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Hackers (1995) Animated Experience

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61–70 of 294 posts

Re: Hackers (1995) Animated Experience

#61
post #2

This movie had an unreasonable influence on me as a kid...as cheesy as it is, it still holds up as one of my top ten favorite movies.

The movie is obviously technical garbage but one thing it did well was capture that early hacker counterculture spirit. I think a lot of us can appreciate that for the warm blanket it is and forgive its technical accuracy and story flaws.

I find this and Starship Troopers to fit in a similar niche for me. When I first saw them I found them very cringey, horrible, couldn't stand it. Hackers for the reasons being discussed here. ST because of how bastardized it was from the source material.

But over time I grew to love both of them. In both cases I started to appreciate how they weren't trying to be faithful representations, but rather capture a particular ethos in a cheesy & over the top way. And both of them I think hit their mark well in that regard.

Re: Hackers (1995) Animated Experience

#62
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hated this movie the first time I watched it. And the second. The third time I let go of the need for things to be realistic and took it all in as an artistic representation and snap ... I loved it. One could argue that I loved it all along given that I watched it so many times... but there was a distinct moment where I let go and that's when I was able to see just how wonderful this movie really is.

There are some niche 3D file system browsers/shells out there, but none as captivating as what's shown in the movie (or the linked "animated experience") that I can find.

Nice little blog post that looks at these interfaces in the movie:

https://scifiinterfaces.com/2023/12/11/hackers/

Re: Hackers (1995) Animated Experience

#63
post #48

I grew up hacking in the 1980s and I watched this movie and I totally hated it. Me and the hackers around me were more like War Games, but with skateboards and BMX bikes. On our best days, I likened us to the characters in the movie Sneakers, but no way, they were far more elite than us. Then this Hackers movie came out and it seemed like a laughable clown caricature of hacker culture. It was insulting, like I imagin…

I haven't watched it, but I seem to recall "Mr Robot" was widely praised by techies too.

Re: Hackers (1995) Animated Experience

#64
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While we're at it, I remember an atari st game that was like the tron lightcycle as "Trek4". Did it really exist ?

Hmm I had an ST. I think I vaguely remember this. Was it a PD game or commercial?

Only thing I can remember is a blue 3½ floppy with "trek4" handwritten on it so it must have been "found" by my relative that owned the st at the time.

Re: Hackers (1995) Animated Experience

#65
post #6

Hack the planet. This is such a call back and what a nice touch to add the sound to it too. That whole OST is incredible, I still pull orbital and prodigy into my current work playlists. What a fun movie.

I, too, have such a work playlist entitled "Hack the Mainframe." It's got this type of stuff along with 90s/early 2000s breakbeat songs that ended up shoehorned into car and techno thriller movies at the time. I know a lot of this music was reviled as sellout trash at the time but I was too young to know any better when I first heard it and think it still holds up phenomenally well.

> 90s/early 2000s breakbeat songs

Can recommend such a mix, too. Gather select works of The Chemical Brothers, The Dust Brothers, Bassbin Twins, Crystal Method, DJ Krush, Dub Pistols, Lunatic Calm, Meat Katie... and you're Somewhen Else during it. Works for commutes/trips, too.

Re: Hackers (1995) Animated Experience

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it’s also important to remember that there are tons of terrible practicals out there, we just don’t think of them because they were bad and forgettable. Lots of great CG too that you likely never recognized as CG. Sicario is littered with examples. You’d be hard pressed to call out even most of them.

That's true on there being lots of terrible practical effects out there. The parent lauded Raiders of the Lost Ark for its practical effects. In contrast, Last Crusade was a great movie that had a few practical effects that were terrible. The scene with the tank going over the edge of the cliff is so bad and so fake that I could help rewind and pause to laugh at it when I was a kid.

Isn't the very worst aspect of that very scene, the CGI part rather than the practical effects part?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np4OojYGixI

Sure, the tank rolling at the bottom looks a bit like a model, but it isn't nearly as jarring as the part where the shot of the guy in the tank looks like it came from another world entirely and has been badly edited in on top.

Re: Hackers (1995) Animated Experience

#70
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it is immediately assumed as CGI Remember seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark , watching Indiana Jones being dragged under a lorry by his whip and thinking "wow, that's a brilliant stunt"? Remember (or did you forget) seeing the latest Indiana Jones film with a CGI motorbike and a CGI Indiana Jones jumping onto a moving train? One will always be more impressive than the other.

I think it’s also important to remember that there are tons of terrible practicals out there, we just don’t think of them because they were bad and forgettable. Lots of great CG too that you likely never recognized as CG. Sicario is littered with examples. You’d be hard pressed to call out even most of them.

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