Sneakers Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES
We could tell you what it's about. But then, of course, we'd have to kill you.
To trust can be murder.
A burglar, a spy, a fugitive, a delinquent, a hacker, and a piano teacher... and these are the good guys.
A group of security analysts are offered a job by the CIA and when they are reluctant, pressure is brought to bear by the threat to disclose the identity of their leader, a 60s radical with outstanding warrants. A chip exists that will allow any computer to be cracked, and organized crime will soon control it, though sudden changes in their police records suggest that it is already operational.
| Jo Marr | College-Aged Cosmo |
| Gary Hershberger | College-Aged Bishop |
| Robert Redford | Martin 'Marty' Bishop |
| Sidney Poitier | Donald Crease |
| David Strathairn | Erwin 'Whistler' Emory |
| Dan Aykroyd | Mother |
| River Phoenix | Carl Arbegast |
| Bodhi Elfman | Centurion S&L Night Guard |
| Denise Dowse | Bank Teller |
| Hanyee | Bank Secretary |
| Timothy Busfield | Dick Gordon |
| Eddie Jones | Buddy Wallace |
| Time Winters | Homeless Man |
| Mary McDonnell | Liz |
| Jun Asai | Piano Prodigy |
| Phil Alden Robinson |
7.00 out of 10 (17677 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Maoist Movie Review
posted on 09 Aug 2009Now that the Cold War is over, Amerika's surveillance capacities
supposedly serve only to invade Amerikans' "privacy rights." One of
this movie's catch-phrases is that there are "too many secrets." With
Big Chill-like activist backgrounds, the hacker heros demonstrate
the individualism of both the hacker world and the settler-left. The
SNEAKERS collective shows that technology can be defeated by people
if they are properly organized. After using their collective skills
to steal a microchip for what they presume to be the NSA, they test
the chip and find that "It's the codebreaker. No more secrets." The
hacker's dream. They take money from the Republican Party and give
it to liberal organizations. Whatever.
In the mood for a good movie? Watch "Sneakers"!
posted on 23 Jul 2009"Sneakers" is one of my favorite movies and I have seen it more times than I can count. The great thing about this movie is that it is timeless - advancements will be made in technology, but there will always be hackers, government cover-ups, and 'too many secrets.' If you're in the mood for a movie that has Action, Comedy, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Romance (yes, romance!), and Thrills, then get "Sneakers"! I recommend.
A Must See!!
posted on 26 Jun 2009If you have not seen Sneakers, where have you been hiding?
Robert Redford leads this all star cast, an emsemble that blends effortlessly for so much talent in one room.
Sneakers combines good character with interesting plot, suspense, humor, and romance.
I never get tired of watching this movie again and again, it's just a great movie!
" We were going to change the world Marty, what happened? "
posted on 10 Jun 2009This is a must film for fans who want to know if the world's secrets can be acquired through theft. The answer may surprise many including Officials who believe our Government is secure. This film is entitled " Sneakers " and is about a group of Cyber-specialists who advertise themselves as computer security experts. Their job is to test the encryption systems of various electronic based companies. In their youth, two college students (Jo Marr and Gary Hershberger) seeking to right the world's financial problems, break into a University system as a prank. Unfortunately they are detected and Marr is sent to prison. It is years later and Bishop (Robert Redford) is a legitimate security consultant who is kidnapped because he has stolen a 'Black Box' which can hack into the most secure and sensitive centers of the world. His team consists of other specialists like Donald Crease (Sidney Poitier) Erwin Emory (David Strathairn) 'Mother' (Dan Aykroyd) and River Phoenix as Carl. They have decided to take on the Government agents who are holding Bishop. The problem multiples when the C.I.A. takes an active interest as does Bishop's former friend who seeks his own bit of revenge. The movie is interesting and lively as the level of danger grows until everyone is in danger including the real U.S. government. Easily recommended as a wonderful, but serious film. ****
One of my ALL TIME favs
posted on 15 May 2009I've enjoyed this movie for many years on video tape, loaned it to someone and now caouldn't find it. My daughter found the me in DVD on Amazon.com. It's about 'hackers', people paid to try to break into banks, break codes, etc. I LOVE this movie! It has an all-star cast.
Great fun
posted on 27 Apr 2009The thing about Sneakers that sets it apart from other heist and hacker flicks is that the movie concentrates on the characters and their motivations more than the technology. This means that while some films soon look antiquated and out of date ("Hackers" and "Wargames" immediately comes to mind) Sneakers is grounded in its quirky characters and clever dialog.
The supporting actors deserve as much mention as the leads; Eddie Jones, Ben Kingsley, Stephen Tobolowsky and James Earl Jones are all perfectly cast and play their parts brilliantly. For a fun action/comedy with an unparalleled cast you can't get more for your money than "Sneakers".
DVD note: To be honest the directors commentary is pretty weak as far as commentaries go, and the "behind the scenes featurette" only contains clips from the actual movie, but the movie itself is more than good enough to warrent the purchase of this DVD.
SNEAKERS
posted on 15 Apr 2009What a cast - Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, Dan Aykroyd, River Phoenix, David Strathairn, Mary McDonnell and Ben Kingsley!! This tale of intrigue and high-tech suspense is fun to watch over and over. The acting is THE BEST, direction is amazing, and the whole damn story is WONDERFUL!!! Buy this DVD!
This one deserve more playing time....
posted on 28 Mar 2009This is such an entertaining film, but how often do you stumble across it on one of the movie channels, or any channel for that matter? Great ensemble cast, lots of humor, but still enough plot and drama to satisfy a wide range of movie watchers. Each of the characters (the "good guys") has his or her quirks that makes each one memorable, and also invaluable in some way to getting the job done. One premise, that decisions that we make can stay with us for the rest of our lives and influence so many other decisions that we make, is well illustrated by Redford's character. Great interactions and witty banter among the lead actors. Enjoy!
This is what the "Mission: Impossible" movie could have been.
posted on 18 Mar 2009When I first saw this movie, I immediately thought of the classic Mission: Impossible television show. I thought it was made with such similar characters and plotting, that it was meant to gauge public interest in a re-make of that series. Redford as Phelps and Poitier as Barney? It only lacked Schwarzenegger as Willy the strongman, and perhaps Martin Short as Rollin the disguise artist or even Meg Ryan as Cinnamon the major babe. In fact, if you read the book "The Complete Mission: Impossible Dossier", several scripts were actually submitted to Paramount for an "Impossible" revival, remarkably (or even suspiciously) close to the plot of this movie, with the IMF team "free-lancing" their services. Hiring Ben Kingsley as the villain was the casting director's stroke of pure genius. Dan Ackroyd as the blind driver of the surveillance van? Superb comic relief!
Awful movie
posted on 09 Mar 2009One can merely wonder who votes this movie a 10. It's worth nothing. The realistic level (concerning the "art of hacking" as depicted here) of this movie is absolutely zero. It is a classic example of trying to represent how hacking happens but then in a way that the general public can actually see that anything happens. The acting is equally bad. This movie is not worth seeing.
A Great Movie.
posted on 23 Feb 2009I Would Give This Movie 2 Thumbs Up. Dan Akroyd Did A Great Job Playing The Role As "Mother". The TV Ancherman Ernie Tetrault Used To Work At WRGB Channel 6 , A CBS Affiliate In Schenectady, N.Y. Which Is Nearby Albany, The Capital Of New York State. He Also Did A Great Job On The News In The Movie. It Was Also Film Right In The Newsroom At WRGB. You Would Like This Movie.
Just Fun to Watch.
posted on 23 Feb 2009SNEAKERS is about a group of security analysts led by Martin Bishop (Robert Redford) who are hired by the National Security Agency to steal a special black box, created by a world renown mathematician, that has the capability to breaking all cryptographic codes. However, the group soon discovers that they weren't working for the NSA and instead are caught up in a twisted game of espionage with a man who wants revenge against Bishop.
SNEAKERS is a really entertaining movie to watch. The plot is somewhat far-fetched, despite being more realistic than the typical spy-thriller movie. The movie is made even more enjoyable because of top quality acting from an All-Star cast: Robert Redford, Ben Kingsley, Sidney Poitier, Dan Aykroyd, River Phoenix, Timothy Busfield, and Mary McDonnell. Besides the acting, another element that makes this movie just a notch above the typical spy-thriller is it's score. The music really elevates the movie and helps hide some of the minor discrepancies with the plot.
A very enjoyable movie.
Very Good Spy Movie
posted on 07 Feb 2009I'd rate this movie between an 8 and a 9. Very entertaining and moves along well. Strong cast of people that would probably not be together except for an offbeat move like this. I LIKED the music in the background. Unobtrusive, but effective without trying to hype up excitement. I just happened to see it again today (3rd time) by accident. It's still as good as ever.Over the years, I've seen a number of spy movies and this one is clearly among the more clever ones. The level of sophistication of the electronic tools used in the intelligence community was surprising then and made me wonder what kinds of things were really possible at the time.If you're looking for blazing guns, car chases and repelling wires in watches, this isn't your movie. On the other hand, if you like your spy movies on the cerebral side, this one will do, quite nicely.
A truly remarkable, and sadly underrated, film
posted on 01 Feb 2009This film from 1992 didn't make nearly as large a splash as it should have. It's witty and intelligent, where brains prove more important than muscle and where integrity means something after all. I am not usually a Redford fan but he is brilliantly understated as Martin Bishop. His supporting cast is made of winners all, and each actor makes his/her character come to life. Despite dividing screen time among about ten principals, each character is fully fleshed out. Small throw-away lines give us insight into the minds of the people in this movie.A special word must be said about Ben Kingsley's Cosmo. Here, at last, is a villain who's believable and nearly admirable, and who possesses more than one dimension. Competent without being omnipotent, almost gentle yet capable of decision and violence, fierce yet oddly vulnerable, Cosmo is the perfect foil to Bishop. Kingsley gives flashes of insight into the mind of a man whose ideals have twisted around themselves into evil and perhaps madness. It is entirely believable that Cosmo be the one to set up the central conflict of the movie, and it is entirely believable that he fall in the manner he does.And of course, the message of the movie becomes ever more relevant as time marches forward. In 1992, when it was released, the Internet revolution was little more than a distant peal of thunder on the horizon. Most people hadn't heard of networking, encryption, digital manipulation. Now, as we close in on the 10th anniversay of the film, an air of prophecy gathers around Cosmo's final, plaintive attempt to recruit Bishop: "There's a war out there, old friend. A world war. And it's not about who's got the most bullets. It's about who controls the information. What we see and hear, how we work, what we think... it's all about the information!"
The Ultimate Codebreaker
posted on 29 Jan 2009A college prank where one got caught and sent to prison and the other didn't forms the basis for Sneakers, a stylish, but ultimately unsatisfying thriller. Sad because it's a waste of a really talented cast.Gary Hershberger and Jo Marr area a couple of college age computer geeks from the seventies who if they had stayed on the straight and narrow might have wound up being Bill Gates and Bill Jobs. Marr got caught and Hershberger was not by dint of going out for pizza during a break-in. Marr got some serious jail time, but Hershberger became a fugitive.Fast forward to the nineties and Hershberger has now grown up to be Robert Redford and heading a security firm under an alias. Redford employs the diverse talents of David Strathairn, Sidney Poitier, Dan Ackroyd, River Phoenix and on occasion Mary McDonnell. They break into unbreakable places and tell you what you're doing wrong.Redford and his crew get hired or possibly a better word is drafted into working for a couple of slippery agents played by Timothy Busfield and Eddie Jones. Object is to steal a code box with a formula designed by super mathematical genius Donal Logue. In it Logue's designed a gizmo that can break ANY code.Before long Redford and his crew are in conflict with his former college prankster now all grownup and played by Ben Kingsley. Who wouldn't want the Ultimate Codebreaker? Even I'd like to have that.Sneakers is done with a lot of flash and style, but in the end it's all rather silly. A real waste of a good cast. You've got to catch at the very end where on a news broadcast it's said that Republican National Committee has gone broke overnight and Greenpeace is overflowing with money for its good work.Now maybe that's Robert Redford's secret fantasy, but this isn't Never-Never Land.
entertaining, a bit silly, great acting
posted on 23 Jan 2009I have seen this film several times, and it always entertains. It's got a well-placed plot, and the acting is tremendous. I look back at the supporting cast, and it really is top-notch. There isn't a weak link in the bunch: Redford, Poitier, River Phoenix, David Strathairn, Mary McConnell - even Akroyd is good here. (And that list doesn't even include the magnificent Ben Kingsley!) I saw the film when it first came out as a grad student in math, and yes, the math in the film is absurd. The idea of a key that could break any possible code is utterly absurd. But hey, it's fiction, so it's not worth complaining too much about it. I think it's reasonable for fiction to be occasionally unrealistic - esp. any thing that wants to make for interesting science fiction.From a mathematician's perspective, Sneakers is a breath of fresh in this respect: it doesn't depict mathematicians as crazy.
A great, whimsical piece of escapism
posted on 27 Dec 2008Sneakers (1992) is one of the most underrated flicks of the 90's. Escapist fun just doesn't get much better than this. The movie is great fun, enjoyable most when the actors (Redford, Aykroyd, Poitier, Phoenix, Kingsley, among others) are deciphering codes, unscrambling words, and delicately breaking into computer systems. Laced with some great humor, one must suspend disbelief, sit back and enjoy this whimsical gem of a film.
excellent techno-caper until...
posted on 19 Dec 2008you get to the end and they make it into a kind of joke. This is unfortunate: you get a very scary plot, of this chip that is so valuable in what it can do that holders of it are automatically offed, but then they decide to, well, you have to see it to lose your faith in the film's plausible impossibility. (OK, I don't want to be the spolier, but criticism is due).
Before that silly ending, the suspence is wonderful and believable. Redford is totally convncing, as is his old friend (Kingsley), who went to prison insead of him by chance. They have this wonderful duality that you find n fiction, good and bad from experience and luck of the draw, and are now deadly enemies. You get these wonderfully unorthodox solutions, such as the blind man helping Redford to find where he had been taken by the sound he remembers while blindfolded in a car trunk. There are many touches like that, splendid details. Then there is the caper, which is complex and frightening, with bad guys you could believe you would want to avoid. It is great - 5 stars - right up until the ridicoulous finale, which ruins the whole thng.
Recommended, but skip the last 2 minutes.
Sneakers: My favorite movie!
posted on 27 Aug 2009Sneakers is a fantastic movie! Almost perfectly cast--River Phoenix as a hacker is tough to accept, although he's fun in the role. The direction, cinematography, and music are excellent-- it doesn't get much better than these great angles, stylistic cuts, and on-the-edge-of-your-seat jazz (believe it or not!). The script is hilarious, the drama real. And as for the "plausibility", I don't know what the previous reviewer is talking about. I'm a Caltech undergrad, so I have a better feel for Large Number Theory and hacking than the average person, and I have to say, it's about a thousand times more possible than anything technical that Hollywood's churned out since. Okay, so even an applied mathematician being able to build such a chip all by his lonesome is pretty iffy; and some of the gadgetry is absurd, like the movement sensors that can be fooled by raising the temp to 98.6 F. And the character of Cosmo the still-radical anti-capitalist is a little off the beaten path. But these details should and can easily be ignored. As they say, sit back and enjoy the hack. Better performances of *real* hackers personalities you won't find outside of the X-Files.