In real life, "hacking" is a technical pursuit that usually requires a boring, drawn-out, entirely unromantic slog. But fictional movie hackers are rockstar cyber-magicians who, through inhumanly frantic typing, visually overwhelming screen activity, and half-explained tech jargon sneered out loud in real time, can crack the world's most complicated computer codes in seconds.

While some movies depict hacking as some process of uploading, downloading, or password entry that doesn't actually qualify as hacking, other movies envision hacking as a dramatic, entertaining, and streamlined enterprise. Real hacking, though, is grueling and cumbersome. Screen activity is minimal, and hackers are likely to spend hours working on the same line of code. This won't do for Hollywood, of course.

From '80s computer-phobia, to the '90s tech-movie gold rush, to more modern examples of "tech nonsense... on FLATSCREENS," here are some of the most ludicrous hacking scenes in movie history, running the gamut from "technically semi-accurate but goofy" to "nothing that's happening here is anything."