Fiction & Pop Culture
Fictional hackers and hacker-themed films, shows, and characters that shaped the public image of hacking — kept in a separate section from the site's real, sourced historical entries. See Hackers in Popular Culture for the documented history of how these portrayals evolved.
Cyberchase
Cyberchase is a PBS Kids animated educational series, premiering January 21, 2002, in which three Earth children are pulled into the digital universe of Cyberspace to use math and problem-solving to stop the villain known only as 'the Hacker' from conquering it. The Hacker, voiced by Christopher Lloyd, is a self-centered rogue AI/mad-scientist figure rather than a depiction of any real-world computer-hacking technique.
Hackers
A 1995 techno-thriller about a crew of young New York hackers framed for a corporate embezzlement scheme who must out-hack the real perpetrator to clear their names; a box-office flop and critical punching bag on release, it became a touchstone cult classic credited with shaping hacker/cyberpunk fashion and attitude in pop culture.
Mr. Robot
Mr. Robot is a USA Network psychological thriller (2015-2019) about cybersecurity engineer and hacker Elliot Alderson, who is drawn into the hacktivist collective fsociety; it is widely praised by real security professionals for depicting hacking techniques, tools, and jargon with unusual technical accuracy for a mainstream drama.
The Matrix
A cyberpunk science-fiction film in which computer programmer-by-day, hacker-by-night Thomas Anderson ('Neo') discovers that perceived reality is a simulation run by machines, and joins a band of rebel hackers to fight back. It is one of the most influential works in hacker-themed cinema.