Movies

CLEANUP CANDIDATE

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This page provides a list of technology, science fiction, and cyberpunk-related movies, documentaries, anime and biographies.

Fiction

Biography

Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999)

Probably the best movie about the Microsoft vs. Apple war and the tech boom in the 80s-90s. Plus it's pretty fucking entertaining.

Also the worst direct-to-video movie about tech ever.

Micro Men (2009)

Light-hearted dramatization of the battle between the ZX Spectrum and BBC Micro for the British home computer market in the early 80s. Features Alexander Armstrong as Sir Clive Sinclair and Martin Freeman as Chris Curry.

The Social Network (2010)

Largely fabricated history of facebook. Great movie, but definitely not a doco.

The Fifth Estate (2013)

Story of WikiLeaks and Assange through the filter of Hollywood. Pretty bland.

Jobs (2013)

Written by a man with only one imdb credit, no wikipedia article and no web presence (who is probably an Alan Smithee), Ashton Kutcher plays Ashton Kutcher: Steve Jobs Man. Did you know that Steve Jobs was a visionary and could also be a bit of a jerk? Then you've seen this movie already.

Crime/Drama/Thriller

Videodrome (1983)

James Woods runs a smalltime cable tv station full of sex and violence. In his quest to find more fucked up shit to broadcast he pirates a show called Videodrome. As he investigates the show he falls down a rabbit hole of increasingly fucked up shit. Directed by David Cronenberg.

Hard to describe without spoiling. Very relatable main character for any /b/tard.

WarGames (1983)

This movie convinced Ronald Reagan to make law against this movie happening. The movie is a work of fiction, however, and sadly the law still applies. It makes little sense.

Stars Ferris Beuller and the goth girl from The Breakfast Club. Kid hacks into nuclear war and plays against an AI.

Sneakers (1992)

Heist movie with a cryptographic maguffin. Well worth it.

Hackers (1995)

Classic tech nerd movie and the source of many, many references. Stars Sick Boy from Trainspotting as a magic hacker, Angelina Jolie (pre facial reconstruction) as the antagonist, and a she-he and rollerblades. Required viewing.

Strange Days (1995)

On the eve of a dystopian Y2K, "playback" technology exists which can record someone's experience and be played back in virtual reality for third parties. An underground producer of pornographic and criminal playbacks is on the trail of a twisted murderer and must protect his girl while avoiding corrupt cops.

Stars Lord Voldemort, the bad guy from The Crow, Juliette Lewis's tits, Tom Sizemore and others. Co-written by James Cameron.

The Net (1995)

If you're an FSFfag, this movie shows the dangers of non-free software :^)

Sandra Bullock learns what smileys are. Cringey but classic.

Virtuosity (1995)

Evil AI Russel Crowe escapes from virtual reality and into a T-1000esque body. Cyberpoliceman Denzel Washington must stop his rampage. Not a terrible movie, but not great either.

23 (1998)

Track Down aka Takedown (2000)

Entertaining but innacurate movie about the hunt for Mitnick.

Tom Clancy's NetForce (1999)

Hilariously terrible movie about the cyberpolice. Full of nonsensical technobabble. You're probably better off watching Everything is Terrible's 3 minute version than sitting through the entire thing.

Swordfish (2001)

John Travolta plays a wonderful crime boss who forces this computer hacker to hack into bank accounts and stuff. P great.

Untraceable (2008)

Techsploitation movie to scare your parents.

Surrogates (2009)

In a world where people spend their lives jacked into idealized android "surrogates" of themselves, while their true bodies lie quietly at home (think Second Life irl), a human anti-android faction acquires a weapon which both destroys androids and simultaneously murders their human operators. Bruce Willis is a cop tasked with finding the murderers and their weapon but finds himself part of a much wider story.

A complex, fast moving plot with plenty of interesting character motivations. Well worth a look.

Source Code (2011)

Donnie Darko is stuck in groundhog day, trying to find a mad bomber on a train. A technological subplot is also slowly revealed.

Comedy

Weird Science (1985)

Two young men attempt to make a beautiful, sex crazed woman out of their computer, a doll, a modem, illegal government software, and electricity. It goes horribly right!

iSteve (2013)

The first biopic that came out after Steve Job's death, this movie is a hilarious production from the website Funny or Die. This is also their first Feature-Length production!

Pornographic

HaXXXor: Volume 1: No Longer Floppy (2003)

Girls remove clothing and masturbate while providing brief tutorials on topics such as network sniffing and dumpster diving.

HaXXXor Volume 2: Fear of an 8-bit Planet (2004)

More girls remove clothing and masturbate while providing brief tutorials on topics such as counting in binary and p2p filesharing.

Romance

S1m0ne (2002)

A computer simulated woman with no brain becomes the best actress in the entire world, controlled 100% by a no-name Hollywood director (played by Al Pacino). It's filled with standard romantic comedy non-jokes.

Her (2013)

Joaquin Pheonix has a moustache in the near future and falls in love with an AI lady voiced by Scarlett Johansson. The AI improves upon itself but can it still love his moustache? (Actually a really good movie).

Sci-Fi + Action/Adventure/Drama

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

This is a Kubrick movie, so you know it'll be good.

(So long as you enjoy slow 1960s space stuff and don't mind 20+ minutes of acid trip "artful"/"deep"/"shit" ending.) (Still required viewing).

Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970)

America creates a massive computer network AI to control the nuclear arsenal. Russia creates the same AI with stolen plans. The two computers connect, gain sentience, share a mind, and take over the world.

Blade Runner (1982)

One of the earliest Cyberpunk movies.

Harrison Ford hunts down some rogue cyborgs who question their questionable programming. Must see.

TRON (1982)

This movie is almost a romanticized view of the connection between programmer and program.

2010: The Year we Made Contact (1984)

The sequel to 2001: A Space Oddesy, but not a Kubrick production. "My God. It's full of Stars!"

The Terminator (1984)

The Governator at his best.

A cyborg is sent back in time to kill the mother of the leader of the Human Resistance. A human soldier is also sent back in time to protect the mother.

Short Circuit (1986)

"Number 5 is... Alive!"

An AI robot breaks his programming and acts as comedy relief.

Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future (1986)

Excellent cyberpunk movie. TV show version was bad though.

The Lawnmower Man (1992)

Pierce Brosnan is a professor who makes a retard super smart via 1990s VR tech. No-Longer-Retard guy creates cybergeddon.

Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace (1996)

Lawnmowerman (now played by Max Headroom) is hired to build a superchip and create the cyberscape for a global virtual reality. He goes crazy again, and Last Action Hero Kid from the first movie, along with his hacker crew (including Harvey the hacking dog) must get the superchip before lawnmowerman hacks the world and becomes a cybergod. Really.

eXistenZ (1999)

Jennifer Jason Leigh is a l337 games programmer for games beyond VR that connect directly into your spine. Layers upon layers of reality ensue.

The Matrix (1999)

First one was pretty good. Second one was... less good. Third one was...

A random anon breaks out of virtual reality (our reality) and learns how to hack it and disrupt our robot overlords. Stars Keanu Reaves in "Not Bill and Ted so I'm a plank of wood" mode, yet isn't bad. Required viewing.

The Thirteenth Floor (1999)

The creator of a matrixesque 1930s simulator is murdered and his programmer employee enters the simulation to investigate. Starts off pretty slow but picks up at the end.

The Animatrix (2003)

Several animated short stories set within the Matrix universe. Includes the backstory of man vs the machine and the kid that Neo "saves" between Matrix 1 and 2.

Primer (2004)

Super Geniuses talk shop for approximately fourteen hours without a single reference for the audience to connect to.

I Robot (2004)

Will Smith in the year 2030, robots become commonplace and slaves to humans.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)

From the Douglas Adams's book, one of the best sci-fi comedy movies.

Iron Man (2008)

"I am Iron Man! Has he lost his mind? Can he see or is he blind? Who the fuck care's he's Iron Man!"

TRON: Legacy (2010)

Remake of the other TRON.

Transcendence (2014)

One of the worst movies ever made. Johnny Depp plays Johnny Depp: Quiet Computer Man, whose brain is uploaded to become an AI which improves upon itself to become omnipotent. Then nothing happens. Far, far shallower than an old Star Trek episode, far, far less exciting than 90s vr schlock. About half the runtime is establishing shots.

Non-fiction

Documentary

Hackers: Wizards of the Electronic Age (1984)

Short and sweet talks with various programmers, including Woz and Stallman.

The KGB, the Computer and Me (1990)

Follows an eccentric astronomer trying to track down a hacker in the late 80s. Low budget, but good fun.

Hyperland (1990)

Douglas Adams imagines a wikibinge. Features a short interview with Ted Nelson (who coined the term "Hypertext") and a NASA VR headset. Stars Tom Baker as a personification of a web browser. Mostly confusing and boring.

The Triumph of the Nerds (1996)

Very dated doco by a 1990s computer nerd about the rise of computers.

Code Rush (2000)

Follows Netscape developers as they open source their browser code into Mozilla and are bought out by AOL.

Freedom Downtime (2001)

Doco about Kevin Mitnick's life and incarceration. Features plenty of hacker royalty.

The Code (2001)

The Secret History of Hacking (2001)

Covers Captain Crunch and the blind phone phreakers, Woz and the Homebrew Computer Club and Mitnick on the run.

Revolution OS (2001)

Stallman, Linus, etc.

Startup.com (2001)

Two unbearable douchebags raise ludicrous amounts of money for a product they can't deliver on. Is it crowdfunding? No! It's the Dot-com bubble! One of the douches is now in prison for (unrelated) accounting fraud. Pretty boring film.

In the Realm of the Hackers (2003)

Follows the late 80s hacker scene in Melbourne, Australia, training grounds of Julian "Mendax" Assange.

Once Upon Atari (2003)

History of Atari told by original Atari devs. If you don't know, they were all crazy dudes on drugs and awesome as fuck.

Tetris: From Russia With Love (2004)

Follows the creation of Tetris in communist Russia and the shitfight to import it into America/Europe.

BBS: The Documentary (2005)

History of BBS boards (pre internet computer networks) which covers a surprising amount of modern day problems with fuckwits ruining the internet.

Tilt, The Battle to Save Pinball (2006)

Great history of pinball machines from mechanical to mech/rom and even into 3d video bullshit. If you like pinball, you must watch this.

Steal This Film Parts 1 and 2 (2006-7)

Part 1 is basically a cheersquad for The Pirate Bay, with interviews from anakata, brokep and TiAMO (Svartholm, Sunde and Neij).

Part 2 is a much more interesting look at the history of intellectual property and the now-broken model of control that the MPAA and friends are trying to continue. Brief comments from Aaron Swartz.

Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade (2007)

Interviews with champions of classic arcade games and Twin Galaxies founder Walter Day. Lots of glorious geek personalities and good fun.

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007)

Follows oldschool arcade game champions who hold alltime highscores. Some drama with Billy Mitchell (champion who had commercial success) vs Steve Wiebe (loveable underdog). Drama is a bit forced, but still a great doco if you're a MAME head.

Good Copy Bad Copy (2007)

Doco about copyright law. Has interesting parts about piracy culture in Brazil and Nigeria. Still pretty dry.

Hackers Are People Too (2008)

Short look at the hacker ethos, mostly made up of impromptu interviews at various security conferences.

RiP!: A Remix Manifesto (2008)

Doco discussion about the right to remix existing media. Not bad, but if you're on this wiki you are probably already across the issues about copyright in 2008.

The Truth According to Wikipedia (2008)

Questions the reliability of Wikipedia and user contributed content in general. While some decent points are made, most of the criticisers will probably end up on the wrong side of history.

Hackers Wanted (2009)

Fairly balanced doco about hackers and crime/terrorism. Focuses on Adrian Lamo, who went on to snitch on Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning.

Get Lamp (2010)

A history of Text Adventures from the physical cave system that inspired Adventure to modern Interactive Fiction.

All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (2011)

Three part documentary by Adam Curtis on how the (relative) simplicity and rationality of computer systems have clouded our view of how the world operates and how we operate within it. Quite heavy viewing with heaps of politics and philosophy involved.

Ecstacy of Order: The Tetris Masters (2011)

Doco about the elite players of Tetris. Revolves around a big tournament to determine the ultimate Tetris master. Required viewing if you like Tetris.

Demoscene - The Art Of The Algorithms (2011)

The Space Invaders - In Search of Lost Time (2012)

Doco about neckbeards who hoard original arcade machines/arcade owners. Well worth it if you own/wish to own an arcade cabinet.

We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists (2012)

History of Anonymous, 4chan, Project Chanology and hacktivism. Interviews with Barrett Brown and other anons.

DEFCON: The Documentary (2013)

The history and experience of DEFCON. Can be found for free on the DEFCON site

Downloaded (2013)

The story of Napster (the first mass P2P filesharing tech) and the legal feeding frenzy that followed.

Terms and Conditions May Apply (2013)

Doco about copyright problems. Decent, but pretty dull.

TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay Away from Keyboard (2013)

Doco about the original Pirate Bay, featuring Gottfrid "anakata" Svartholm, Peter Sunde and Fredrik Neij. Follows the copy movement, pirate bay raids, legal troubles and some juicy shots of TPB servers. Well worth it.

We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks (2013)

About the inception of WikiLeaks and ensuing media shitstorm. More sympathetic to Manning than Assange, but not the worst criticism made of WikiLeaks. Focuses less on the impact of the leaks and more on people behind them. The title is a quote from the ex NSA/CIA director.

Web Junkie (2013)

Follows a group of miserable chinese anons accused of "internet addiction" and incarcerated in military juristiction hospitals.

The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz (2014)

All about Aaron Schwartz's long fight with Copyright law, and his suicide before trial

Citizenfour (2014)

Laura Poitras' doco on Snowden. Lots of Snowden time. Lots of footage from when the shit was hitting the fan. Required viewing unless you're just some anime faggot.

Digital Amnesia (2014)

Short doco on ArchiveTeam who are similar to the Internet Archive Project (archive.org). Philosophy and technical challenges of recording our internet.

Atari Game Over (2014)

Brief history of Atari and the video game crash. Focuses on digging up E.T. Cartridges in the famous landfill (they find them, and more).

From Bedrooms to Billions (2014)

The history of the British gaming industry and the technology that shaped it, including the creation of software publishers and magazines.

Focuses mainly on the pre-console era of the ZX Spectrum and BBC Micro. Interviews with just about everyone (and everyone's horrible teeth).

The Hacker Wars (2014)

Covers early 2010s hacktivism and Anonymous, including weev, Jeremy Hammond, Barrett Brown, HBGary, Stratfor, LulzSec, Sabu and more. Lots of fun.

Deep Web (2015)

Follows the takedown of the underground drug market The Silk Road and prosecution of it's creator Ross "Dread Pirate Roberts" Ulbricht. While it's highly sympathetic to Ulbricht, it does cover broader topics such as privacy, anonymity, government prosecution methods and the war on drugs.

It's also directed by Bill S. Preston Esq. and narrated by Ted "Theodore" Logan who together are Wyld Stallynz.

See also

• /g/ related Books
• /g/ related Music
• /g/ related Video games
• /g/ related TV Series