15 Movies About Hackers You Should Try Next

As personal computers became commonplace in the 1980s, a new subgenre of film developed. Computers had played important parts in science fiction stories for a long time, but once computers became prevalent in everyday society, tales with computer terminology and technology at their centers felt closer to reality. Suddenly we had films about ordinary people whose specialized knowledge puts them at the forefront of action movies, techno-thrillers, espionage adventures, and heist films.

As computer technology became enmeshed with the average person's normal experiences, tech-savvy people became more in demand, and more frequently represented as protagonists in complex storylines revolving around technology. Movies about hackers have grown in popularity over the years, while hackers have become mainstay archetypal figures in multiple genres.

We've put together a list of movies about hackers you should check out, from groundbreaking classics to pop-cultural curiosities. Some of these movies explore political themes like activism and civil disobedience, others are inspired by real events, and a few delve into pure science fiction that addresses the nature of our reality and the essence of what makes us human.

If you like techno-thrillers about hackers and you haven't seen "WarGames" yet, you need to rectify this situation immediately. The classic 1983 Cold War-era film stars Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy. 

David (Broderick) is a computer wiz who wants to play a few video games before they hit the market. When he hacks into a computer system looking for the games, he accidentally kicks off a potential nuclear war between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. Once David realizes he's made a huge mistake, he works with the Pentagon to prevent World War III.

The experience of watching "WarGames" back in the '80s, when nuclear annihilation felt like a more immediate threat, probably resonated a little differently than it might today. But "WarGames" is still an exciting techno-thriller and teen drama that feels fresh after all these years. "WarGames" also articulated cultural anxieties about artificial intelligence's capacity to wipe humanity off the face of the Earth a year before 1984's "The Terminator." The ratings on Rotten Tomatoes for "WarGames" are excellent, suggesting you should totally check out this foundational hacker movie.

When "Hackers" hit theaters back in 1995, it was a brutal box-office bomb. Critics hated the movie at the time, and as we can tell by the "Hackers" score on Rotten Tomatoes, their minds haven't changed much. But "Hackers" has since become a cult favorite, as you might surmise from its much more respectable Rotten Tomatoes audience score. 

That's not to say the film is good, necessarily. But "Hackers" is an epic time capsule and love letter to the strange teenage outcasts of the '90s. The bad guy played by Fisher Stevens is absolutely ridiculous, and so are the outfits of the soon-to-be famous young cast who, because they very much exist in the '90s, rollerblade around Manhattan and hook their laptops up to payphones to hack complex systems.

"Hackers" doesn't take itself too seriously and plays with the trope of the witless teenager in over their head that's at the forefront of "WarGames." While movies about hackers had mostly been about men and boys up to this point, Angelina Jolie's character Kate, aka Acid Burn, is a master hacker on the same level as Jonny Lee Miller's protagonist Dade, aka Crash Override. What's more, Kate's audacious and confident instead of stereotypically nerdy and awkward. This was a refreshing change of pace in the '90s and helps the movie hold up today.

Any list devoted to films about hackers would be incomplete without "The Matrix." The sci-fi juggernaut stars Keanu Reeves as Thomas Anderson, aka Neo, a hacker and mild-mannered computer programmer. With the writer-director sister team of Lilly and Lana Wachowski at the helm, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Hugo Weaving co-star in this essential film. The special effects and visual aesthetics were certainly groundbreaking when "The Matrix" dropped at the end of the millennium in 1999, and the story remains thought provoking.

"The Matrix" invites conversations about the nature of our reality. Over the years, the movie has accidentally encouraged some folks to think we literally live in a simulated reality, while others see Eastern philosophy — specifically fables about reaching enlightenment, and then helping others awaken — represented in Neo's journey. 

If you haven't seen this film in years, you might be surprised by how well it stands up to the test of time. A winner of multiple technical awards at the Oscars, "The Matrix" remains a visually dazzling experience. If you haven't seen "The Matrix," what exactly have you been doing all this time? This film is a foundational production for fans of sci-fi.

"Swordfish" is a 2001 blend of an action movie and a techno-thriller. In this picture, Gabriel Shear (John Travolta) is a CIA operative heading up a covert counter-terrorism unit who decides to steal funds from his own government to finance his operations.

Ginger Knowles (Halle Berry) recruits Stanley Jobson (Hugh Jackman), an elite hacker on parole, to breach a U.S. Department of Defense server, install a worm, and steal billions from a government slush fund. After agreeing to the job, Stanley realizes he's being followed by the FBI agent who originally arrested him, J.T. Roberts (Don Cheadle). Things get interesting and messy when the CIA learns multiple other government organizations are investigating Gabriel.

Critics weren't impressed by the convoluted plot, as reflected in the poor Metacritic scores for "Swordfish." However, audiences seem to appreciate the stylish thriller; you'll note the "Swordfish" user score on Metacritic leans in a more positive direction. "Swordfish" might not be high-quality entertainment, but it has a terrific cast and a premise that places a computer wiz at the center of the story.

In 2011's "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," hacker Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) uses her tech skills and natural talents as an investigator to help journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig). The unlikely pair solve a cold case, uncovering the dark family secrets of an aging industrialist while revealing the identity of a serial killer who has been operating in Sweden unfettered for decades.

The American film is an adaptation of the best-selling novel by Swedish writer Stieg Larsson. While Lisbeth uses her tech savvy for unambiguous good in the 2011 movie, a separate Swedish film series explores this morally gray character further by adapting the remaining books in Larsson's trilogy.

The Swedish language films are brilliant, but so is director David Fincher's take on the material, garnering a "Fresh" score on Rotten Tomatoes and winning an Oscar for editing. In every version of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," we finally have a female hacker as the central character of a film — a much-needed development in a genre traditionally dominated by men. "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" also explores violence against women, a topic that's more serious and potentially relevant to the audience's actual lives than what we typically see in hacker-centric films.

If you loved "Fight Club," we've got the perfect film about hackers for you. "Who am I" is a 2014 German language film set in Berlin that is smart, stylish, and sneaky. It's about a lonely computer hacker named Benjamin (Tom Schilling) who lives with his senile grandma and works as a pizza delivery driver. When Benjamin hacks into a university database to steal answers to a test, he is arrested and sentenced to community service.

While doing his hours, Benjamin meets Max (Elyas M'Barek). Max introduces Benjamin to his friends Stephan (Wotan Wilke Möhring) and Paul (Antoine Monot Jr.). Soon the four men carry out subversive hacks under the moniker CLAY — Clowns Laughing at You. Their hacks become increasingly ostentatious and dangerous as they vie for the attention of RMX, the king of underground hackers. Soon the group is in over their heads and wanted by the Cyber Division of Europol.

The plot of "Who am I" is complex and loaded with satisfying twists and turns. The characters are interesting, the acting is top notch, and the production values are excellent. "Who am I" creates tension and excitement using arresting visuals to dramatize the transference of information in cyberspace. 

Although the film hasn't been reviewed by a ton of officially designated critics, the audience ratings on Rotten Tomatoes suggest an enjoyable watch.

Director Oliver Stone tackles the real-life story of Edward Snowden (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a former NSA employee and soldier, who leaves his position with the CIA when he learns of the U.S. intelligence agency's illegal electronic surveillance activities. Snowden finds himself in a moral quandary, ultimately deciding to leak classified documents to the press, making him a polarizing figure in the ongoing debate over personal privacy, the freedom of information, and national security.

While this film's premise is tangential to hackers — the eponymous protagonist physically secrets data out of a government facility — it epitomizes the ethical conundrum concerning what hackers choose to do with the secrets they obtain and the potential damage of releasing these secrets. In Snowden's case, he was attempting to save lives, but his own life was destroyed in many ways. "Snowden" was a box office disappointment during its 2014 theatrical run, not even recouping its estimated $40 million budget. The film has a respectable audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, perhaps in large part due to Gordon-Levitt's excellent performance.