15 of The Coolest Hackers in Movies

In real life, computer expert and hacker are always considered as a geek and nerd, for they spend to much time with their gadgets instead of socialize. In movie, although they often still described as an introverts, they are also cool and able to save the day (or even the world) with their computer and hacking skills.

So, for you gadget and computer freaks, here are my list of 15 of the coolest hackers in movies. Leave a comment if you have other opinions.

15. Milo Hoffman (Antitrust/2001)

Actor: Ryan Phillippe

At first, he’s a programmer being rented by a satellite company, and later he finds out that the corporate using the satellites to spy on competitors. A movie that’s probably hated by hacker community as it pictures hacker as corporate watchdog. We have to envy Milo though, as he can date Claire Forlani and has Rachael Leigh Cook as co-worker.

14. Angela Bennett (The Net/1995)

Actress: Sandra Bullock

Angela Bennett is a young and beautiful computer expert who becomes involved in a web of computer espionage. Only hours before she leaves for vacation, she discovers secret information on the disk she has received from a friend that turns her life into a living nightmare. Another hacker that’s described as an introvert and anti-social, luckily, she’s hot.

13. Gus Gorman (Superman III/1983)

Actor: Richard Pryor

Gus is a bumbling computer genius who works for villainous multimillionaire Ross Webster to destroy Superman. Webster then orders Gorman to use his computer knowledge to create kryptonite. After the computer fails to analyze an “unknown” element in kryptonite, he improvises by replacing the unidentified element with tar, garnered from a pack of cigarettes!

12. Boris Ivanovich Grishenko (GoldenEye/1995)

Actor: Alan CUmming

Boris is an evil genius in the James Bond film GoldenEye. He is a brilliantly talented computer programmer and hacker who has hacked the United States Department of Justice. We can easily remember him from his catchphrase, “I am invincible!” whenever he succeeds.

11. Lyle (The Italian Job/2003)

Actor: Seth Green

Lyle is a computer technician that joins a team of thieves who plan to steal gold bullion from a former associate who double crossed them. The reason why he made it to this list is not because he was able to hack the LA traffic system, but because the possibility that he’s the real inventor of Napster (if you believe what he says).

10. Kate Libby (Hackers/1995)

Actress: Angelina Jolie

The movie tells the adventures of a group of gifted high school hackers and their involvement in a corporate extortion conspiracy. The main hacker is actually Dade “Zero Cool” Murphy, but since Kate “Acid Burn” Libby is played by Angelina Jolie, we have to pick her.

09. Matthew Farrell (Live Free or Die Hard/2007)

Actor: Justin Long

A group of cyber terrorists plan to hack FBI computers and takes over several U.S. technology infrastructures. Computer geek Mat Farrell works with immortal cop John McLane try to prevent that from happening. The character himself isn’t that interesting, but since the actor Justin Long was known as Mac personality in the campaign ads, this movie is like a free advertising for Apple!

08. Luther Stickell (Mission: Impossible 1-4/1996-2011)

Actor: Ving Rhames

Who says that hacker must be a skinny and introvert nerd? Luther is a muscle-bound expert computer hacker who works for the fictional “IMF” (Impossible Missions Force) division of the CIA, and he’s the only character besides Ethan Hunt that appears on all four Mission: Impossible movies.

07. David Lightman (WarGames/1983)

Actor: Matthew Broderick

Lightman is a young hacker who unwittingly accesses WOPR, a United States military supercomputer programmed to predict possible outcomes of nuclear war. He gets WOPR to run a nuclear war simulation, originally believing it to be a computer game, which later causes a national nuclear missile scare and nearly starts World War III. This movie was notable for coining the term “firewall” in reference to computer network security.

06. Neo (The Matrix Trilogy/1999-2003)

Actor: Keanu Reeves

I don’t know whether Thomas A. Anderson (aka Neo) can be categorized as a hacker or not. He lives in a world where machine and computer try to subdue human population, and “hacking” has a new definiton in this movie. However, many agree that The Matrix contains many references to the cyberpunk and hacker subcultures.

05. Trinity (The Matrix Trilogy/1999-2003)

Actress: Carrie-Anne Moss

I actually hesitated to enter two characters from a single movie in this list. However, since we lack of women hackers (especially the hot one), I decided to pick her anyway. Like the series’ other main characters, Trinity is a computer programmer and a hacker who has escaped from the Matrix, a sophisticated computer program in which most of the human race is imprisone. She’s also Neo love interests.

04. Kevin Flynn (Tron/1982)

Actor: Jeff Bridges

If you want un-serious movie about hacker, then Tron is the one. When Flynn attempts to hack into the ENCOM mainframe, he’s literally abducted into the world of computer and forced to participate in gladiatorial games where his only chance of escape is the help of a heroic security program. How cool is that?

03. Cosmo (Sneakers/1992)

Actor: Ben Kingsley

Rarely we seen an Oscar winner willing to play as a hacker (Jeff Bridges hasn’t got his Oscar when he played in Tron), and if there is one, then it must be a special role. In this movie, Cosmo is the master villain who believes that who’s controlling the information, he controls the power. This is his cool quote:

“The world isn’t run by weapons anymore, or energy, or money. It’s run by little ones and zeroes, little bits of data. It’s all just electrons.”

 
02. David Levinson (Independence Day/1996)

Actor: Jeff Goldblum

David is an MIT-educated computer expert working as a satellite technician in New York City. How we can deny that he’s an expert hacker if he was able to hack and send virus to alien’s mother-ship to disable their shield, which gives chance to human to fight the invaders.

01. Stanley Jobson (Swordfish/2001)

Actor: Hugh Jackman

A super hacker previously convicted by the FBI but now is trying to stay clean. Now he is targeted for recruitment into a bank robbery because of his hacking skills. He is easily become a hero for the nerds as in the movie he shows that he still can hack a computer while having a gun pointed to his head and simultaneously receiving a blow job!

That’s it for my choice of 15 of the coolest hackers from movies. Those films mainly teach us one thing, that is important to keep your data and computer save. The most susceptible way of losing data is if you keep them on a small device, such as memory card, external hard drive, or USB flash drive. That’s why you need to install USB flash drive encryption software for those devices, so if in any case you loss it, your date can’t be opened and used by other people.