Worst Cybersecurity Movies

[Kaity]

Hi everyone!

I love movies, even bad ones. I'm an avid listener of the podcast How Did This Get Made and the next movie they're doing is Virtuosity. It got me thinking about other hilariously bad movies with a tech/sci-fi based plot...

So tell me, what movies have the worst depiction of cybersecurity?

[ChickenCurry]

The worse movies and tv shows are the ones where they have caught the perpetrator on film at a crime scene. The investigator shouts " zoom in and enhance". As if by magic by pressing one key the image quality seems to get better as the camera zooms in without blurring :).

[rslade]

I vote for any movie or TV show that has someone trying to trace/track the bad guy "hackers," or where the good guy "hackers" are trying to hide from the evil corporation/government, and multiple hops are being used and somebody has a huge screen with all the links and the links are progress bars (usually turning red) running like fuses all over the screen.

Along with my technical book reviews I've reviewed a number of works of fiction with technical themes, although I haven't done many movies.  (I did do "Hackers" and "Sneakers.")

In terms of movies you can find some I've reviewed briefly on my library account.  Some technical films made it into this list of complete and utter fantasy.

[Kaity]

Ha! Love it - thank you for sharing!

[denbesten]

Firewall (2006).  A big security reseller rented out a theater for a premiere-day screening that included lunch, popcorn and the obligatory hawking of their goods.  Don't know if the storyline, the technical flaws or the overall implausibility bothered me the most. The only good thing to come from it was a better understanding of why my wife (who worked in surgery) gets so frustrated watching medical shows/movies.

Also "special" are those TV shows with somebody watching a monitor that has no cables (video or power) attached.

[denbesten]

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@TonyDS wrote:

Not technially cyber, but the depiction of a Unix System in Jurassic Park always makes me chuckle.

That is fsv/fsn. It is an actual X11 application, although it was never developed enough to be very functional.  I've seen it in a few other movies too.

[rslade]

Somebody made a movie version of Ton Clancy's "Net Force" (which was bad enough), but (spoiler alert) it ends with some supposed "key" to the Internet kept in the US President's desk drawer (it looks like an oversized power bar) that will turn off the entire Internet when the button is pushed.

[Kaity]

@denbesten At least they included food with the bad movie - always helps!

[j_M007]

Hlarious!