This is the movie. Computers, hackers and viruses in feature films.

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As Sergey Lukyanenko wrote in one of his novels, “Cinema is a mashed porridge, generously flavored with the sugar of special effects, which you don’t need to chew. Open your mouth – and swallow…”. And yet, we like watching movies – after all, it’s a great way to relax after a hard day at work. Some people have different opinions, but personally, I really like Hollywood blockbusters, the plot of which includes hacking some top-secret system or computer viruses. Because in such cases, even the most dashing thriller usually turns into a funny comedy.

Of course, we are not talking about such universally recognized masterpieces as "Hackers" from 1995, the "Matrix" franchise or "Tron". But there are plenty of other films in the history of cinema in which computer technology plays an important, if not decisive, role. For example, the thriller "Network" with Sandra Bullock as beta tester Angela Bennet. At the very beginning of the film, Angela suddenly discovers a cunning computer virus while playing Wolfenstein 3D. It must be said that "Wolfenstein" itself has a destructive power no worse than an atomic bomb - at one time I sat at this game for several weeks in a row, almost failing my session at the institute. But the film is not about this: in the course of further development of the plot, the heroine receives from her colleague a floppy disk with a Trojan created by a mysterious hacker group. As soon as you insert the disk into the computer, the malware starts doing dirty deeds: it destroys databases, changes records on remote servers, and is probably even capable of burning a toaster in the neighboring apartment. A real cyber weapon, if you don’t seriously think about how a Trojan manages to penetrate all global networks and systems in an instant, and in the era of dial-up and Windows 95.

Apparently, the scriptwriters of “The Network” learned about the principles of the Internet from the stories of Hollywood costume designers and lighting technicians: in films, the World Wide Web acts as some kind of magic wand with which you can instantly change reality. Need a new identity? A couple of clicks - and now you are a completely different person! Well, and hackers are shown in this epic as real technological wizards, capable of doing literally everything. Hack NASA systems, change the date of birth in official databases? No problem! And they do these tricks with extraordinary ease, comparable to playing Tetris. They would have tried to correct a typo in the SNILS with the same ease...

In fairness, it should be said that "Network" also showcased cutting-edge technologies for its time - for example, online dating. So, in search of romantic adventures, Sandra Bullock meets the man of her dreams online (who, of course, turns out to be an evil agent of a mysterious hacker group). She also orders pizza online. If it had been delivered by a courier with a thermal backpack on an electric bicycle, "Network" could rightfully be called a prophetic film. But alas.

Or, for example, the legendary action movie "Swordfish Password", which shows a unique technology for hacking a US Department of Defense server in 60 seconds - it is almost impossible to describe, you have to see it. It is noteworthy that the main character, a super-hacker hired to hack government systems, is called Stanley Jobson: the scriptwriters must be subtly hinting at something. By the way, the other mega-hacker in this film is named Torvalds - all in all, the only thing missing to complete the set is Gates and Zuckerovich.

A separate aesthetic pleasure is provided by a network worm with a graphical interface borrowed from the Windows 95 screensaver. Moreover, this malware penetrates systems like a ninja, accompanying its victorious march with animation from the best video games of the 90s. Apparently, the director decided that people would never believe in the danger of a virus unless it glowed and spun on the screen to rhythmic music. And the movie itself instills in the viewer a simple idea: if you are cool enough, you have a computer and a shabby leather jacket, you can hack anything. Banks, government networks, surveillance systems open before you like the doors of a supermarket. To do this, you only need to put on a concentrated expression on your face and poke your fingers into the keyboard at a fairly high speed.

Another memorable film in this series is Enemy of the State with Will Smith, which tells about a conspiracy and a government system of total surveillance. The most striking thing about this thriller is the surveillance technology: if you believe the filmmakers, any object around us — from a regular video camera to a toothbrush — can be part of a global system of covert surveillance. In this film, every corner of the city is crammed with sensors, cameras, and satellite systems that can count the number of hairs on the top of your head and guess what the main character had for breakfast. Forgot your mobile phone at home? No problem — your jeans have already sent a report to the CIA.

The work of satellite tracking systems is shown in a very peculiar way in this film. It turns out that satellites are able to keep an eye on the hero at such a level of detail that they allow you to see the license plate of his car even on a rainy evening through the clouds. Want to hide under a bridge? Sorry, the satellite has already switched to infrared mode and sees you better than you see yourself in a mirror. Perhaps such capabilities would make satellite surveillance ideal if they existed outside the wild imagination of scriptwriters.

On top of everything else, the film makes viewers believe that the secret services are able to hack absolutely any security system and find out anything about a person, simply by connecting to some magical server where all the data in the world is stored. Perhaps this will prompt someone to install ten antiviruses on a laptop and cover the webcam with a callus bandage, but Will Smith will not let you lie - it will not help!

Much has already been written about the cinematic masterpiece called Die Hard 4.0. In this series of the popular franchise, Bruce Willis has reached a new level: now his hero John McClane fights not just bad guys, but an entire army of hackers!

Hackers in the fourth Die Hard, by the way, are endowed with superpowers that are even cooler than Harry Potter's. If in the real world even Windows takes half a day to update, then in the world of Die Hard the villains simply open their laptops, press a couple of buttons, and everything that can be starts to explode and burn. At their request, power grids, transport systems, financial markets collapse - and in a matter of minutes. But even seasoned cybercriminals are not able to destroy civilization if there is someone like Bruce Willis in the world who can simply turn off your server with a shot from a pistol, or smash a laptop with a powerful blow of his fist. The film, of course, leaves a lot of questions - from where to find such hackers to why publishers have not yet released an illustrated manual "How to become McClane in the world of IT."

As for malware in films, they are shown most amusingly in Independence Day. From a technical point of view, this is really the real "bottom": if you believe the plot, a slapdash Trojan penetrates alien spaceships and disables them. It must be that aliens from distant stars hired an admin from an ad who installed Windows on their onboard computers, which is why the starships got hopelessly lost on the outskirts of the galaxy. Moreover, having committed this sabotage, the alien IT specialist, apparently, also disabled Windows Defender and UAC on the computers of the alien invaders. There is no other way to explain the victory of the human mind over the inhuman logic of the scriptwriters shown in this blockbuster.

Among the films that critics praise for the credibility of the hacker attacks shown, in addition to the series "Mr. Robot", the spy detective "Blackhat" is also often noted. The film was released in 2015, and, interestingly, it shows the operating principle of a Trojan that is suspiciously similar to the Stuxnet of 2010 - however, the real Stuxnet attacked Iranian centrifuges for enriching uranium, and the movie one - the cooling system of a nuclear power plant. And, although the computer technologies shown in "Blackhat" do not cause rejection, questions arise about the plot itself: if movie hackers are able to easily manipulate stock quotes and earn millions on this, why do they need all these hassles with industrial systems and cooling pumps?

However, the film industry does not live only on Hollywood: in terms of sprawling cranberries, our compatriots can easily give them a head start. Take, for example, the masterpiece of world cinema called "Guardians of the Net" - every frame in it is just a song with a chorus. According to the plot of the film, good hackers catch their evil colleague, who has dug in in banking and stock exchange networks. What is characteristic, they do this with the help of a Chinese laser pointer from AliExpress. During this epic confrontation, everything burns, smokes and explodes, even things that cannot burn, smoke and explode due to the natural laws of nature. I will not reveal the main plot intrigue, so as not to spoil the pleasure of watching this blockbuster - I only recommend watching it with the popcorn put away, so as not to accidentally choke from laughter.

If you watch a dozen feature films about hackers, you can come to the conclusion that almost all directors and screenwriters use the same list of artistic techniques that work without fail:

• the most reliable way to destroy information on a computer is to shoot a shotgun at the monitor;
• all intelligence agencies and secret government agencies use short passwords that can be easily guessed in a couple of seconds;
• The most reliable and effective way to hack the Pentagon servers is to type "ping 127.0.0.1" in the command line.
• If the previous method didn't work, try typing "hack_the_planet.exe";
• brute force password cracking is accompanied by exciting visual effects. Strange words, numbers and hieroglyphs will flash on the screen. Moreover, all this will definitely be reflected on the face of the hacker sitting at the computer - after all, they use a special portable projector for this;
• Trojans and viruses are launched with colorful animation, flashes and 3D graphics - the brighter they are, the more evil the virus is;
• Moreover, the viruses are cross-platform and work perfectly on any hardware, even of alien origin;
• from any home laptop you can perform absolutely any action: from launching a nuclear missile to turning on a coffee maker;
• When everything goes wrong, a real hacker launches Norton Commander and stares thoughtfully at the monitor. Because Norton Commander is the pinnacle of technological progress!
• the login process is necessarily displayed on giant monitors so that everyone can see the user entering the password, and the frightened admin starts sweating and fussing in advance;
• any secure server can be hacked from an internet cafe using a laptop from 2005 while drinking tequila;
• There is only one defense system on Earth that can save humanity. But it is always turned off.

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