Hackers has gained a cult following in the 30 years since its debut
Maximum Film/Alamy
Tim Boddy
Picture editor, London
It is 1995. Geocities, Yahoo! and Netscape are kings of a burgeoning internet. Spending an hour by your screeching dial-up modem on the information superhighway is thrilling. And the film Hackers is released, a psychedelic celebration of a burgeoning cyber culture.
The film wasn’t a success back then, but it has gained a cult following in the 30 years since its debut. Rewatching it recently, I found it isn’t heavy on the realism (using payphones to hack supercomputers seems a shade far-fetched).
It is, however, powered by an exhilarating techno soundtrack, a stylish cast (including a frenetic and deeply entertaining Matthew Lillard), trippy colour palettes and supremely quotable one-liners. Its 105-minute running time is a joy and a beautiful time-capsule ode to the 1990s.
It is an oddly hopeful tale of misfits, tech and activism – as opposed to the arguably dystopian disinformation superhighway we find ourselves in today.
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