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Release year - 1995
Age rating - 12
Angelina’s role - Kate Libby or ‘Acid Burn’
‘Box Office’ gross - $7,564,000
Film length - 107 mins
Film genre - Thriller, Crime, Teen Romance
Recommended Audience - Male (12-30yo), Computing fans
Purchasing ... - click to buy the tape/DVD
Cast list -
• Jesse Bradford (Swimfan) • Matthew Lillard (Scooby Doo) • Laurence Mason • Renoly Santiago • Fisher Stevens • Alberta Watson • click here for the full IMDB list | • Andrzej Sekula - Cinematography • Roger Burton - Costumes • Iain Softly - Director |
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Brief synopsis -
Dade Murphy (Jonny Lee Miller), aka Zero Cool, is a computer hacker - and a good one. At the age of 12 he hacked into some government files, and caused chaos on Wall Street with his computer virus causing 1,507 systems to crash. Presumably this was in the aftermath of “Black Monday” and premonition of “Black Wednesday.” Dade was arrested by the Secret Service and sentenced by a judge not to have access to any electronic equipment until his 18th birthday, when he has ‘matured’ - anything from calculators to the microwave are banned. We join where he is released from this sentence, is finishing his time in high school and has just been forcibly moved to a new school in a new city with his mother (father divorced). Of course, as soon as is humanly possible he has a computer again, and is once again hacking - under the new assumed name of Crash Override. On his first new hack he “invades the turf” of another hacker, who promptly tells him that Acid Burn (Angelina Jolie) will crush him ! A short skirmish ensues in the unsuspecting television station’s machines and Crash is “terminated.” Editorial Note : She probably pinged his modem into overload. At Crash’s first visit to his new school he encounters a rather feisty Kate Libby (who he later discovers is Acid Burn) and she cons him like all the other freshmen to go to the “pool on the roof.” (will leave that to your imagination). He is intrigued by her and some competition between the two brings them together through the film. The small band of hackers at the college quickly adopt this interesting new member and introduce him to their world - with everything from newbie idiots to entire hacker television broadcasts, and from hacker clubs to never having to pay for ’phone calls. Meanwhile, another junior hacker desperately trying to gain their respect breaks into a “gibsen” - super-secure mainframe system - and stumbles across what they later discover to be a far from harmless Garbage file, which would normally contain deleted and obsolete files. The poor fellow is quickly apprehended by the authorities but he has stashed the incriminating disc in his air ducts. He is released (and grounded) but the disc travels from person to person avoiding capture and the gang soon discover they are in deep, very deep. The security chief of the gibsen - affectionately taking the moniker “The Plague” - is on to them. He has traced their call, and is using Dade’s criminal record and gift of a laptop to get what he wants - the disc. The added difficulty of the ‘Da Vinci’ computer virus intent on capsising all the cargo ships electronically controlled by the gibsen, blamed on our gang, means our team must work night and day in secret to discover that The Plague is actually running both the Da Vinci virus and a ‘worm” - a virus that eats small chunks of computer files to take a few cents from each financial transaction, and transfer it into a secret off-shore bank account he intends to swipe. The band not only need to exonerate their friend, but themselves also, so must hack back into the gibsen to expose the file. However, The Plague is waiting for them. Editorial Note : the Da Vinci virus actually exists, but it tends to take different forms now. Five people is not enough. Their quarry is tough - they need to recruit the assistance of the two most respected hackers and their TV show to ask that “hackers of the world unite!” in their cause. Dade brings the city’s traffic to a standstill at exactly 0900 by turning all the traffic lights green, and they haul up in Grand Central Station. The Plague is fast - too fast - they simply cannot get through the system fast enough, until the fashionably late hackers join and, slowly, viruses appear on the gibsen from everywhere. Viruses, worms, rabbits, trojan horses, everything ! The barrage is too much, the central processor cannot cope, all these viruses flooding the system give our team enough time to find the file and extract it. However they are too late, the police have caught up with them, but not before one gets away and is able to broadcast the incriminating evidence through every television monitor in the city, and The Plague is apprehended on a commercial aircraft attempting to flee the scene. The film ends with Crash and Burn (pathetic pun !) going for a night-time dip in a swimming pool, with a rather poor light show from the adjacent office towers and the pair become intimate in the water as the film fades. |
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| Music - in chronological order : |
Orbital - Hacylon & on & on (Main theme)
Underworld - Cowgirl Stereo MCs - Connected Leftfield - Open Up The Joker - Josh Abrahams Brooklyn Bounce - Hack The Planet Eyes Lips Body - Ramshackle Richest Junkie Still Alive - Machines Of Loving [Sank] Prodigy - Voodoo People Plastico - Communicate Squeeze - Heaven Knows |
| Review - by Paul Harris (male) | ||
| Thoughts/Opinions - | One for the ‘geeks’ with a penchant for technology. Rather an active film with a predictable ending, but good to fill the time. | |
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| Review - by Claire Bilton (female) | ||
| Thoughts/Opinions - | One of AJ’s better known films; quotes like “I hope you don’t screw like you type” gave her critical acclaim and a firm footing for further roles. Her character and costume were well though of and it became quite a cult hit. Many liking the leather biker look. | |
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| Watch if you liked - | The Matrix / The Net | |
It was this film where Angelina met Jonny Lee Miller, and soon after its release the two were to marry. Although the relationship was short-lived. More in the biography.
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