Hackers (1995) Animated Experience • Hacker News Board

Re: Hackers (1995) Animated Experience

#291

Post by kasey_junk » Mon, Feb 09, 2026, 1:31 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #273

kasey_junk wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not a story driven movie, it’s a movie about a stylized subculture and youth. Compare it to Dazed & Confused instead of Chinatown. The point is to make you want to hang out with those people on those days and it does that tremendously well. If you disagree your a flake.

See, I can push back on that! Dazed & Confused barely has a plot. It knows what it's about. Hackers has one of those shake-and-bake 80s plots; it's like a Save The Cat movie. I get that people like the subculture stuff in it, but the movie was trying for something else and faceplanted. Honestly I think Lawnmower Man might have had more cultural impact.

Did Lawnmower Man document Bunks early career at the fbi which he had to resign in scandal before joining the Baltimore police?

I didn’t think so.

Re: Hackers (1995) Animated Experience

#292

Post by Forgeties79 » Mon, Feb 09, 2026, 6:19 PM UTC

autoexec wrote: post #285

Forgeties79 wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No less immersion breaking though. Highly doubt “weirdly charming” is the objective for most poorly done practicals!

True, but it really does hold up better than CGI. For example, a Dalek isn't really fooling anybody, but it's still far better than a CGI Scorpion King. I think it's easier for the brain to accept something as a representation of something it isn't when it's farther outside of the uncanny valley

You’re not comparing the worst practicals to what is considered one of the single worst CG renderings of all time though. There is also a camp culture that the Daleks fit in to - they weren’t trying to sell it as “very real” even at the time, that was “the look” and the budget. CG in live action is generally either shooting for 100% realism or is for comedic purposes intentionally absolutely awful. There’s a lot less in between than with practicals.

Re: Hackers (1995) Animated Experience

#293

Post by tptacek » Mon, Feb 09, 2026, 8:05 PM UTC

kasey_junk wrote: post #291

tptacek wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See, I can push back on that! Dazed & Confused barely has a plot. It knows what it's about. Hackers has one of those shake-and-bake 80s plots; it's like a Save The Cat movie. I get that people like the subculture stuff in it, but the movie was trying for something else and faceplanted. Honestly I think Lawnmower Man might have had more cultural impact.

Did Lawnmower Man document Bunks early career at the fbi which he had to resign in scandal before joining the Baltimore police? I didn’t think so.

:thinking-emoji:

Re: Hackers (1995) Animated Experience

#294

Post by Fnoord » Fri, Feb 13, 2026, 1:39 AM UTC

wredcoll wrote: post #139

drivers99 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have this OST and the Mortal Kombat one as well on CD (mentioned together since they both have the same song, "Halcyon + On + On" on them!). When I went to a 2600 meetings in Seattle in 1999, I listened to the Hacker's soundtrack in my car on the way, of course. I gave one of the people I met there a ride and we had a laugh when he saw the case in my car. (I feel like I have a story for every song. Thanks for indul…

Mortal Kombat ost had a ridiculous influence on my childhood music tastes, another absolutely amazing sound track is The Saint, check out the artists involved.

Mortal Kombat OST has a lot of good industrial (genre) in it. Bands like KMFDM, but also The Immortals (Praga Khan / Lords of Acid). Orbital - Halcyon + On + On is a good track (more mellow, and one of the many tracks perfectly mixed into the movie), but it samples Kirsty Hawkshaw from Opus III. Traci Lords - Control is actually by Juno Reactor (with vocals by Traci Lords in that version) who IMO is a rather unique/special artist (and live band), who was later featured in various The Matrix tracks. My point being, all of these artists have done a lot of great work, and the mixing was ace.

Then you have other famous bands of that time: The Orb, The Shamen, The KLF, ...

My fav. Juno Reactor live set (and album) is still hands down 'Juno Reactor – Shango Tour 2001 Tokyo' [1]

[1] https://www.discogs.com/master/782091-Juno-Reactor-Shango-To...