Hackers are one of the most mysterious and catchy characters in a movie, due to the nature of their expertise. For many years, Hollywood depicted hackers are either extremely arrogant or extremely introverted characters who are literally living in front of their computers and always wearing a hoodie for some reason. Although hackers are popular characters in movies for a very long time, unfortunately, Hollywood has no clue about what can hackers do and how they do it. The first hacker movie is War Games, released in 1983. However, we also saw characters hacking into systems much earlier in cinema history. For example, in The Italian Job movie, characters managed to hack into the traffic control system to create a traffic jam.
We have seen many hackers in movies who are smashing keyboards like crazy to hack an entire power grid of a city within minutes or hack a bank stealing huge amounts of money without a trace. Fortunately, among those movies, there are also some scriptwriters and directors who took their time to learn or ask for help from someone who knows how hacking works in real life. If you are looking for a realistic hacker movie on Netflix or any other platform, take a look at our list before choosing.
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Who am I?
| Name | Who am I? |
| IMDb | 7.5/10 |
| Director | Baran bo Odar |
| Release Date | 2014 |
| Length | 1h 42m |
Who am I, a German movie released in 2014, focuses on psychological issues along with hacking. Our protagonist, Benjamin Engel is a cyber security expert. He is also an orphan working as a pizza delivery guy. His life completely changes when he meets Max, a hacker who introduces Benjamin to other hackers. The group decides to form a hacker group named CLAY, short for Clowns Laughing At You, and start their attacks from Benjamin’s house. The movie includes various accurate information about the dangers of the online world and can even teach you something about cyber security.
Blackhat
| Name | Blackhat |
| IMDb | 5.4/10 |
| Director | Michael Mann |
| Release Date | 2015 |
| Length | 2h 13m |
If you are familiar with the cyber security terminology, the name of the movie might give you a hint. A talented hacker is serving his sentence in prison when he is contacted by legal authorities to capture a hacker who is responsible for terrorist attacks targeting a nuclear power plant in China. The chase reunites him with an old friend but also puts him in a difficult situation between two countries.
Hackers
| Name | Hackers |
| IMDb | 6.2/10 |
| Director | Iain Softley |
| Release Date | 1995 |
| Length | 1h 45m |
Although it might seem a little bit outdated, Hackers, released in 1995, is a movie that reflects the ideology of the Hacker Manifesto and is considered a cult classic. The protagonist, Dade Murphy is arrested and charged with crashing thousands of systems in a day while he was only 11. Thus he is banned from using computers until he is 18. Later on, he and his new friends find a plot to release dangerous malware. The group then tries to find any evidence and the hacker behind the virus while being chased by the authorities. Hackers are one of the oldest movies on our list but cyber security experts state that the hacking methods included in the film are realistic, with a few exceptions.
The girl with the dragon tattoo
| Name | The girl with the dragon tattoo |
| IMDb | 7.8/10 |
| Director | David Fincher |
| Release Date | 2011 |
| Length | 2h 38m |
In the popular Swedish-based drama, a hacker and a journalist are teaming up to solve a missing person case. The duo starts to decipher the clues left behind and believes that the disappearance is related to some serial killings that took place 20 years before the victim disappeared. As the duo traces the missing person, they start revealing secrets. The journalist allows the hacker to conduct a background check on himself to hire him for this job. The movie was released in 2011 and won the Best Achievement in Film Editing at Oscar Awards ceremony.
23
| Name | 23 |
| IMDb | 7.2/10 |
| Director | Hans-Christian Schmid |
| Release Date | 1998 |
| Length | 1h 39m |
This German movie’s title is based on the obsession of the protagonist with the number. The movie, based on a true story, revolves around a group of young hackers from Hannover. The orphaned Karl Koch starts visiting forums to discuss conspiracy theories. Later on, he and his friend find themselves trying to break into government and military systems. The gang tries to contact KGB to earn money. Hans-Christian Schmid, director of the movie, co-authored a book about the making of the movie and detailed the differences between the movie and the actual events.
WarGames
| Name | WarGames |
| IMDb | 7.1/10 |
| Director | John Badham |
| Release Date | 1983 |
| Length | 1h 54m |
For many people, WarGames is considered the first hacker movie, which makes it a very special movie for thousands of viewers. It is also considered a cult classic. The protagonist is a teenager named David, a lazy but smart student who prefers hacking into his high school to change his grades. While David and his friend Jennifer are seeking new games, he hacks into a company named Protovision and connects the War Operation Plan Response system in a computer located at the North American Aerospace. David challenges the game and things go unexpectedly and David finds himself in difficult situations.
Sneakers
| Name | Sneakers |
| IMDb | 7.1/10 |
| Director | Phil Alden Robinson |
| Release Date | 1992 |
| Length | 2h 6m |
Sneakers is also one of the earliest movies about hackers that was released in the 1990s and allowed a lot of people to learn about hackers, cyber security, etc. The movie revolves around a team of penetration testers who are blackmailed by government agents into stealing a black box. The team then finds out that the black box is capable of decoding all encryption systems and the agents who hired them are not working for the government. The film includes various methods of hacking from phreaking, which is also known as telephone hacking, to social engineering and reverse engineering.