The best thing about The Pirates is his sense of style. And, if you know a lot about computer nerds, this should tell you everything you need to know. Flashy and complex, this Angelina JolieThe 1995 tech-crime thriller attempts to fictionalize a very real phenomenon with mixed results. Unlikely situations and tech chatter warn you early – this movie is going to be a cartoonish parody of hacking, a journey for 90s teens who wanted to believe in the transformative power of taking matters into their own hands. But just like real hacking isn’t about typing furiously while numbers fall on a screen, The Pirates isn’t just a bad tech movie. It rose from the ashes as a cult classic, even warmly received upon release by some reviewers for its distinctive visual style. Although actual hacking in The Pirates is inaccurate, the movie world is entertaining as hell. For many fans, that’s more than enough.
What are “hackers”?
We open with a scene that will seem timely to anyone who’s seen a “swatting” video: A suburban raid. A flashback tells us that a young hacker’s hobby of dismantling government systems cost his family $45,000 and put him on probation – a deal that means he can’t own a computer or touch-tone phone – until he turns 18. in mind a real-world event that would take place a few years later when a reporter for The New Republic made up the story of a young hacker paid dearly to quit his job. There’s a movie about it, too.) Waves of ethereal music pull us into the present, and we meet our protagonist: Dade Murphy, aka Zero Cool (Johnny Lee Miller). It’s immediately apparent that the film cares more about its aesthetics than its story – an aerial view of New York blends into the rainbow-lit hallways of a motherboard. The question is not whether this is correct or not. The question is whether we care. Yes, The Pirates is an imperfect representation of its subculture. Hacking in the real world is about reading and writing code, not floating around in cyberspace. But it’s also a great time capsule. Fashion, music, technology and more are trapped in the amber of this film. If we can laugh at the rest, we’ve cracked the code.
The technology and culture of “hackers” is not very precise
At the start of the film, Dade “takes control” of a cult television network. He heckles the station employee, mocking him for his lack of computer savvy. “Well, well, my BLT drive on my computer just failed,” he told the unfortunate worker. Ironically, this kind of meaningless techno-jargon isn’t too common in The Pirates. The stupidity here is more culturally derived. Dade wears dark sunglasses as he types, pecking at the computer. He stumbles upon another hacker’s digital territory – ACID BURN SEZ LEAVE B 4 UR EXPUNGED – and his alias appears on his screen in a stylized font, without an app. (The movie is full of these big names, including “Phantom Phreak,” “Cereal Killer,” and “Lord Nikon.”)
For the most part, the film seems unwilling to understand the unglamorous parts of hacking; lines of code, tired eyes and late nights. Although real-life hackers have praised the film for its multiple accurate references, there are also plenty of embellishments. As Dade enters the underworld of elite hackers, he uses highly visual technology to do his dirty work, flying through a digital landscape via his laptop. He even ends up in a hacker nightclub. Drenched in neon colors and filled with skateboard ramps, it harkens back to a time when tech hadn’t yet separated from touch. In fact, the story itself, in which Dade and his new group of hacker friends must outsmart both the government and a former hacker, is almost secondary in fan memories. The film’s heart and ambition are more important, as well as its sense of style.
Fashion is one of the best parts of ‘hacking’
It’s hard to pick an MVP when it comes to hacker fashion — one of the best parts of this movie. Each character design is fully fleshed out, from Ramόn Sánchez (Renoly Santiago) and her leopard-print tank top and pants combo to Kate Libby (Jolie) and her heavy moto jacket. “I’m trying to save you from yourself, but you gotta stop letting your mom dress you, man,” Sánchez told a fashion-less friend. What make you want to run to the thrift store. But maybe no other character is more decked out than Matthieu LillardIt’s Emmanuel Goldstein. Between small braids and behind tiny shades, Goldstein, aka Cereal Killer, is perhaps one of the best roles in the film. Both boring and adorable, Lillard’s charm holds together a chaotic mix of quotable lines and great shirting. “This is Cereal Killer,” Sánchez says, “like in Froot Loops.” (If you dropped him in college today, he’d be all the rage.) Elite Hacker Lord Nikon (Laurence Mason) wears a monastic robe, and Razor and Blade, the hosts of a popular hacking show, paint over elaborate makeup. It’s undeniably silly, especially when you see Penn GilletteIt is small glasses, but it’s also inspired. The film really has a style of its own.
The innovative visuals of “Hackers” inspired Christopher Nolan
Above all, The Pirates has extreme visual panache. From flickering television channels to pixelated animation, film is more physical than written. When Dade first sees Kate’s lips, his mind races through cultural references, from Gustav Klimt The kiss to statuary and old films. Audiences feel like they live in the space between the digital world and the real world; in other words, the space these pirates inhabit. Direction tricks blur the line further, with the camera focusing on Dade’s face as a digital background swirls with life. There are multiple, beautiful sequences in which we zoom through the innards of computers and piles of hypothetical and brilliant information, innovative practical representations of the hacking process. These segments worked so well that they actually inspired the techniques used by Christophe Nolan in many of his most popular films. In short, while The Pirates may not be the most accurate reflection of its subculture, it’s certainly one of the most entertaining, even if you can’t point to a mainframe. The Pirates may not teach you how to enter a banking system, but as a cultural artifact it still rules.
