Hackers are growing increasingly influential in this digital life. Believe it or not, hacking has been a regular feature in Hollywood for decades, long before the digital revolution. Here is a list of the 15 best hacker movies of all time:
15. WarGames (1983)
Copyright: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.
In this super hit movie, a teenage computer genius accidentally gains access to a top-secret supercomputer that has total control over the United States’ nuclear weapons. What begins as a harmless game quickly evolves into a potential nuclear calamity, so David and his ally, Jennifer Mack, must overcome the unrelenting machine.
14. Hackers (1995)
Hackers is one of the most outstanding hacker films of all time. It hit a lot of things right, especially how it depicted children utilizing technology to form their community.
In this hit movie, Angelina Jolie and Jonny Lee Miller play two young and trendy hackers. Miller, who was apprehended as an 11-year-old after downing hundreds of machines, was sentenced to no access to machines until he is 18. As soon as he turns 18, he resumes hacking activities, inviting the unwanted attention of a computer security officer.
13. Sneakers (1992)
Martin Bishop is the leader of a team of ethical hackers. When he is coerced into stealing a top-secret black box device by government operatives, the group becomes engaged in a dangerous and intrusive game.
After recovering the box, they realize that it can decode all existing encryption systems worldwide, and the operatives who recruited them don’t work for the government, leading to dangerous circumstances.
12. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
This English-language version of Stieg Larsson’s Swedish novel depicts a disowned journalist, Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig), as he uncovers the 40-year-old abduction of a wealthy patriarch’s niece. He is helped by Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), a pierced, tattooed punk computer hacker.
Blomkvist and Salander unearth massive corruption beyond their wildest dreams as they collaborate on the case.
11. Live Free or Die Hard (2007)
Live Free or Die Hard is a 2007 American action hacker movie and the fourth installment in the Die Hard series. The film depicts “fire sale”, a scenario in which a massive coordinated cyber attack takes down the American infrastructure cripling the government and the economy.
The responsibility to save the day now lies on the shoulders of Detective John McClane (Bruce Willis) and white hat hacker Matt Farrell (Justin Long). Will they succeed? Watch this excellent action-packed adventure to find out.
10. Tron (1982)
Kevin Flynn, a video game developer and a hacker, gets digitally uploaded into the 3D graphical realm by an experimental laser fired by the technology corporation ENCOM’s powerful virtual intelligence program called “Master Control Program”.
Flynn joins forces with Tron in the ultimately blazingly colored, mathematically dense landscapes of cyberspace to defeat the MCP that keeps them hostage.
9. The Fifth Estate (2013)
Copyright: DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC.
This story starts with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and his colleague Daniel Domscheit-Berg (Daniel Brühl) forming an underground monitoring group for the wealthy and influential. On a shoestring budget, they built a platform that allows hackers to anonymously release sensitive material, shedding light on confidential information and corporate misdeeds.
When Assange and Berg acquire access to the most extensive collection of classified intelligence papers in U.S. history, they face off against one another and a fundamental issue: what are the costs of maintaining mysteries in a free society, and what are the consequences of revealing them?
8. Blackhat (2015)
Nicholas Hathaway (Chris Hemsworth), an exceptionally skilled hacker, gets relaxation in his 15-year jail term to help uncover the perpetrator behind an attack on a Nuclear Power plant in Hong Kong.
This puts Hathaway in the heart of a power struggle between the American and Chinese governments and a black hat hacker whose true identity he must discover to maintain his freedom and life.
7. Enemy of the State (1998)
Will Smith plays the role of labor lawyer Robert Clayton Dean in this highly successful conspiracy thriller, who gets targeted by NSA Assistant Director Thomas Reynolds and his NSA agents for pressuring gangster Paulie Pintero in a case settlement.
The film was way ahead of its time and focused on the very sensitive topic of the uncontrolled power of national institutions to spy on their own citizens at will, which later on became a mainstream topic.
6. Untraceable (2008)
In this movie, Jennifer Marsh, a Secret Service agent, becomes embroiled in an intense cat-and-mouse game with a ruthless killer who violently murders victims live on an “untraceable” website. The more individuals log on and access the website, the faster and more brutally the innocent victim dies.
Can she get the killer before the next victim is murdered? Watch this great thriller to find out.
5. Ex Machina (2014)
A 26-year-old programmer, Caleb, is selected to spend time with the CEO of the company after a contest. The CEO convinces him to become part of an experiment in which he has to determine whether the female humanoid robot that he has created has true consciousness.
What follows is a unique and interesting emotional journey of human-machine interaction that takes a very interesting turn near the conclusion of the experiment.
4. The Matrix (1999)
In this movie, Thomas A. Anderson is a guy who lives two lives. During the day, he is an ordinary computer programmer; at night, he is Neo, a hacker. Neo has never trusted his reality, but the truth is well beyond his reach.
When Neo is contacted by Morpheus, a famed computer hacker labeled a terrorist by the state, he becomes the target of the police. Morpheus wakes Neo to the real world, a destroyed wasteland where most of humanity has been enslaved by machines that feed on the electrochemical power of human beings, and keep their minds engaged in a virtual reality known as “The Matrix”.
As a machine-hating rebel, Neo must return to the Matrix and face the agents: super-powerful software programs dedicated to eradicating Neo and the whole human uprising.
3. The Net (1995)
Copyright: Columbia Pictures
Angela Bennett, portrayed by Sandra Bullock, is a programmer who works for Cathedral Software. Her colleague, Dale, sends her a floppy disk, but tragically gets killed in a plane crash before they meet. Bennett’s world is turned upside down when she discovers a classified group of cyberterrorists who erase her true identity and make her a criminal in the records to blackmail her into handing over the floppy disk.
Despite a weak critical reception, the film was a box office success. It also spawned an unsuccessful sequel and a semi-successful TV series.
2. Source Code (2011)
Source Code is one of the most unique films of all time. It focuses on American Army pilot Captain Colter Stevens, who wakes up in someone else’s body as part of a top-secret government program that uses the collective memory of deceased individuals from a bomb blast to reconstruct the past for 8 minutes.
He is tasked to identify the train bomber within 8 minutes before the “simulation” resets. Will he succeed? Is this really a simulation? Watch this outstanding film to find out.
1. Who Am I (2014)
This outstanding German film begins with Benjamin Engel in an interrogation area. He is the one who has willingly stepped in to offer information about a notable Russian hacking outfit known as FRI3NDS. He demands witness protection in return for the information.
What follows is one of the greatest social engineering hacks of all time. The betrayals, deception, twists, and turns will engage even a non-techy viewer. Hacking is, after all, nothing but outwitting others.
Honorable Mentions
- Swordfish (2001)
- Bedwin Hacker (2003)
- Johnny Mnemonic (1995)
What are your favorite hacking films? Share with us in the comments below!
