Hacker Cinema
23
1998 · Film · 99 min
Directed by Hans-Christian Schmid
The movie's plot is based on the true story of a group of young computer hackers from Hannover, Germany. In the late 1980s the orphaned Karl Koch invests his heritage in a flat and a home computer. At first he dials up to bulletin boards to discuss conspiracy theories inspired by his favorite novel, R.A. Wilson's "Illuminatus", but soon he and his friend David start breaking into government and military computers. Pepe, one of Karl's rather criminal acquaintances senses that there is money in computer cracking - he travels to east Berlin and tries to contact the KGB.
16 positive5 neutralfrom 21 commenters
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27 comments on Hacker News
Reminds me of the German movie "23":
https://www.film-rezensionen.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/23-Szene-4.jpg
Not to discredit South East Asia but Germany is where the Cold War took place. Especially the second part of it. RAF, for example, was pretty much sponsored by East Germany.
So many good series made involving the subject though. Both drama and documentary. I mean, you do want drama and not documentary? Cause the story The Americans is inspired by is documented.
For drama, check Deutschland '83 and the two successors. Has a great cast.
And of course there is Clifford Stoll's book about how he caught Hagbard Celine (see the movie '23' with a young August Diehl who later broke through in Hollywood).
German cinema, both West-German and modern, has gems regardless (I am not German btw, subs are easy to come by).
Whenever this story comes up I think of this movie, called 23, that's tells the story from the hackers perspective.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/23_(film)
Both stories are fascinating.
There is also a 1998 German movie told from the other side of the story:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23_(film)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUDWU4RBtds
Somewhat in the same vein, the original "23" (not the awful Hollywood film with same name):
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0126765/
If you're a German computer kid millennial you've likely seen 23, a relatively-fictional movie that focuses on Karl Koch's life and death.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23_(film)
I've discovered the wonderful Cuckoo's Egg much later, and I was so delighted to see the 'other side' of the movie's story
I reco the German "23" (not that horrible American flick).
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0126765/
'23' is a great movie. 'Who am I' deserves a mention too.
Some of your preferences are ticked by the film "23"( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23_(film) ).
Based on a real story with some addition of KGB and cocaine.
it is hard not to mention the fine WGBH produced re-enactment [1] version of this story any time this book is mentioned. there's also a german film from the POV of the other side of cliff's story [2]
[1] https://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_173A6CB5E5234750BEFB591D6ABAE8A0
[1] https://youtu.be/PGv5BqNL164
[2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/23_(film)
Thank you! They both sound great.
23 (1998) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0126765/
Alles ist eins. Ausser der 0. / Everything is one. Except for the 0 (2020) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11794022/
Here in Germany, with the CCC, there are two movies that represents our hacker culture: „23“ and „Everything is one. Except for the 0“
This one is probably not well known in the anglophone world: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/23_(film)
Based on a true story, though it's debated endlessly. Clifford Stoll's Cuckoo's egg deals with the same material.
There is a german film "23" about two hackers in the 80s. It is said to give a good impression of the hacker culture of that time, but also has cold war and conspiracy theory themes. It is based on real events, though it took some license apparently.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23_(film)
You may find the movie 23[0] of interest.
[0] - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/23_(film)
Oh wow, didn't realize there was a book behind "23". BTW, there's a terrible American film with the same name - one wants:
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0126765/
not this here rubbish: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0481369/ (hm, really it was with Jim Carrie? Maybe there's yet another terrible version. Or maybe this was just that bad).
Second this. Fantastic book about true events. If you like the story, there is also a movie which covers the same events as the book. The movie is called "23" and is available in German and English.
The hacker Stoll was tracking, Markus Hess, was affiliated with other hackers that went on to found Chaos Computer Club.
One of the people he was working alongside, Karl Koch, was selling military information to the KGB in exchange for cocaine. He developed some form of paranoid psychosis and seemed to believe he was fighting the Illuminati.
There was a German film made about this called "23" (Koch was obsessed with the cult classic conspiracy fiction novel Illuminatus, and used the pseudonym "hagbard" after a character in the book).
He was found burned to death in woodland; it was ruled suicide.
I thought about that just submitting. The difference is that a Minitel is a closed system. You're only a client. Other than that I agree.
ps: oh you meant http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0126765/ not "number 23" .. interesting.
https://youtu.be/wDTt7Pw-4GM shows the Minitel system. It used an asymmetric 1200/75 modem.
Also, the movie "23" has some very accurate depictions.
23 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0126765/) is also entertaining and quite believable (if from another time)
Hackers was a landmark in my youth. I also really enjoyed the movie "23" about Karl Koch: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0126765/
23 (the German original, not the similarily-named holkywood turky!) is great. Fwiw I love Hackers too, but they are so different, it's hard to compare them.
I also like "Hackers 2"/"Takedown" despite the various controversies (the book being a rip off of another book, the script being a rip off, both book and script being factually inaccurate etc).
Still now that Mitnicks own autobiography is out, while the movie might not be a kind treatment of him, or his friends. I still think it's quite a good hacker film, with some traces of accurancy (think "inspired by true events" rather than "based on").
Btw, the name "Hackers 2" was just an attempt at marketing - the two films have nothing to do with each other.
For an actually good hacker film, see 23 (1998), about the story of Karl Koch.
The Cuckoo's Egg is nonfiction, based on Stoll's work as a sysadmin. It tells the other side of the story portrayed in the German cult film 23 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23_%28film%29).
I have defended his curmudgeonliness here: http://axyl.us/post/479929158/clifford-stoll-was-right
23 is the best hacker film I know of. It's German and based on the Karl Koch story. It's not exclusively about hacking, necessarily, but it is far more realistic than any other I've seen.
Reboot from 2012 is a short film that features a whole lot of real world penetration testing tools and security lingo, but was overall poorly executed and nonsensical. Still worth a look just to spot all the references.
Antitrust is a programmer film. It's somewhat slow-paced and mediocre, but it has a nice scene with the Unix shell and overall tries to mimic the work environment at Microsoft.
Takedown, which although not that good, is a watchable telling of the Kevin Mitnick saga.
Travelling Salesman is based on computer scientists solving P = NP and creating a crypto weapon for use by the U.S. government. Actually quite intellectual, much like Primer.
That's all I can think of right now.
23 (not the jim carrey one)
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0126765/
if you've ever read the cuckoo's egg, 23 is sort of the other side of the story, following karl koch and the germans (though stoll was mostly tracking markus hess in the cuckoo's egg, not koch).