The 45+ Very Best Movies About Hackers

Ranker Film
Updated May 1, 2024 51.3K views 49 items
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All hacker films ever made are listed here in one place. This is a complete list of all hacker movies ever made for your viewing pleasure. Hacking films are listed in and can be sorted by different kinds of categories. The complete hacker movies list can also be imported to create a personalized list. Wonder if any of these movie scenarios shocked the characters as much as the jenny internet hoax shocks the internet.

What are hacker movies? This list will give you a comprehensive look at films based on our favorite (or least favorite) people to take control of computers. You'll recognize a few famliar names on this list, like Antitrust, Live Free or Die Hard, Enemy of the State and well, Hackers to name a few. 
Most divisive: Independence Day
Over 100 Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of The 45+ Very Best Movies About Hackers
  • WarGames
    1

    WarGames

    Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman, Ally Sheedy
    51 votes
    In WarGames, David Lightman (Matthew Broderick), a precocious high school student and computer whiz, unwittingly hacks into a military supercomputer. Thinking he's stumbled upon a new computer game, Lightman triggers the countdown to World War III. With the help of his friend Jennifer Mack (Ally Sheedy), he must outsmart the system to prevent global catastrophe. The film, a techno-thriller directed by John Badham, underscores the potential perils of advanced technology in the wrong hands. It earned three Academy Award nominations, reinforcing its status as a significant piece of 80s pop culture.
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  • Sneakers
    2

    Sneakers

    Robert Redford, Dan Aykroyd, Ben Kingsley
    26 votes
    In the world of cyber espionage, a group of talented misfits led by Martin Bishop (Robert Redford) navigate through complex technology and security systems in Sneakers. They're blackmailed into stealing a mysterious code-breaking device by an enigmatic character named Cosmo (Ben Kingsley). This tension-filled thriller, directed by Phil Alden Robinson, delves deep into the realm of cryptography. Alongside riveting performances from Sidney Poitier and River Phoenix, Sneakers weaves a tale of intrigue that merges humor with suspense, making it a standout in its genre.
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  • Hackers
    3

    Hackers

    Jonny Lee Miller, Angelina Jolie, Jesse Bradford
    49 votes
    A teenage hacker finds himself framed for the theft of millions of dollars from a major corporation. Master hacker Dade Murphy, aka Zero Cool, aka Crash Override, has been banned from touching a keyboard for seven years after crashing over 1,500 Wall Street computers at the age of 11. Now keen to get back in front of a monitor, he finds himself in more trouble than ever.
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  • Tron
    4

    Tron

    Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, David Warner
    32 votes
    In the groundbreaking 1982 film Tron, Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), a computer programmer, finds himself digitized and thrust into a neon-lit cyber universe. This digital realm is ruled by the villainous Master Control Program and its henchman Sark (David Warner). Accompanied by security program Tron (Bruce Boxleitner) and Yori (Cindy Morgan), Flynn embarks on a high-stakes quest to dismantle the oppressive regime. A unique blend of science fiction and action, Tron is celebrated for its pioneering use of computer graphics, setting new standards in visual effects.
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  • The Matrix Franchise
    5

    The Matrix Franchise

    Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishbourne, Carrie Moss
    39 votes
    The Matrix is a science fiction action media franchise created by The Wachowskis and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. The series began with the feature film The Matrix (1999), and continued with two sequels, The Matrix Reloaded (2003) and The Matrix Revolutions (2003). The characters and settings of the films are further explored in other media set in the same fictional universe, including animation, comics, and video games.
  • Enemy of the State
    6

    Enemy of the State

    Will Smith, Gene Hackman, Jon Voight
    32 votes
    In the thriller Enemy of the State, Robert Clayton Dean (Will Smith), an unsuspecting lawyer, becomes embroiled in a deadly government conspiracy. Unwittingly possessing evidence of politically motivated crime, he is relentlessly pursued by a rogue National Security Agency official, Thomas Reynolds (Jon Voight). With the aid of ex-intelligence operative Brill (Gene Hackman), Dean attempts to turn the tables on his pursuers. Directed by Tony Scott, this film intertwines elements of action and political intrigue, offering viewers a riveting exploration of privacy invasion and state corruption.
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  • Real Genius
    7

    Real Genius

    Val Kilmer, Gabriel Jarret, William Atherton
    25 votes
    In Real Genius, the spotlight shines on two brilliant students, Mitch Taylor (Gabriel Jarret) and Chris Knight (Val Kilmer). They are enrolled at Pacific Tech, a university renowned for its technology programs. The young prodigy Mitch is paired with the eccentric genius Chris under the mentorship of the manipulative Professor Hathaway (William Atherton). Unbeknownst to them, their project has covert military applications. As they uncover this truth, they must outwit both their professor and the U.S. government to prevent potential catastrophe. This 1985 comedy-drama delivers a blend of humor, intelligence, and youthful rebellion against authority.
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  • Swordfish
    8

    Swordfish

    John Travolta, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry
    25 votes
    There exists a world within our world. A world beneath what we call cyberspace. A world protected by firewalls, passwords and the most advanced security systems. In this world we hide our deepest secrets, our most incriminating information, and of course, a whole lot of money. This is the world of "Swordfish." The world's most dangerous spy is hired by the CIA to coerce a computer hacker recently released from prison to help steal $6 billion in unused government funds.
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  • The Thirteenth Floor
    9

    The Thirteenth Floor

    Craig Bierko, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Gretchen Mol
    18 votes
    A man awakens to discover a bloody shirt in his house and his boss murdered the night before. Did he do it? Why can't he remember? "The Thirteenth Floor" is a sci-fi thriller that explores the ominous possibility of computer-simulated universes, where people only believe they are real.
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  • Johnny Mnemonic
    10

    Johnny Mnemonic

    Keanu Reeves, Dolph Lundgren, Takeshi Kitano
    36 votes
    In this film based on the William Gibson story, Johnny (Keanu Reeves) is a data courier who has a secret stash of information implanted into his mind. However, the data will kill Johnny if he cannot retrieve it within 48 hours. Accompanied by physically enhanced bodyguard Jane (Dina Meyer), Johnny sets out to acquire the passwords he needs to save himself. Worse yet, he is hunted by gangster Shinji (Denis Akiyama) and businessman Takahashi (Takeshi), both of whom seek the data Johnny possesses.
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  • The Net
    11

    The Net

    Sandra Bullock, Jeremy Northam, Dennis Miller
    31 votes
    Computer programmer Angela Bennett (Sandra Bullock) starts a new freelance gig and, strangely, all her colleagues start dying. Does it have something to do with the mysterious disc she was given? Her suspicions are raised when, during a trip to Mexico, she's seduced by a handsome stranger (Jeremy Northam) intent on locating the same disc. Soon Angela is tangled up in a far-reaching conspiracy that leads to her identity being erased. Can she stop the same thing from happening to her life?
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  • Ghost in the Shell 2.0
    12

    Ghost in the Shell 2.0

    17 votes
  • GoldenEye
    13

    GoldenEye

    Pierce Brosnan, Sean Bean, Izabella Scorupco
    21 votes
    In GoldenEye, James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) returns, tasked with halting a lethal satellite weapon system from falling into the wrong hands. Aided by CIA agent Jack Wade (Joe Don Baker) and computer whiz Boris Grishenko (Alan Cumming), Bond navigates a world of treachery, betrayal, and high-tech espionage. The film, notable for its thrilling action scenes and introduction of Judi Dench as M, marked Brosnan's debut as the iconic British spy. With its blend of classic Bond charm and modern sensibilities, GoldenEye revitalized the franchise for a new era.
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  • Deja Vu
    14

    Deja Vu

    Denzel Washington, Val Kilmer, Jim Caviezel
    16 votes
    Déjà Vu is an intense science fiction thriller led by ATF agent Doug Carlin (Denzel Washington). After a tragic ferry explosion in New Orleans, Carlin is enlisted to help with the investigation. Aided by unique technology that allows him to look back in time, he soon uncovers a sinister plot. The film, directed by Tony Scott, marries elements of crime and time-travel genres. Val Kilmer co-stars as Agent Pryzwarra. The movie's enigmatic storyline intertwines past and future events, creating a complex narrative web that keeps viewers on their toes.
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  • Office Space
    15

    Office Space

    Ron Livingston, Jennifer Aniston, David Herman
    40 votes
    In the comedy film Office Space, Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) is a disgruntled software engineer stuck in a soul-sucking job at Initech Corporation. Alongside his equally tormented coworkers, Samir Nagheenanajar (Ajay Naidu) and Michael Bolton (David Herman), they suffer under the oppressive management of Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole). The trio hatch a plan to steal fractions of pennies from the company, a scheme that spirals out of control. Directed by Mike Judge, this 1999 cult classic provides a satirical look at corporate culture and office politics.
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  • Existenz
    16

    Existenz

    Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jude Law, Willem Dafoe
    18 votes
    In Existenz, a mind-bending sci-fi thriller directed by David Cronenberg, Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is the world's leading game designer. She invents a virtual reality game system named 'eXistenZ', which directly connects to the user's nervous system for an immersive experience. Her life takes a sharp turn when she becomes a target of real-world assassins, forcing her to go on the run with marketing trainee Ted Pikul (Jude Law). As they delve deeper into the game's complex layers, the line between reality and the virtual world blurs, leaving them questioning their very existence. The film is a labyrinthine exploration of technology's grip on our perceptions and lives.
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  • Firewall
    17

    Firewall

    Harrison Ford, Paul Bettany, Virginia Madsen
    13 votes
    Bank security expert Jack Stanfield (Harrison Ford) builds a career on his expertise in designing theft-proof computer systems for financial institutions. However, a criminal mastermind (Paul Bettany) kidnaps his family, and he must work feverishly to find a way to break into his own system and steal $100 million, for the lives of his loved ones hang in the balance.
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  • Weird Science
    18

    Weird Science

    Kelly LeBrock, Anthony Michael Hall, Ilan Mitchell-Smith
    26 votes
    In the comedic science fiction film Weird Science, high school geeks Gary Wallace (Anthony Michael Hall) and Wyatt Donnelly (Ilan Mitchell-Smith) decide to take their fate into their own hands. Using a home computer and some old-fashioned teenage ingenuity, they create Lisa (Kelly LeBrock), a stunningly beautiful woman with a mind of her own. However, the boys soon learn that their creation is more than they bargained for, leading to a series of hilarious and unexpected events. This John Hughes-directed movie artfully combines humor and fantasy, providing an entertaining exploration of adolescent dreams gone awry.
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  • Untraceable
    19

    Untraceable

    Diane Lane, Billy Burke, Colin Hanks
    14 votes
    Special Agent Jennifer Marsh works in an elite division of the FBI dedicated to fighting cybercrime. She thinks she has seen it all, until a particularly sadistic criminal arises on the internet. This tech-savvy killer posts live feeds of his crimes on his website, and the more hits the site gets, the faster the victim dies. Marsh and her team must find the elusive killer before time runs out.
  • The Girl in the Spider's Web
    20

    The Girl in the Spider's Web

    Claire Foy, Beau Gadsdon, Sverrir Gudnason
    11 votes
    Fired from the National Security Agency, Frans Balder recruits hacker Lisbeth Salander to steal FireWall, a computer program that can access codes for nuclear weapons worldwide. The download soon draws attention from an NSA agent who traces the activity to Stockholm. Further problems arise when Russian thugs take Lisbeth's laptop and kidnap a math whiz who can make FireWall work. Now, Lisbeth and an unlikely ally must race against time to save the boy and recover the codes to avert disaster.
  • Serenity
    21

    Serenity

    Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk
    13 votes
    Serenity is a 2005 space western film directed by Joss Whedon. The story follows the crew of the spaceship Serenity, led by Captain Malcolm Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion). They're on the run from an operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor) sent by the totalitarian Alliance to capture River Tam (Summer Glau), a psychic fugitive aboard their ship. As they delve into uncharted territories, secrets are revealed and loyalties tested. Notably, this film serves as a continuation of Whedon's short-lived 2002 Fox television series Firefly, with the same characters and setting. It won the Nebula Award for Best Script.
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  • The Conversation
    22

    The Conversation

    Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Frederic Forrest
    15 votes
    Surveillance expert Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) is hired by a mysterious client's brusque aide (Harrison Ford) to tail a young couple, Mark (Frederic Forrest) and Ann (Cindy Williams). Tracking the pair through San Francisco's Union Square, Caul and his associate Stan (John Cazale) manage to record a cryptic conversation between them. Tormented by memories of a previous case that ended badly, Caul becomes obsessed with the resulting tape, trying to determine if the couple are in danger.
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  • Jumpin' Jack Flash
    23

    Jumpin' Jack Flash

    Whoopi Goldberg, Stephen Collins, John Wood
    14 votes
    Terry Doolittle (Whoopi Goldberg) works with computers in a bank office. She routinely talks with others via her computer, but one day she connects with a mysterious user by the name of Jumpin' Jack Flash (Jonathan Pryce). It takes her a while to decode his message, but Terry figures out that Jack is a British secret agent trapped behind enemy lines. Terry agrees to help him, but her activities attract the attention of the KGB, who want to know Jack's real identity -- and will kill to get it.
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  • Three Days of the Condor
    24

    Three Days of the Condor

    Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, Cliff Robertson
    12 votes
    In the taut thriller, Three Days of the Condor, Joe Turner (Robert Redford), a low-key CIA analyst, finds his life abruptly upended. Returning from lunch to discover his entire office assassinated, he's thrust into a desperate cat-and-mouse game. Faye Dunaway portrays Kathy Hale, a stranger unwittingly entangled in Turner's world of espionage and danger. Directed by Sydney Pollack, this film is a masterful blend of suspense and political intrigue, winning an Edgar Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay. As Turner delves deeper into the conspiracy, he grapples with trust issues and survival instincts in a world where friends could be foes.
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  • Independence Day
    25

    Independence Day

    Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum
    26 votes
    In the groundbreaking sci-fi action film Independence Day, mankind faces the threat of global destruction at the hands of malevolent extraterrestrials. As cities crumble under colossal alien ships, a disparate group of survivors emerges. Among them is President Thomas J. Whitmore (Bill Pullman), hotshot pilot Captain Steven Hiller (Will Smith), and eccentric scientist David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum). Together, they devise a risky plan to repel the invaders and save humanity. Directed by Roland Emmerich, this 1996 blockbuster was applauded for its impressive special effects and won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.
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  • Die Hard 4: Live Free or Die Hard
    26

    Die Hard 4: Live Free or Die Hard

    Bruce Willis, Justin Long, Timothy Olyphant
    17 votes
    In Live Free or Die Hard, seasoned New York cop John McClane (Bruce Willis) finds himself battling a different kind of criminal. The action-thriller, fourth in the Die Hard franchise, sees our hero thrown into a world of cyber-terrorism. He is tasked with preventing a tech-savvy villain, Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant), from shutting down America's key infrastructure. Aided by hacker Matt Farrell (Justin Long), McClane must navigate this digital battlefield, using his old-school methods to thwart Gabriel's high-tech scheme. In this high-stakes game of cat and mouse, it's clear: McClane either lives free or dies hard.
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  • Ghost in the Machine
    27

    Ghost in the Machine

    Karen Allen, Chris Mulkey, Ted Marcoux
    20 votes
    After Terry (Karen Allen) tells a computer store clerk where she lives, the information falls into the hands of the clerk's co-worker Karl (Ted Marcoux), the serial murderer known as the "Address Book Killer." When Karl is injured in a car crash, his doctors place him in an MRI machine. As Karl dies, the computer powering the machine extracts his soul. The murderous computer system then locates Terry and tries to kill her by turning technological devices into deadly weapons.
  • Antitrust
    28

    Antitrust

    Ryan Phillippe, Rachael Leigh Cook, Claire Forlani
    13 votes
    When Milo (Ryan Phillippe) graduates from college and lands his dream job writing software at a multi-billion dollar computer company, he couldn't be more thrilled. The company's magnetic founder (Tim Robbins) that he worshiped as a child is now his personal mentor. As he settles into his new position, Milo uncovers some dark secrets about the firm and soon learns that he can't trust anyone but himself in the high stakes world of computer technology.
  • Nichts ist so wie es Scheint
    29

    Nichts ist so wie es Scheint

    7 votes
  • The Lawnmower Man
    30

    The Lawnmower Man

    Jeff Fahey, Pierce Brosnan, Jenny Wright
    12 votes
    The eccentric Dr. Lawrence Angelo (Pierce Brosnan) puts mentally disabled landscaper Jobe Smith (Jeff Fahey) on a regimen of experimental pills and computer-simulated training sequences in hopes of augmenting the man's intelligence. In time Jobe becomes noticeably brighter and also begins to fare much better with the opposite sex. But, as he develops psychic powers, he realizes that those around him have taken advantage of his simplicity his whole life, and he plots a bloody revenge.
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