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9 Must Watch Movies for Programmers in 2020 🎬

Movies inspire you to be a smarter and a better person, or in our case a better programmer. Today, when the world is hyper-connected, movies are the best way to see through it.

How many of you have watched these best movies?

1. The Social Network

The whole movie is about how Facebook grew as a business and the various ups and downs it had to face.

2. The imitation Game

As a programmer, You will find this movie extremely engaging.

Alan Turing, a British mathematician, joins the cryptography team to decipher the German enigma code. With the help of his fellow mathematicians, he builds a machine to crack the codes

3. Pirates of Silicon Valley

This is one of the top notch movie among these programming movies lists.

It basically tells the story of how the personal computer was designed by today's giants like Microsoft and Apple.

4. Jobs

The movie sheds light on Stev Job's personal and college life.

The movie revolves around how Apple became the business enterprise that it is today.

5. Mr. Robot

The show follows the footsteps of Elliot Alderson, a cybersecurity engineer in a cybersecurity firm β€˜Allsafe’ by day and vigilante hacker operating from his computer, apprehending no-gooders by night.

This movie is fun, rebellious, got stunning soundtrack and even includes realistic aspects of programming.
(Note: It's a TV Series, not a movie but every episode is worth watching.)

6. Source Code

As the name suggests, there is some code involved :P

The hero in the movie enters the body of another person using his programming skills.

7. The Founder

This movie doesn't involve a programmer but is highly recommended if you want to start you first startup.

The movie shows how persistence, determination and hardwork pays off. It's by far the best movie I have seen when it comes to building a business. Besides that it also shows how to scale a business.

8. The Social Dilemma

"Only two organization call their customers users - illegal drugs & software". This statement is quite a relative explanation about this brilliant perfect eye opener documentary , undoubtedly it's Oscar deserving stuff.

A must watch movie for everyone. Every person living in present world is aware about how he or she is addicted to drug called social media in other words we are being used as lab rats not to discover something new but selling to customers, here advertisers are customers we are just products.

9. The Great Hack

In this eye-opening, well-executed documentary, the filmmakers meet the challenge of blending complex tech information with heightening drama. Plus, there's plenty of "rooting interest."

The thing is, in The Great Hack we end up rooting for ourselves, and the long odds of not being one of the fooled, the foiled, and the exploited, unmindful victims of "psy-ops" warfare.

Bonus - Silicon Valley

It is not a movie but TV Series and a must watch if you're a programmer.

This is about Richard, a programmer who creates an app called the Pied Piper and tries to get investors for it. Meanwhile, five other programmers struggle to make their mark in Silicon Valley.

Hope you enjoyed the list. Add a ❀ if you liked it.

Please suggest your other favorite movies in comments πŸ‘‡πŸ‘‡

About me here: Om Bharatiya

Also read these interesting blogs by me:

React Native vs Flutter - What to Choose in 2021?

When to choose NoSQL over SQL?

Happy Coding <3

Top comments (109)

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huncyrus profile image
huncyrus • Edited

I would like to recommend also:

  • Sneakers - from Robert Redford
  • Halt and Catch fire
  • Pirates of Silicon Valley where they do not idolize Jobs and the rest
  • Wargames (a hidden gem I believe)
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sunpech profile image
Steven S.

Halt and Catch Fire x 100000000. The most underrated tv show about retro tech age of the 1980s going forward. Lee Pace and Mackenzie Davis, both amazing and also so very underrated in Hollywood.

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ajax27 profile image
Shaun Collins

Excellent series

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aaronclimbs profile image
Aaron Keisler

This was an incredible series.

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sqlrob profile image
Robert Myers

I absolutely love Sneakers, but its treatment of crypto drives me crazy.

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mmanousos profile image
Melissa Manousos

Sneakers is a favorite from when I was younger. (My mom had a crush on Robert Redford but the whole cast is incredible.)

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pzelnip profile image
Adam Parkin

Was just going to say Sneakers as well. Classic movie, super entertaining and was so ahead of it's time (all the discussion about whomever controls the flow of information controls society, etc).

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volkmarr profile image
Volkmar Rigo

Halt and Catch fire is awesome!

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darshkul24 profile image
Darsh

I also recommend one here is the name : Hacker

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aminmansuri profile image
hidden_dude • Edited

I'd say the best movies (in order of importance) are:

  1. General Magic (2018)

  2. Triumph of the Nerds (1996)

  3. High Score (2020)

  4. Sillicon Valley (2014)

  5. Hidden Figures (2016)

  6. Tron (1982)

The first two are really eye opening in terms of what happened and how startup succeed/fail.

And they aren't so fictionalized like "Pirates of Sillicon Valley" and others that took a lot of liberties with reality.

For fiction "Silicon Valley" is good because of all the jabs it takes at the expense of Silicon Valley culture.

Hidden Figures, while not directly related to modern CS, is pretty good too because of the illustration of the life of a "computer" back in the day when they were people!

The Imitation Game could have been good but it portrayed Turing as the ONLY genius and as an annoying person. I thought that was weak and unnecessary.

And Tron for it's profound innaccuracy... but high nostalgia factor for 1982. :)

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babadee08 profile image
'Damilare Durojaye

Also include

Download: The true story of the internet

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Download_The...
I'm sure it's available somewhere on youtube.

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aminmansuri profile image
hidden_dude • Edited

Hmm.. saw the first episode of "Download" but so far I find it to be a bit too over dramatized. While not factually incorrect they paint a more negative picture than necessary at times.

For example, they paint Bill Gates as being hard on his employees. But most people know that he actually gave stock options much more freely than others of the time. And was far nicer than people like Steve Jobs. The problem with a lot of these movies is they always want a villian and a good guy.. when the reality is that there was a strong competition between companies and yes.. sometimes they did bad things.. but they weren't entirely bad people either.

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patricknelson profile image
Patrick Nelson

This one is great! Pretty cool to see my own company on there (eBay, episode 3 "Bubble") even though all the footage is like 12yrs old now, hah.

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aminmansuri profile image
hidden_dude

I haven't seen that one. I'll check it out.

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patricknelson profile image
Patrick Nelson

General Magic has been on my queue for a while.

Triumph of the Nerds was new to me; thanks for the recommendation!

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ombharatiya profile image
OM

General Magic is awesome, I have watched it. Also Silicon Valley.

I'll watch the rest, thanks for sharing this amazing list and your suggestions, mate! πŸ€—πŸ€—

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dabjazz profile image
Yash_Jaiswal

High score all the way πŸ™ŒπŸ™Œ

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danieljsummers profile image
Daniel J. Summers

Office Space - it teaches valuable lessons on decimal point precision and the importance of paperwork!

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linuxwrangler profile image
linuxwrangler

A classic. At my dot-com 1.0 job we always planned to have an Office Space watch party but, hey, it was dot-com 1.0 so the office didn't last that long.

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danieljsummers profile image
Daniel J. Summers

All kidding aside, it's good to watch so you can spot when that stuff starts happening in your office. Some of it is harmless, but it's a good shared reference to point out silly things without having to come right out and call them silly.

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endymion1818 profile image
Ben Read • Edited

See also:

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linuxwrangler profile image
linuxwrangler

I saw War Games when it came out. I know I shouldn't be bothered by lack of attention to detail in movies but, hey, attention to detail is how we types live.

My college roommate and I actually owned the Cermetek modem used in the film. Hey, 1200 bps was living in the fast lane when everyone else was stuck at 300 - and "only" $600 in mid-1980s dollars. Anyway, they had all the switches set wrong. I guess randomly flipping them up and down was more "cinematic".

And the scene where he hacks a payphone with a pull-tab he finds on the road?? Removable pull-tabs on cans had been replace a decade or so before movie came out because of litter issues and the fact that people kept dropping them in the can then accidentally swallowing them.

Unfortunately those and other sins dampened my enthusiasm for the movie.

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ombharatiya profile image
OM

Yes, that I missed to add. Amazing movies.

Must Watch

Thanks, mate for sharing! 🀘

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arieberesteanu profile image
Arie Beresteanu

Snowden

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omarkhatib profile image
Omar

hackermovie.club/ ,
This is a site for this purpose , if you like to see and more.

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lamambasan profile image
San Lamamba

Thank you a lot lol I have been looking up for a site like that but always finding myself to Reddit all the time

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justgeekgirl profile image
Jennifer

Oh, and I am surprised no one had mentioned the IT Crowd.

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volkmarr profile image
Volkmar Rigo

IT Crowd is extremely funny.

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andreiromulus profile image
andreiromulus

After 10 years ... I still come up with the line ... have you tried turning it off and on again...

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wilsenhc profile image
Wilsen HernΓ‘ndez

Mr. Robot is a must watch, and not just for programmers (although programmers will find it most interesting)

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brunjact profile image
B Jacquet

I don't think anyone mentioned

  • Ex Machina
  • eXistenZ
  • Ghost In The Shell (1995)
  • Mercury Rising

πŸ‘ŒπŸŽ¬

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angelfirenze profile image
Nicole A. Moore

Mr. Robot is a television show, not a movie, which you stated correctly at first.

The Hacktivists, The Internet’s Own Boy, Terms and Conditions May Apply, and Killswitch, are all documentaries about programming that I have repeatedly rewatched and I wholeheartedly hope others do, too.

Citizenfour is the only one I own that I haven’t watched yet.

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jeromescuggs profile image
andrew snow

citizenfour is really great - the film 'snowden' is an eerie movie to watch having seen it, because the making of citizenfour is one of the things that is dramatized in it

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schnubb profile image
Schnubb • Edited

I'd like to add Hidden Figures!

Oh and of course: The Matrix

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daviddalbusco profile image
David Dal Busco

"Pirates of Silicon Valley" is so cool.

It was "only" TV movie, kind of crazy that they weren't any theater movies so far, which was able to catch the spirit as this one did.

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ombharatiya profile image
OM

The way the makers of the movie depicted the evolution of PC in shaping the history looks quite relevant and interesting throughout. Also, good to see our heros Jobs and Gates.

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daviddalbusco profile image
David Dal Busco

I liked their portrait, there weren't portrayed are perfect heroes as in typical Hollywood movies.

Looks like I gonna re-watch this movie pretty soon πŸ˜‰

Thank you for your list / share!

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iamrohitsawai profile image
Rohit Kiran Sawai

You forgot Snowden. Snowden is also one of the good movies.

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webdevinci profile image
webdevinci

Missed #1, Office Space. I subjectively don't think social network was anything great, and Jobs was garbage compared to Pirates of Silicon Valley.
@huncyrus nailed some good ones too: Sneakers, HCF, wargames

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kaoriaf profile image
kaoriaf

Blackhat (2015) is outstanding. Directed by Michael Mann, who makes few movies but every one a classic. Known for being meticulous about to detail, the coding sequences do not disappoint. It's also a hell of a thriller.

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harish1996 profile image
harish1996

Since you included The Social Dilemma, it is only fitting that 'Zero Days' should be in the list. For ones who dont know what this is.. It is about how a computer virus designed by a entire country to destroy the nuclear program of iran, and its impacts.

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