# Hackers: What On Earth? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 1, 2012, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hackers-what-on-earth/608049 "2012-01-01T16:23:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2012, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hackers-what-on-earth/608049/21 "2012-01-02T05:38:02Z")
> [@obfusciatrist](#): > > No it wasn’t. And I doubt you are. I was for a while. I had to re-read it several times to clarify. Plus, you should maybe get a sense of humour adjustment. ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2012, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hackers-what-on-earth/608049/22 "2012-01-02T06:03:48Z")
No, my sense of humor is fine. I amused myself. You weren’t invited to the party. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2012, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hackers-what-on-earth/608049/23 "2012-01-02T06:05:26Z")
You could make a movie out of realistic hacking, BUT an action movie it won’t be. It would be more like a dense spy thriller where most of the drama comes from unknown or shifting loyalties and who is behind a screen handle, even I know better than to focus on the physical hacking. Most online communities are already filled with endless interpersonal drama 😉 There was a no budget online production called The Scene? where the story was told through screen capture and text that had the right idea. ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2012, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hackers-what-on-earth/608049/24 "2012-01-02T06:11:26Z")
We just wait for Aaron Sorkin to tackle writing the script for a Stuxnet movie. ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2012, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hackers-what-on-earth/608049/25 "2012-01-02T06:25:12Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > I have postulated this once before, but I do wonder if it’s possible to make a good action thriller with genuinely real computer hacking in it. It seems like it’s potentially possible, but nobody is willing to try it (or it gets boosted back into stupid levels by interfering parties somewhere betwixt writing and release) I was going to bring up swordfish, but I remember that thread, lol. Declan ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2012, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hackers-what-on-earth/608049/26 "2012-01-02T13:08:29Z")
Here’s a [video](http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/bt/pushinguproses/debugged/33439-hackers-debugged) by a reviewer I [del]have a crush on[/del]like that discusses most of the inaccuracies in the movie. It cemented my opinion that the only reason to watch it is that Angelina Jolie is quite hot with short hair. ---
**Author:** ![ExcitedIdiot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ea5d25/32.png) [@ExcitedIdiot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExcitedIdiot)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2012, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hackers-what-on-earth/608049/27 "2012-01-02T16:16:49Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > The thing is, movies usually hire genuine experts to advise them how to do it correctly. Getting them to _listen_ to the advice is a different matter. The producers of Hackers hired Emmanuel Goldstein of 2600 fame, to take them to hacker meetings in New York. They must have forgotten to take notes. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2012, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hackers-what-on-earth/608049/28 "2012-01-02T16:30:07Z")
> [@Taomist](#): > > He had a few friends into it too, crackers more than hackers, and their thing was more along the black/green/whatever color boxes that they used to jack into various telecommunications cables to do…whatever they did. Yeah, Steve Jobs used to do this sort of thing, too. It’s not possible these days. Those hacks got completely shut down by the early 80s, though a few minor hacks were still possible in the 90s. And they mostly weren’t doing the stuff you see in movies. Maybe you get some free calls but you aren’t getting intimate corporate or military secrets. _WarGames_ also showed some of the more realistic things you could do (games-playing AI notwithstanding) with a computer, modem, and plenty of time One of the tricks was simply trying every number in the phone book and logging the times when a modem picked up. Actually, that one is still used. Some botnets basically try every IP combination and hope an unpatched computer is connected to the other end. Brute force and far from how hackers are typically portrayed in movies. The point is that the modern plot contrivance of a directed hack against a particular target system being accomplished in a few minutes with just a few keyclicks is ridiculous. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hackers-what-on-earth/608049.md?page=1)