Hackers

Hackers 

SEATTLE 1988

EXT. FRONT YARD – DAY

Slow motion. Armed troops in black uniforms pour out of unmarked vans and swarm across a lawn in a middle class residential neighborhood. Yuppie neighbours look on in shock, confused. Two of the troops carry a battering ram to the front door of a white two-storey house. A leashed Rottweiler snarls and barks. In position, their comrades point M-16s into first-floor windows, ready to be ambushed. Pan into a window in the kitchen. An attractive woman in her thirties is making breakfast.

Now, in regular motion, the battering ram breaks open the front door. The woman, startled, drops her spatula.

INT. MURPHY RESIDENCE – DAY

WOMAN

(screams)

Oough! Ahhh!

SECRET SERVICE AGENT

(to others)

Upstairs.

Troops pour into the house.

WOMAN

What's going on? What's the matter?  Who are you?

The troops, and one or two trenchcoated agents, continue entering the house and heading upstairs, still with rifles ready.

WOMAN

Hey!

Upstairs, crowded in the narrow hallway, the troops descend on a bedroom.

WOMAN

(off camera)

Dade! Dade!

AGENT

Knock it down.

The battering ram knocks down a bedroom door.

INT. COURTROOM

The prosecutor, a woman of about forty, gives her closing argument blandly. She'd rather be somewhere else.

PROSECUTOR

The defendant, Dade Murphy, who calls himself "Zero Cool", has repeatedly committed criminal acts of a malicious nature. This defendant possesses a superior intelligence, which he uses to a destructive and antisocial end. His computer virus crashed one thousand five hundred and seven computer systems,  including Wall Street trading systems,  single handedly causing a seven point drop in the New York Stock Market.

As she speaks, the camera pans across the court, panning down and stopping on the defendant: eleven year old Dade Murphy.

Fast forward to the sentencing.

JUDGE

Dade Murphy, I hereby fine your family forty-five thousand dollars...

The court gasps, Dade's father winces

JUDGE

... and sentence you to probation, under which you are forbidden to own or operate a computer or touch tone telephone, until the day of your eighteenth birthday.

Now Dade winces, in fact we almost expect him to cry.

Opening credits roll to a backdrop of Dade and his family and lawyer fighting through a gaggle of journalists and photographers, in slow motion, and driving away.

SEVEN YEARS LATER

Aboard a jetliner, Dade Murphy is staring blankly out the window, wearing headphones. Exterior view from the aircraft of approaching New York City. The view becomes a direct overhead of the buildings and streets of the city,  which then metamorphoses (through animation) into chips and digital signals on a stylised computer board. The title logo.

INT. DADE'S ROOM

Segue to Dade Murphy, now 18, wearing mirrorshades indoors and at night, working on his new computer. His mother calls him.

MRS. MURPHY

(off camera)

Dade?

DADE

Yeah, mom?

MRS. MURPHY

What are you doing?

DADE

(after a semi-pregnant pause)

I'm taking over a TV network.

MRS. MURPHY

Finish up, honey, and get to sleep. And happy birthday.

INT. OTV STUDIOS

In the OTV Studios security department, a phone rings, a man answers nervously.

NORM

Security, uh Norm, Norm speaking.

DADE

Norman? This is Mr. Eddie Vedder, from Accounting. I just had a power surge here at home that wiped out a file I was working on.  Listen, I'm in big trouble, do you know anything about computers?

NORM

Uhhmmm... uh gee, uh...

DADE

Right, well my BLT drive on my computer just went AWOL, and I've got this big project due tomorrow for Mr. Kawasaki, and if I don't get it in, he's gonna ask me to commit Hari Kari...

NORM

Uhhh.. ahahaha...

DADE

Yeah, well, you know these Japanese management techniques.

(pause)

Could you, uh, read me the number on the modem?

NORM

Uhhhmm...

DADE

It's a little boxy thing, Norm, with switches on it... lets my computer talk to the one there...

NORM

212-555-4240.

Dade goes to work on OTV. He closes his eyes and a flurry of half-second video clips from old TV shows flashes by.  He opens his eyes. His screen says "ENTERING ARPS 331" and then wipes to another screen. Automated Record Playback System. There is a graphic representation of the station's automatic videotape changer. Dade turns on his TV set and turns to OTV. It is running a Rush-Limbaugh type TV show.

COMMENTATOR

(on TV)

... so-called American Indians, Latinos and Blacks come from a genetically mediocre stock...

DADE

Yak yak yak. Get a job!

Dade presses a key on his keyboard. The Video Changer diagram lights up in red. At the station, a robotic arm selects a videotape from a huge rack of thousands of tapes. The "America First" tape slides out of the VTR and is replaced by an episode of "The Outer Limits" as Dade watches, drinks Coke and smiles, full of himself.

TV

You are about to experience the awe and mystery, which reaches from the inner mind,  to... The Outer Limits.

DADE

Yesssss!

Suddenly, the ARPS screen is replaced by an ominous message:

"U HAVE TREAD

UPON MY DOMAIN &

MUST NOW SUFFER

WHO R U?"

DADE
Hey! What?

He starts to type "ZERO"...

DADE

No, wait.

Dade types:

"CRASH OVERRIDE.

WHO WANTS TO KNOW?"

Dade's screen dissolves into:

"ACID BURN"

DADE

Unbelievable. A hacker!

Then the screen changes again:

"ACID BURN

SEZ LEAVE B 4

U R EXPUNGED"

"The Outer Limits" suddenly flashes off.

DADE

Yeah, okay "Acid Burn", that's enough.

Dade starts hacking. Apparently so does Acid Burn. The tape changer machines at OTV are swamped, sometimes fighting over the same tape. The program on TV keeps changing.

The message comes up on Dade's computer screen:

"I WILL

SWAT U LIKE

THE FLY U R"

More dueling tape changers, more half second video clips.  Another message.

"I WILL

SNAP YOUR BACK

LIKE A TOOTHPICK"

As the duel continues, Dade types back a taunt of his own:

"MESS WITH THE BEST

DIE LIKE THE REST"

One last from Acid Burn:

"YOU ARE

TERMINATED"