HACKERS
About the event
The Internet officially became public in 1993, on the heels of the Cold War’s conclusion—it was the “New World Order.” The World Wide Web, as it was then called, promised an unprecedented level of connectedness between nodes, allowing information—if not bodies or things—to instantly cross all borders and circulate. Like many of the first movies to consider these new possibilities, HACKERS called it “hacking,” locating a grey zone of legality in which one could be hero and villain at the same time, but had the wisdom to find two deliriously fashionable, charismatic leads: Dade Murphy (Jonny Lee Miller) and Kate Libby (Angelina Jolie). That this dynamic duo triumphs over some avatar of “power” is little surprise; the joy of the film is in their inscrutable camp world and its alternative universe of customs. Contact Zones: Cinema of Globalization, 1989–2024 Fall 2026 Lecture Series “We…
