They actually do this sort of thing in the movie multiple times. One of the first scenes is him finding an inept employee to give out some internal information over the phone.
Not even with a 28.8 bee-pee-ess modem.
But the one scene where Zero Cool pulls off some social engineering over the phone to get into an office’s systems is spot on!
I think what they did was quite good. You know that no matter what you do, it’s either going to be wrong immediately, or outdated very soon, so you may as well ditch the idea of trying to be accurate and just make it look pretty. They purposefully made the computers look like cities, and the cities look like computers. Screw accuracy, make art.
If you mean the “type cookie!” line, I was astonished to learn it was inspired by real malware:
Of course the original was more of a prank than a serious threat.
The hands-down best 80s hacker movie is Sneakers.
Yeah i found out recently that it was a real thing. It’s a silly virus to have in the movie but its an interesting easter egg 
I agree wholeheartedly in principle. It’s just that it’s from 1992.
BTW, the best 1960ies hacker movie is Hot Millions.
Okay, the computer stuff isn’t that accurate, but the social engineering is spot on.
I started watching it… I got to the fire alarm scene and had to stop (mostly to change buses. It still on the phone to finish) One man the main character is a major fucking asswipe that I can’t be fucked to care about. Two the scripting, oh god those lines are so fucking awful. Three does the movie get better? And I say this a person who has seen many many films of very questionable quality.
Then again @beschizza is posting this so there is that.
ETA it may be more fun with friends, booze and heckling.
Of course it is.
But yes the main character is a douche but he’s just set dressing for me. The rest of the cast are really interesting, i could watch a series with just them.
Heh. If you ever decide to set up a kind of home-brew “MST3K” viewing/ roasting of “Hackers”, please be sure to share!
One thing I’ve learned over time is “never say never” when the question is “what can be hacked”?
Perhaps there is a way to hammer the pressure with water valves such that it destabilizes the sprinkler heads. Or maybe they can be triggered by extreme overpressure caused by looping in another pump. Or maybe the school had a very old dry sprinkler system, and he simply opened a valve to that zone.
I’ve learned that just because I can’t imagine how a seemingly impossible thing can be done, that it doesn’t mean someone else can’t figure it out and make it happen.
I’ve been saying this lately around the office. Both because of the rewatch, and because I fell down a rabbit hole about physical security testing - i.e. doors etc in offices. And I quickly figured out I can open both of our office doors with my pocket knife. 
Hack the planet!
I do stuff like that all the time, used to get me in trouble a lot as a kid whenever i could figure out ways to jimmy locks open. Oddly enough i never got into lockpicking, one would figure that i would 
too lazy to go that far i guess.
I do get satisfaction from MacGuyverying my way into a solution though whenever possible. Especially if it involves a paper clip
100% thought about this too lol
This was the beginning with Deviant Ollam.
No - you are misunderstanding. These systems are designed to make what you describe physically impossible. Dry systems do not work that way - they are filled with gas to hold the water out of the pipes, but they are activated by the same mechanism - the glass plug melts releasing the gas. Even if the system had a pressure pump, and they don’t always, and you could access it via the alarm system, over pressure valves would prevent what you describe. But the alarm system is not linked to the sprinkler system, it is autonomous, not relying on the alarm system to activate it, and preferably not an electric pump either.
This is one of my all time favourite movies, but you should read Bruce Stirling’s Hacker Crackdown before watching it.
