The Max Sci-Fi Crime Thriller Is A ’90s Fan Favorite

Starring the likes of Angelina Jolie (Kate), Matthew Lillard (Cereal), Renoly Santiago (Phreak), and Jonny Lee Miller (Dade), Hackers is a 1995 American crime thriller directed by Iain Softley.

The movie centers around a group of teenage hackers who are at the top of their game in a time when the internet was new. 

The main protagonist of the film is Dade. When he was 11 years old, his “hacking” led to his family being fined $45,000, because he crashed more than 1,500 computer systems, causing the NYSE to drop seven points.

Also, as punishment for his acts, Dade “Zero Cool” is not allowed to own or operate a computer or touch-tone phone until he reaches his 18th birthday. 

On the eve of his 18th birthday (just as all hackers would) Dade uses his new computer to hack into a local TV station and change what’s showing to an episode of The Outer Limits.

While he’s in the act of hijacking the station’s controls, he runs into another hacker named “Acid Burn” (Angelina Jolie), who ultimately boots him out of the system. 

Soon after, Dade links up with a group of hackers at school: Ramon (Phreak), Emmanuel (Cereal), Paul (Lord Nikon), Joey, and Kate (Acid Burn). Joey doesn’t have a cool handle like the rest of the hackers because he’s still new to the craft. 

Joey, looking to earn his handle in the world of hackers, hacks his way into a “Gibson” supercomputer operated by the Ellingson Mineral Corporation.

He downloaded a garbage file to show as proof of his intrusion, but his mom interrupts before the file is completed. 

The intrusion does catch the eye of the Ellingson Mineral Corporation’s computer security officer, Eugene “The Plague” Belford. Eugene has also done some hacking of his own in the “past”, and he recognizes that the “garbage” file Joey copied was a worm he created to use against the Mineral Corporation to defraud the company. 

As Hackers continues, the best-laid plans of “The Plague” are in danger with the “garbage” files being out. So he tells the U.S. Secret Service that the file is a computer virus that will capsize the company’s oil tankers and cause a worldwide environmental crisis.

Of course, that results in the Secret Service going after Joey. 

Joey gets arrested, but not before he is able to hide the disk containing the “garbage” file. Joey sends info on where the disk is located to one of his friends, who is also swiftly bombarded by the authorities, and the real adventure of the movie begins. 

You can find out the rest of the story on Max, where Hackers is now streaming for those who have a subscription to the channel.