosplays?

Hacker 1: I cringe watching this movie because I'm so embarassed at how much I modeled myself after "Cereal Killer" when I was like 16.

Hacker 5: The nineties had such pragmatic fashion. So many pockets!

Hacker 3: Can we touch on how amazing the soundtrack is? I can put it up somewhere.

Unanimous agreement.

Hacker 2: When The Prodigy still made decent music, The Stereo MCs that I still weirdly hear in music stores sometimes.

Hacker 1: It definitely felt like the time, some things looked like Trapper Keepers.

H&F: It's an eminently watchable film!

Hacker 5: The truth is that if you were to watch a real movie about real hacking, it would be the most boring shit imaginable. It would be unwatchable.

H&F: Also, the people would be unbearable.

Hacker 3: Wait, what are you saying about us?

Laughter.

Hacker 2: What about Takedown, the Kevin Mitnick movie? It's a shitty movie, a shitty story.

Hacker 1: Let me talk to you about Bitcoins.

Hacker 5: I don't consider myself a hacker, I don't think I was ever smart enough.

H&F: The layperson would consider you a hacker.

Hacker 5: Exactly. I like hanging around people that know what they're doing. I would watch a movie about the real hackers.

Hacker 1: Mostly it would be people in a space like this sitting around on keyboards typing.

Hacker 5: I would watch like nine hours of that!

