In 1988, Dade "Zero Cool" Murphy (age 11) is arrested and charged with crashing 1,507 systems in one day and causing a single-day 7-point drop in the New York Stock Exchange. Upon conviction, he is banned from owning or operating computers or touch-tone telephones until his 18th birthday.
As he turn 18, his mothertakes a job in New York City. Dade calls a local television station, dupes the security guard into giving him the modem's phone number and successfully hacks into the station's computer network, changing the current TV program to an episode of The Outer Limits. However, Dade is "attacked" by a hacker (handle"Acid Burn") on the same network. During the conversation, Dade identifies himself by the new alias, Crash Override.
Dade enrolls at Stanton High School, where he meets Kate Libby (Angelina Jolie), who is assigned to take him on a tour of the school. After Dade learns that Kate is "Acid Burn", a feud erupts between them.
The real trouble begins when Joey Pardella, the novice hacker of the group, successfully breaks into an Ellingson Mineral Company supercomputer to prove to the rest of the group that he is an elite hacker. To validate this feat, he downloads part of a garbage file. Unfortunately, the company's IT employee Hal (Penn Jillette) detects this unauthorized entry and summons computer security officer Eugene "The Plague" Belford (Fisher Stevens) to deal with the problem. He realizes the file being downloaded can prove that The Plague is stealing from the company.
Joey is arrested and his computer is searched, but the Secret Service finds nothing, as Joey has hidden the disk containing the files. After being released on parole, Joey reveals the disk to Phantom Phreak in a public park; but they quickly realize that they are being followed by the Secret Service. The next day, Phreak is arrested. He uses his phone call to inform Kate that he hid the disk in a boy's bathroom at school. That evening, Kate and Cereal Killer ask Dade for his help; but, because of his record, he declines. Kate then asks Dade to copy the disk so that, if anyone else is arrested, they have the disk as evidence.
The next morning, they evade the Secret Service and converge on Grand Central station, where they use payphones to begin their assault on the Gibson. At first, their attempts are easily rebuffed by Plague, who calls Dade to warn him to escape before he is arrested. However, Razor and Blade have contacted hackers around the world, who lend their support with virus attacks, distracting Plague long enough for Dade to download the incriminating file to a floppy disk.
Shortly after crashing the Gibson, Dade and company are arrested. As they're being led away, Dade surreptitiously informs Cereal Killer, hiding in the crowd, that he's tossed the disk in a trashcan. As Dade and Kate are being interrogated, Razor and Blade jam the local television signals and broadcast live video of Cereal Killer, revealing the plot and Plague's complicity. Plague is arrested when he tries to flee to Japan. Their names cleared, Dade and Kate go on a date. Kate even wears a dress. While relaxing in a pool on the roof of a building, their friends show off their latest hack—the lights in several adjacent office buildings spell out "CRASH AND BURN."
REFLECTIONS:
This movie is a good fun time, with interesting characters and an intriguing story line. Although the technology is somewhat outdated it is easy to suspend belief and to become involved in the story.As someone who grew up with computers, and has a fairly well grounded background in the tech sector. I find this movie to be a classic tech flick, there are part that are cheesy. However I find that the story itself is solid. This is a movie I can watch over and over and never really grow board with it.
The term hacker is used in popular media to describe someone who attempts to break into computer systems. Typically, this kind of hacker would be a proficient programmer or engineer with sufficient technical knowledge to understand the weak points in a security system.
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