Some of the most successful blockbuster films released in the last two decades have been themed on the potential destruction that computer hackers can cause. Here are some of Hollywoods top hacking themed movies.
Swordfish
A secretive renegade counter-terrorist co-opts the world's greatest hacker to write a hacking worm that will gain access to US Government systems, allowing the hackers to steal $10 million to fund their secret organisation.
The Matrix
Computer programmer Thomas A Anderson leads a secret life as a hacker under the alias “Neo", and wishes to understand the simulated reality that he lives in, known as ‘the matrix’.
Die Hard 4
A number of computer hackers including Matthew "Matt" Farrell, upload programmes they were paid to code to a woman named Mai. Soon, all of the unnamed hackers are killed by planted explosives. The next morning, Mai's boss and lover, Thomas Gabriel, gives orders to initiate his plot to hack into the US governments systems.
Goldeneye
James Bond teams up with the lone survivor of a destroyed Russian research centre to stop the hijacking of a nuclear space weapon by a fellow agent believed to be dead.
The Italian Job
In Venice, Italy retired safecracker John Bridger calls his daughter Stella Bridger and tells her that he is participating in what will be his final gold heist. John and his team five execute the heist perfectly, but one of the team members betrays them all by taking the gold for himself; he kills John Bridger and leaves the rest of the team for dead.
Enemy of the state
A lawyer becomes a target by a corrupt politician and his NSA goons when he accidentally receives key evidence to a serious politically motivated crime.
Wargames
The film follows a young hacker who unwittingly hacks into WOPR, a United States military supercomputer programmed to predict possible outcomes of nuclear war. The Hacker gets WOPR to run a nuclear war simulation, originally believing it to be a computer game. The simulation causes a national nuclear missile scare and nearly starts World War III.
Sneakers
Martin Brice, a hacker, has kept to his assumed name of Martin Bishop after narrowly avoiding capture for hacking US government computers in 1969, a fate that his friend Cosmo didn't escape.
Untraceable
FBI Cybercrime agent Jennifer Marsh is tasked with hunting down a seemingly untraceable serial killer who posts live videos of his victims on the internet. As time runs out, the cat and mouse chase becomes more personal, until she finally meets the killer.
The Net
A fellow analyst from Catheral Software, Dale, sends Angela Bennett a programme on a disk that when run displays a peculiar symbol (π) in the lower-right corner. Dale instructs Angela to hold the CTRL and SHIFT buttons while clicking the π symbol, revealing that it gives the user entry point access to government and military computer systems. It is learned 'they' have recently implemented a newly developed piece of illegitimate 'protection' software called The GateKeeper System and this is what the film hinges upon.
Die Hard 4 - Hacker Matt Ferrel forced to write code for a terrorist organisation.