My official list of 17+ must-see computer geek movies – Part 2

Continuing from where we left off in Part 1, I’ve got another batch of must-see technology related movies that geeks, gamers, programmers, and nerds will all surely enjoy if they haven’t already.

Swordfish & Firewall
Two more Hollywood movies to make the list are Swordfish and Firewall. Swordfish is about a DEA dummy corporation codenamed SWORDFISH that was shut down in the 80’s who in it’s time had generated $400 million which they apparently let sit around; fifteen years later and the compound interest has put it to $9.5 billion. A covert counter-terrorist unit called Black Cell headed by Gabriel Shear (John Travolta) wants the money to help finance their vengeance war against international terrorism, but it’s all locked away behind super-encryption. He brings in convicted hacker Stanley Jobson (Hugh Jackman), who only wants to see his daughter Holly again but can’t afford the legal fees, to slice into the government mainframes and get the money.

Firewall is a typical Harrision Ford kidnapping movie that features him as Jack Stanfield, the chief computer security expert of a large bank in Seattle, Washington. A terrorist named Bill Cox (Paul Bettany) has been spying on Jack for the last year and he knows the family’s daily routines, friends, and personal information. Cox leads a team of mercenaries who break into Jack’s home and take his wife and children hostage. With the lives of his wife and children at stake, Jack is forced to steal $100 million from the bank by electronically transferring the money to an offshore account.

Sneakers
Sneakers is another great caper film from 1992, it’s about this guy Martin Bishop (Robert Redford) who is the leader of a group of experts that specialize in testing security systems. When Bishop is blackmailed by government agents into stealing a top secret “black box”, the team find themselves embroiled in a game of danger and intrigue. After they recover the box, they discover that it has the capability to decode all sorts of encryption systems and the agents who originally hired them didn’t actually work for the government.

The Net
Angela Bennett (played by the beautiful Sandra Bullock) is a young computer software analyst. A fellow analyst from Cathedral Software, Dale, sends her a program on a disk that when run displays a peculiar symbol in the lower-right corner. When clicked in addition to a couple keystrokes the software reveals a bug that gives the user entry point access to government and military computer systems. When Angela discovers the potential in this security flaw her life turns into a nightmare. Her records are erased from existence and she is given a new identity, one with a police record. Throughout the movie Angela struggles to find out why this has happened and who is behind it all.

After The Net there was an unsuccessful TV series by the same name that ran only 22 episodes on the USA network. There was also a direct-to-video sequel called The Net 2.0 released in 2006 that I have yet to see.

The Matrix Trilogy
Ok well, technically this is three movies and I’m not going to bother writing a synopsis for the whole trilogy. Most people are familiar with The Matrix and unlike many I’m personally a fan of all three movies and I recommend them equally. If you consider yourself a Matrix fan make sure you check out The Animatrix. The Animatrix is a collection of nine animated short films that detail the back-story of the “Matrix” universe and the original war between man and machines, which led to the machine’s creation of the artificial reality for humans. The short films fill countless plot holes created in the original trilogy and the artwork alone is truly stunning.

Enemy of the State
Another good Hollywood film that isn’t too farfetched is Enemy of the State. Will Smith stars in this film as Robert Clayton Dean, a lawyer with a wife and family whose happily normal life is turned upside down after bumping into a college buddy at a lingerie shop. Unbeknownst to the Dean, he’s just been burdened with a videotape of a congressman’s assassination. A group of National Security Agents chase him and track his every move by using surveillance from satellites, bugs, and other sophisticated devices, the NSA infiltrates every detail of Dean’s existence. Driven by intense paranoia, Dean enlists the help of a former NSA operative named Brill (Gene Hackman) to stay one step ahead.

Mercury Rising
NSA thrillers must have been a popular theme in 1998 because Mercury Rising is essentially the same movie except instead of a videotape they are after an autistic boy named Simon who has an affinity for puzzles and is able to crack the NSA’s new ‘unbreakable’ encryption. Instead of Will Smith playing a lawyer the movie stars Bruce Willis as Art Jeffries, an undercover FBI agent who protects Simon from the NSA agents trying to terminate him.

Live Free or Die Hard
I bet the last movie you would expect to see on this list is the latest chapter of the Die Hard anthology, but despite Live Free or Die Hard following the typical ‘Die Hard’ storyline it does have a geeky twist. Even if it didn’t who could not like the Die Hard movies right?

12 years after John McClane (Bruce Willis) stops the German terrorists from successfully robbing the Federal Reserve, he’s about to face a new kind of challenge more difficult and personal than ever before. An organization of cyber terrorists led by Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant) is taking control of everything in the United States from public utilities to the stock market. McClane, accompanied by Matthew Farrell (Justin Long), one of the hackers who accidentally assisted the villains in setting up the system, must stop Gabriel from taking over the country completely. In response to McClane’s diligence Gabriel also manages to take McClane’s daughter hostage.

Pirates of Silicon Valley
Last but not least is Pirates of Silicon Valley. I almost didn’t include a synopsis for this movie but it’s actually not bad and the characters did a decent job playing the roles of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Pirates of Silicon Valley was an unauthorized made-for-television docudrama that’s loosely based on the book Fire in the Valley: The Making of The Personal Computer by Paul Freiberger. The film documents the rise of the personal computer through the rivalry between Apple Computer and Microsoft.

More?
Johnny Mnemonic, 23, Breach, Tron, Total Recall, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Thirteenth Floor, all great movies you could look into and I’m sure there are plenty of others that I’m missing so feel free to post your own favorites in the comments.

Looking for more must-see computer geek movies? Check out Part 1 of this list.