Ask HN: What are some (good) hacker movies? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What are some (good) hacker movies?

#71

Post by bd » Mon, Jan 26, 2009, 9:32 PM UTC

scott_s wrote: post #30

Apollo 13 has some great hacker scenes. It has, in fact, my favorite hacker moment from any movie. "We gotta find a way to make this [holds up square peg] fit into the hole for this [holds up round peg] using nothing but that [points to random assortment of crap that they know is on board].": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNDuGuerpf8

In the Shadow of the Moon

http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/shadowofthemoon

Re: Ask HN: What are some (good) hacker movies?

#72

Post by imp » Mon, Jan 26, 2009, 9:34 PM UTC

Slightly off topic, but a good hacker TV show is "Big Bang Theory" on Monday nights on ABC. It's about 4 physics PhD students at Cal Tech.

The best part is that they don't water down the physics at all. One guy got dumped by his girlfriend because of their differing opinions on string theory.

I just got the season 1 DVD and it's great.

Re: Ask HN: What are some (good) hacker movies?

#73

Post by mixmax » Mon, Jan 26, 2009, 9:36 PM UTC

rogercosseboom wrote: post #34

mixmax wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has been released on the Intertubes apparently: http://www.torrentbox.com/torrent_details?id=29078&filel...

Sadly I tried to download this a while ago and it turned out to be fake... its another (not-so-interesting) documentary on the internet.

This one seems to be the real deal, I'm downloading it now, and I saw Robert X. Cringely in the preview.

Re: Ask HN: What are some (good) hacker movies?

#74

Post by scott_s » Mon, Jan 26, 2009, 9:38 PM UTC

mechanical_fish wrote: post #23

tptacek wrote: post #13

Good movies about startups: "Tucker", "24 Hour Party People", and "Ghostbusters".

Wow, Ghostbusters is a movie about a startup. It seems so obvious once it's pointed out, but it never occurred to me before.

It's also very much a product of the Reagan era: the bad guys are the scientists, academia and the EPA.

Re: Ask HN: What are some (good) hacker movies?

#75

Post by aduk98 » Mon, Jan 26, 2009, 9:40 PM UTC

mechanical_fish wrote: post #21

Okay, I'll say this much in defense of the Matrices : (a) the first Matrix movie is emphatically not a stinker; (b) I appreciated the second two a lot better after reading these links [1]: http://corporatemofo.com/media_and_mediocrity/the_matrix_rel... http://web.archive.org/web/20071005000019/http://www.corpora... I mean, I still don't think the sequels worked very well, particularly #3, but I admire the audacity of…

I still recall a guy 2 rows in front of me in the cinema stood up and shouted, somewhat uncontrollable, "YEAH!" when he saw the Trinity (actual) hack in the Matrix reloaded (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/05/16/matrix_sequel_has_ha...). LOL.

Re: Ask HN: What are some (good) hacker movies?

#76

Post by prakash » Mon, Jan 26, 2009, 9:52 PM UTC

no wonder the netflix prize is such a hard problem.

Re: Ask HN: What are some (good) hacker movies?

#77

Post by aditya » Mon, Jan 26, 2009, 9:53 PM UTC

More sci-fi than pure tech, I just saw: "The man from earth", http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0756683/

Highly recommended.

Re: Ask HN: What are some (good) hacker movies?

#78

Post by Setec_Astronomy » Mon, Jan 26, 2009, 9:54 PM UTC

Not all are hacker movies per se, but these have great general geek appeal:

Existenz http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0120907/

Cube http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0123755/

The Nines http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0810988/

The World's Fastest Indian http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0412080/

October Sky http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0132477/

Three Days of the Condor http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0073802/

Re: Ask HN: What are some (good) hacker movies?

#79

Post by tptacek » Mon, Jan 26, 2009, 9:58 PM UTC

scott_s wrote: post #74

mechanical_fish wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, Ghostbusters is a movie about a startup. It seems so obvious once it's pointed out, but it never occurred to me before.

It's also very much a product of the Reagan era: the bad guys are the scientists, academia and the EPA.

Uh, hello? Venkman: "Back off, man! We're scientists!"

Also, didn't they give props to a Dem mayor of NYC?

Re: Ask HN: What are some (good) hacker movies?

#80

Post by Allocator2008 » Mon, Jan 26, 2009, 10:03 PM UTC

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. I saw it during a company outing to the cinema when it first came out. Lots of fun. Not a hacker movie per ce, but very cool animation, set in the future,etc. Also my first introduction to "gaia theory" which was interesting though actually I am on the reductionist, "selfish gene" side of that debate myself.