Plot
Complex but lighthearted thriller about computers and cryptography, government and espionage, secrets and deception and betrayal.

Release Year: 1992

Rating: 7.0/10 (28,147 voted)

Director: Phil Alden Robinson

Stars: Robert Redford, Dan Aykroyd, Sidney Poitier

Storyline
Martin Bishop is the head of a group of experts who specialise in testing security systems. When he is blackmailed by Government agents into stealing a top secret black box, the team find themselves embroiled in a game of danger and intrigue. After they recover the box, they discover that it has the capability to decode all existing encryption systems around the world, and that the agents who hired them didn't work for the Government after all...

Writers: Phil Alden Robinson, Lawrence Lasker

Cast:
Jo Marr - College-Aged Cosmo (as Jojo Marr)
Gary Hershberger - College-Aged Bishop
Robert Redford - Martin 'Marty' Bishop
Sidney Poitier - Donald Crease
David Strathairn - Irwin 'Whistler' Emery
Dan Aykroyd - Darren 'Mother' Roskow
River Phoenix - Carl Arbogast
Bodhi Elfman - Centurion S&L Night Guard
Denise Dowse - Bank Teller
Hanyee - Bank Secretary
Timothy Busfield - Dick Gordon
Eddie Jones - Buddy Wallace
Time Winters - Homeless Man
Mary McDonnell - Liz
Jun Asai - Piano Prodigy

Taglines: We could tell you what it's about. But then, of course, we'd have to kill you.

Release Date: 9 September 1992

Filming Locations: 2nd Street Tunnel between Hill and Figueroa, Los Angeles, California, USA

Gross: $51,433,000 (USA)

Runtime: 126 min  | Canada: 118 min (Ontario)

Trivia:
James Earl Jones, David Strathairn and Mary McDonnell all also appeared together in Matewan.

Goofs:
Revealing mistakes: The ceiling tiles that Martin and Carl use to move around above the floors in the Playtronics building are the hanging type, quite fragile like cardboard and would not be able to support an adult's full body weight.

Quotes:
Cosmo: There I was in prison. And one day I help a couple of older gentlemen make some free telephone calls. They turn out to be, let us say, good family men.
Martin Bishop: Organized crime?
Cosmo: Hah. Don't kid yourself. It's not that organized.

The last good hacking movie

Rating: 10/10

I was saddened that this movie had such a low rating. I've watched it many, many times over the years, and it continues to entertain. It is, perhaps, the last good "hacker" film (well, 23 (1998) also comes to mind, but that isn't widely available in English).

The math is believable (Janek's lecture makes sense), as is the technology (except for the Hollywood-ish decryption displays -- but that's forgivable). The characters are among the most realistic in any of these movies (with the exception of Joey the lamer in Hackers (1995) -- most accurate character in a hacking movie I've seen yet). They're each composites of well-known people from the 80s security scene. The techniques they use are the techniques of the business, especially in that era.

Now that computers have become such a big thing, I don't think it would be possible for Hollywood to produce another movie like this. Anything made now would have to be far more glamorous and unrealistic.

What's this movie got, if you don't care about any of that stuff? It's tremendously funny, cleverly written (every scene works overtime to say and do more than one thing), and beautifully shot and scored. (The opening scene and transition is wonderful) The acting is priceless. I've never met someone who didn't love this film. See it.

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