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The Most Accurate Hacking Movies and TV Shows of All Time

Cybersecurity is an exciting field that continues to develop as the years go by, and film has been exploring it for the last few decades. Many businesses now employ security by design, where their network infrastructure has automatic systems to fight against hackers.

Some of the businesses and people in these movies wish they had these systems because they are in the most accurate hacking movies and TV shows of all time.

Hacking Movies and TV Shows

If you're asking “what is the most realistic hacking movie?,” here is our list:

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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

In this film, protagonist Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) helps a journalist uncover the mystery behind a woman missing for over 40 years. Salander is an expert hacker who uncovers a lot of information about the woman through traditional hacking methods, but she also employs many social hacking techniques.

Beyond breaking into people’s files on their computers, she makes her way into their offices to find physical versions of passwords.

Mr. Robot, Season 1
  • Amazon Prime Video (Video on Demand)
  • Rami Malek, Christian Slater (Actors)

Mr. Robot

The technical accuracy in the show is high, and the showrunners were able to dramatize hacking sequences without exaggerating as many other series and movies do.

An entire team of cybersecurity experts and hackers worked behind the scenes to assist in the show's writing, verifying the authenticity of hacks and technology.

There are some stereotypes in the show, like the main character dressing in all black and struggling with non-tech communication, but it still sits high above others in hacking media.

The Complete Matrix Trilogy
  • Amazon Prime Video (Video on Demand)
  • Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss (Actors)

The Matrix Series

While a lot of The Matrix series is fantastical and hard to conceptualize, it is based on a somewhat legitimate technical framework. For example, in the second film, the character Trinity uses a Nmap tool that the hacking community of the time was fond of.

The film series also references hacking multiple times, and even references real-world cyber-attacks.

The Fifth Estate
  • Amazon Prime Video (Video on Demand)
  • Benedict Cumberbatch, Daniel Brühl, Anthony Mackie (Actors)

The Fifth Estate

This film chronicles more of the real-world consequences that emerged from Julian Assange's hacking endeavors, but it is a hacking movie, nonetheless. The film discusses how Assange broke into many systems—like the Pentagon, NASA, and Citibank—and spread that information through WikiLeaks.

While the filmmakers highly dramatized the hacking, it still shines a somewhat accurate light on what hackers do.

These were the most accurate hacking movies and TV shows of all time, and with the way, technology is ingrained in society, many more are sure to come. Hopefully, future films can reflect the reality of hacking and not dive too much into the fantastical like in the panned Hackers (1995).

People Also Ask:

What is the most realistic hacking movie?

  • Algorithm (2014)
  • WarGames (1983)
  • Hackers (1995)
  • The Matrix (1999)
  • Takedown aka Track down (2000)
  • The Italian Job.

Who is the No 1 hacker in the world?

Kevin Mitnick

Kevin Mitnick is recognized as the world's world expert on hacking, social engineering, and security awareness training. In fact, his name is on the world's most popular computer-based end-user security awareness training suite.

Who is the greatest hacker in history?

  • Kevin Mitnick.
  • Anonymous.
  • Adrian Lamo. 
  • Albert Gonzalez. 
  • Matthew Bevan and Richard Pryce. 
  • Jeanson James Ancheta.
  • Michael Calce.
  • Kevin Poulsen.
The accompanying graphics that reflect how radical the hacker is are a staple of movie hacking. Onscreen computers are full of oddities, such as laughing skulls, cartoon characters eating code, and ticking time bombs. Real-world hacking, on the other hand, is all about reading lines and lines of code.

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