Fictional Hackers that are most like a "real" hacker

[bascule]

Also from one of the best sci-fi books we have several - Armitage, Case and Molly.

Wow, I can't believe no one mentioned Case the Console Cowboy until then... or Hiro, or for that matter, Klapaucius and Trurl...

[skroo]

Pretty much anyone I'd be likely to mention already has been, so I'll make one somewhat unusual choice: Dexter Fletcher as Charles in The Rachel Papers. Not so much a hacker as a social engineer, but still an interesting concept. Trivia bit and ***FAP ALERT***: all you horny little perverts out there can jerk it to Ione Skye nekkid in this flick.

Oh, and I do get a kick out of Lyle (Seth Green's character) in the 2003 remake of "The Italian Job". Not so much for the character, but because he pulls off the traffic light hack from within Union Station, which is where LA 2600 meets.

Still, though, it's not as good as the original. Just not the same without the self-preservation society...

[Hateful]

McCoy Pauley is pretty cool , not sure if he counts as he is just a ROM.

The other is Ash (Malgorzata Foremnial) from the film Avalon, probably not a hacker as such, but she actually does searches for information (including reading books!) and is a loner totally addicted to a computer game.

[rjsquirrel]

Have to agree with David Lightman and Lazlo Hollyfeld as archetypical hackers and Whistler as the perfect phreaker. But for sheer escapism, I'm sort of surprised nobody has mentioned Gary and Wyatt from Weird Science. I mean, they used their computers and a Barbie doll to make themselves a date. Isn't that the essence of what every hacker is trying to do?

[Ridirich]

I doubt we are trying to make ourselves dates on a computer, also, they are not like real hackers, and I thought that was the goal of this thread.

[Siviak]

I doubt we are trying to make ourselves dates on a computer...

speak for yourself (see thread entitled "Geek Love")

also, they are not like real hackers, and I thought that was the goal of this thread.

well that depends on how you look at it... anti-social, pale, thin, just looking for a bit of populairity and a nice *BOINK*... sounds like geeks/hackers to me

[Ridirich]

I did not say "find a date" implying looking for a person, which is what that thread is about....I said "make" as in "create a person to date". It is like that commercial where the black woman talks about draining an account and spending it on computer parts and then finishing his robot....his girl robot. I doubt the majority of hackers are buying blowup dolls and trying to give them life.

[Vegas]

What about the "fictional" hacker in the movie "takedown"

[heavens exile]

matthew broderick in war games. that was easy.

[alklloyd]

Wow, I can't believe no one mentioned Case the Console Cowboy until then... or Hiro, or for that matter, Klapaucius and Trurl...

There was a t-shirt years ago that had the Pillsbury Doughboy in VR gear with this on the back: "2fresh was the best console doughboy in the Sprawl...Until one day he hot-crossed the wrong people."

Al

[Serene]

I'd said "The Plaque/Eugene" from Hackers. I felt he was quite the only hacker in the movie..

"Were the keyboard cowboys the samurai's and those who don't have any idea are the cattle" -The Plaque. ( Love the quote also... )

[alklloyd]

I'd said "The Plaque/Eugene" from Hackers. I felt he was quite the only hacker in the movie..

"Were the keyboard cowboys the samurai's and those who don't have any idea are the cattle" -The Plaque. ( Love the quote also... )

I thought I was the only person who was rooting for him. For some reason many attendees have very fond memories of that stupid movie.

Al

[Serene]

I thought I was the only person who was rooting for him. For some reason many attendees have very fond memories of that stupid movie.

Al

I recorded it a few days ago and made a DVD out of it since I was too lazy to get up and go to BestBuy or one of them and get it although I seen the movie on television more than 20 times :P

[Macavity]

The way I see it, it depends upon two things: how you define "hacker", and what you consider a computer.

After all, depending upon your definitions, anyone can be a hacker - from my buddy Decker Doodle over at TheKult.Net to Dr. Alfred Frontera, the local neurologist (mainly because a lot of people - especially those who have to deal with manipulating people's thought processes and behavior, such as neurologists, propagandists, and advertisers - tend to view the human brain as an organic computer).

As for who I consider most like a real-world hacker, well, there are few:

Count Zero Interrupt, from the William Gibson novel Count Zero. Granted, he's inexperienced, but he's got potential and dreams, and without those, you're nothing.

The murdered game programmer from the failed ARG* MAJESTIC. He's more of a social hacker than a computer hacker, as he was trying to use a game to reveal a government conspiracy . . . unfortunately for him, he was murdered before he could finish the game, and it was up to the ARG players to discover just what was going on.

(I don't think that ever happened, though, because although the concept for MAJESTIC was pretty cool, I don't think the general public was ready for ARGs. They have, however, been growing in popularity, and I myself was involved with I Love Bees, an ARG run by Bungie and 4orty2wo Entertainment as part of the promo campaign for Halo 2.)

The Doctor, from Doctor Who. He's practically the ultimate hacker - able to change his appearance, to win people's trust with ease . . . hell, he even has top-level security clearances with the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (aka UNIT)! If that's not some impressive social engineering, I don't know *what* is.

ARG - Alternate Reality Game. It's a cross between an Internet treasure hunt and a live-action roleplay, but without the levels, experience points, and weird abilities of most LARPs. ARGs usually combine Internet interacttions - such as email, IM conversations, and Web fora - with real-world interactions - such as letters, telephone calls, adverts in newspapers, and face-to-face meetings. As a matter of fact, if you were at E3 earlier this year and you heard about or saw the fight between game designer Virgil Tatum and Ian of Last Resort Retrieval, that was part of an Audi-sponsored ARG called The Art of the Heist.

[skroo]

My imaginary hacker friend Doug wins.

Doug once used a half-eaten tuna sandwich to gain access to Russian mind-control experiment data. It was pretty cool, but he keeps making me go out for food.