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10 Tech Movies to Get You Coding Again

Zach Alexander on December 08, 2016

Every creative person goes through phases where they question their commitment to their work, and software developers are no different. Maybe a rec...
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Ben Halpern

Thanks so much for this, Zach. I feel like this is just what I need before holiday vacation. The one movie I'd definitely add is The Imitation Game. Pretty much brilliant from start to finish, and a celebration of one of computer science's most important people.

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Alexandra Wolfe

I agree with this - great post, there's a couple of movies on there that I'm going to check out tonight... but yes, the Imitation Game should definitely be on there.

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Jeroen Jacobs • Edited

If I might add one: "BBS - The Documentary". Bulletin Board Systems were popular back in the days when the Internet was too expensive for the common people. Lot's of clever hackers back then, which is no surprise given the limitations of the hardware and connection speed.

If you grew up with Fidonet and still remember the noise of an analogue modem handshake, you're gonna love this.

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Ben Halpern

Cool!

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tomoznow

You forgot "Swordfish" where Hugh Jackman must hack the department of defence in 60 seconds while enduring a blowjob from unknown bad girl, with bad boys pointing guns at his head. At one point he almost blows his load, but holds it together and completes the hack before zipping up and walking off leaving John Travolta very impressed. So bad it's good.

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Anthony Reilly

It's right up there with "The Net" with Sandra Bullock on the run from the prying eyes of the internet and magic identity erasure.

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Anthony Reilly

A few others that are on my list:
Tron and Tron: Legacy
Hackers (Silly, I know, but I still love it - Even though technically ridiculous, I feel it accurately captured the tech zeitgeist.)
Sneakers.

Honorable mention: That CSI episode where they made a GUI interface using visual basic to track the killers IP address.

Tangentially related, books: Neuromancer and Snow Crash.

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Chad

Hackers got me interested in programming. After watching that movie, I went and bought a C How to program book. That movie changed my life.

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The Burger Club • Edited

My life also bro I created this site after this movie
nova launcher

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aasif malik

Noah was an inspiration for the youth. The way we youth wasting our time on insta and fb is not good therefore I started blogging and started earning little money from social media. Though I am still struggling.
website

uber coupons

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Sebastian K. Erben • Edited

I know I am late to the party and Tron Legacy and Hackers have already been mentioned. Some other movies:

  • Takedown (Movie about Kevin Mitnick)
  • Pirates of Silicon Valley
  • The Internet‘s own Boy
  • IndieGame The Movie
  • Jobs
  • Steve Jobs

Series:

  • Mr Robot
  • Silicon Valley

Books:

  • Little Brother
  • Masters of DOOM
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Rohit Yadav

Also the Soundtracks of some of the mentioned movies are worth listening while coding. My personal favourites are :

  • Bunsen Burner from Ex Machina
  • In Motion - Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (The Social Network)
  • Clubbed to Death - Matrix
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corvusgn

Thank you. There are so much to see, I'll recommend a couple of films.

*Zero Days (2016):
"A documentary focused on Stuxnet, a piece of self-replicating computer malware that the U.S. and Israel unleashed to destroy a key part of an Iranian nuclear facility, and which ultimately spread beyond its intended target."

*Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World (2016):
"Werner Herzog's exploration of the Internet and the connected world."

*Snowden (2016):
"The NSA's illegal surveillance techniques are leaked to the public by one of the agency's employees, Edward Snowden, in the form of thousands of classified documents distributed to the press."

And why not?

*Chappie (2015):
"In the near future, crime is patrolled by a mechanized police force. When one police droid, Chappie, is stolen and given new programming, he becomes the first robot with the ability to think and feel for himself."

@corvusdf

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Kim Arnett 

I nominate Hidden figures
😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

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Pert Soomann

Good to see Sneakers getting some love, awesome movie.

I did like both Jobs movies and The Social Network because it kind of gave that "if you dedicate yourself to it, you can do anything" feeling, however they also highlighted the possibility of betrayal when it comes to big business.

Mr Robot, tho it's getting well weird now. I liked when he was hacking dog-snatchers in first few episodes, but kinda hooked now to see how they explain it all (bet it's - oh it was just a VR game lulz :D )

If you want something funny, IT Crowd series is very good. There was also the Codemonkeys animation quite few years back.

However if it's inspiration you want, I've been watching Mark Cuban QA sessions last few weeks ;)

Also, apparently Blackhat with Chris Hemsworth is good and realistic, haven't seen it myself yet.

Aaaand now all that has been typed in, time for another morning coffee :)

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Robert Van Housen • Edited

I really enjoyed this post, thanks for the ideas.
I'd like to add "Pirates of Silicon Valley" to the list. If you aren't familiar, it's a film about the birth of personal computing and the rivalry between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.

If you enjoy dystopian films you might also enjoy "Colossus: The Forbin Project", a film about 2 supercomputers put in control of the nuclear arsenal of Russia and the U.S.,. Both computers start cooperating and decide that human beings can't control their own fate because we're a danger to ourselves.

"Demon seed", is a film about an AI controlled smart home run amok that terrorizes it's female inhabitant. Rather gruesome and controversial, the Simpsons even made a Halloween special clip based on it.

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Marcus Zippka

Halt and Catch Fire, i like this Series from AMC

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diamond sharma

this is a great list. i watched just 3 of these. gonna check out Fortnite Apk rest soon

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Olayiwola Ayinde

I think we should also watch this TV series, Scorpion. For hardware and software developer

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Ashar Irfan

I love the Matrix Trilogy 💯

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Keith

Hackers & Hackers 2 , The Net .... Side note Hackers 2 was not as bad as you might expect.

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Avneesh Panwar

thanks

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PPapiter

Now I know what I will be doing for the next few evenings

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Daniel A. Fernández

Hackers is missing, that one will get you coding again to try and hack a Gibson.

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Doshirae

Jeez I have to add like 7 movies to my must-see list

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Andy Hull

Not a movie, but the TV series Halt and Catch Fire deserves an honorary mention.

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Estuardo Morales

Great list will add a couple to my watch list

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Andrew Lewis

Sneakers should be in all 10 spots.

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Avneesh Panwar

thanks.

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theapache64

TPB AFK, perfect selection mate. (y)

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Nizar

What do you think about Transcendence ?

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Kamal Mustafa

Close to Her is Operator (2016) and I like it more compared to Her ;)

imdb.com/title/tt5052524/