Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Hackers
Writer
Rafael Moreu
Producer
Michael Peyser, Ralph Winter
Characters
Jonny Lee Miller ... Dade Murphy / 'Crash Override' / 'Zero Cool'
a computer genius who hacked a government agency on his childhood,
now a senior high school student in New York, 18 years of age
Angelina Jolie ... Kate Libby / 'Acid Burn'
schoolmate of Dade, beautiful and smart, sexy and naughty, also a
computer geek
Jesse Bradford ... Joey Pardella,
the youngest in the group of hackers, who wanted to belong to the elite
group
Matthew Lillard ... Emmanuel Goldstein / 'Cereal Killer'
a member of the elite group, a close friend of Phreak, has a collection of
computer hacking books
Laurence Mason ... Paul Cook / 'Lord Nikon'
the oldest member of the elite group, a black computer hacker
Renoly Santiago ... Ramon Sanchez / 'Phantom Phreak'
the latino leader of the elite group, consider himself as the king of the net
Fisher Stevens ... Eugene Belford / 'The Plague' / Mr. Babbage
the villain of the story, a computer security agent, having an affair with
one of the executive of the oil company
Alberta Watson ... Lauren Murphy
the dear mother of Dade, disciplinarian and yet understanding
Supporting Characters:
Darren Lee ... Razor
Peter Y. Kim ... Blade
Ethan Browne ... Curtis
Lorraine Bracco ... Margo
Wendell Pierce ... S.S. Agent Richard Gill
Michael Gaston ... S.S. Agent Bob
Marc Anthony ... S.S. Agent Ray
Setting
When
Contemporary, by the 1995
Where
New York, USA
Plot/Synopsis of the Movie
The film started with the introduction of the young Dade Murphy then 11, at a court trial
after he committed the crime of crashing 1,507 systems in one day that caused a single-day 7
point drop in the New York Stock Exchange. He goes with the name, “Zero Cool”. The sentence
of his conviction resulted to a ban of owning or operating computers or touch-tone telephones
until he reached his 18th birthday.
The said incident cause her parent’s divorce, of which lead her mother to land a new job
in New York City and he has to come over, with her mother who won for his custody.
Upon turning 18, he calls a local television station, tricked the security guard into giving
him the modem’s phone number using a tactic known as social engineering and successfully
hacked into the station’s computer network, changing the current TV program into an old
episode. He was however, attacked by a certain handle, “Acid Burn” that kicked him out on that
game, after he gave his new identity, “Crash Override”
He was then enrolled at Stuyvesant High School, where he was acquainted with the
gorgeous Kate Libby, toured him around the school, but eventually making fun of him making
him believe of a “pool on the roof” which resulted in locking him with other freshmen. After the
incident of garnering the highest score in a game where Kate reigns, the feud erupted between
these two computer geeks, in conspiracy of their mutual friends, Cereal Killer and Lord Nikon.
The conflict started when Joey Pardella, the youngest among the group, who was forced
to hack into an oil company supercomputer to prove to the group especially to the leader, Phreak,
that he belongs to the elite group, the highest class in the hacking community.
In order to show the group what he can do, he downloaded a part of a garbage pile which
was not completed after his mother told him to sleep and unplugged the said computer. To his
disgrace, the company’s IT Staff detected this unauthorized entry, headed by Eugene “The
Plague” Belford who summoned the US Secret Service to recover the said file making them
believe that it contained a code to a computer virus that might harm the oil company’s operation.
What was hidden, was that the said garbage file has the proof that the handler of “The Plague” is
stealing money from the company. Joey successfully hidden his diskette at the ceiling of his
room, disabling the police to charge a major case against him.
This then linked to rediscovering Dade’s past identity by The Plague as he insisted that he
might had conspired with the group. He ordered the US Secret Service to hunt other members in
order to find the missing diskette. Several races of hunting followed. Kate, who is a close friend
of Joey, urged Dade to help, which he denied, after he was offered by The Plague to surrender
the disk and the name of other conspirators, or else her mother will be charged with several cases
she didn’t even thought of.
Realizing that he made a wrong decision, Dade helped Kate seeking the help of the other
two commercialized computer genius.
Analysis
Title
1. What can you say about the title?
The movie talks about the growing number of hackers in the turf of information
technology.
Characterization
1. Among the characters, whom you like the best?
Why?
Of all the characters acting in the movie, I would pick Dade. Other found him
mischievous and childish prank, but what they do not know is that he has a kind heart that loves
a friend and can devote his own security to save his mom out of disgrace.
2. Among the characters, whom do you dislike least?
Why?
The Phreak, is the character, I would find disturbing. At the first part of the movie, he was
introduced as the leader, as he was acquainted with Dade, however, it was the character of
Cereal killer who shined the most in the end.
Plot:
1. What part/situations/scenes in the movie do you liked best?
Why ?
The part where Dade moved the blanket to cover his mom who was sleeping at the sofa
then. He was about to surrender the diskette containing a vital information that might cause
trouble between their friendships, because it was the remaining information needed to save his
friend Joey, and the rest of the elite group too. As his character was introduced as a misbehaved
genius child hacking a government entity, the rest of the movie converted this perception.
Conclusion:
As a whole, what can you say about the movie?
The movie is fun, for teenagers of present Y-Generation, who treats computer and
cellphone technology a significant part of their everyday life. Indeed, technology has brought us
enormous advances to lighten our everyday chores, business, and educational works, yet this
must be taken with precautions. Anything that is too much is bad. Computer usage is not bad,
hacking is definitely not good, as this harms not only the breached security be it government
owned or a private entity, but the hackers personality as well.
A petty crime might lead to a heinous one if neglected. Thus, the movie should have not
only referred to the young ones but also to their respective parents, who remains unaware of the
massive destruction their child’s untoward behaviors over the net might lead to.