One Of The Most Accurate Movies About Hackers Is This '90s Robert Redford Gem

The '90s were a special time, with hacking themes abound. The internet was still new and hadn't yet been taken over by corporations. Computing still had a positive mystique around it as something fresh on the scene, the playground of supernerds that could be easily twisted into engaging movie plots. This gave birth to some of the most interesting films made in that age, all diving into the enigmatic world of hacking. While 1995's Hackers is one of the most recognized hacking-themed films of its time, despite its campy, unrealistic portrayal, there's another '90s hacking movie you may not have heard of that got things right three years earlier without all the goofiness. It's called "Sneakers."

Not only does "Sneakers" explore the more realistic side of hacking through social engineering, but it's a movie that was so accurate that it even predicted the code-cracking capabilities of quantum computers before they were invented. It also doesn't hurt that there's an incredible cast backing up the movie's fairly realistic writing (by the scripting duo behind "WarGames," one of the earliest films to feature hacking), including Robert Redford, Dan Aykroyd, Sidney Poitier, River Phoenix, and Ben Kingsley, making for a star-studded lineup. Best of all, Sneakers doesn't suffer for it, unlike many films with packed casts. Each actor offers a quality, believable performance, lending credence to the film's hacking underpinnings.

Basically, Sneakers is a romp that anyone who loves hacker movies should watch, a fun thriller-comedy that uses the physical and social sides of hacking as a vehicle to move its espionage story forward to an enthralling ending. In other words, it's just as believable today as it was when it was released.

Like all movies, "Sneakers" takes liberties to illustrate hacking in digestible terms, such as instantaneous decryption portrayed through a silly descrambling sequence, and introducing a literal black box as the film's MacGuffin. So there are definitely familiar beats that don't stray far from a typical movie, but at the end of the day, "Sneakers" is a film that's more than the sum of its parts, thanks to its accuracy.

In particular, the film makes heavy use of social engineering, combined with technical attacks such as tapping security lines, even going so far as to depict classic phreaking to avoid being traced. Essentially, the cast make up a white-hat team of hackers and security experts using their powers for good to help protect businesses by testing for weaknesses, until they find themselves embroiled in an international plot to steal a code-breaking box, pushing them into employing a few black-hat tricks, which tend to focus on the more believable physical side of hacking, such as cracking electronic keypads, tricking heat sensors, and even spoofing voice activation.

Of course, the team dreams up a complicated plan that will push their skills to the limit, all while protagonist Martin (Redford) is distracted by juggling his secret past, a lost love, and his career. Serious themes are heavily tossed around, but it's also a comedy, and surprisingly, both Poitier and Phoenix proved they had the timing to go toe-to-toe with comedy legend Dan Aykroyd. By adding levity to such a serious situation, it helps balance out the film's ever-growing tension. There's simply no fat in Sneakers; it's a gem of a story that delivers a believable, tightly-written hacking plot, even by today's standards.