Movie Quotes: Sneakers

Heaven knows that the genre of hacker movies is a bumpy one. Even the good ones, like WarGames, seem so laughably outdated by today's standards of technological sophistication. But the quality of the equipment is only part of the equation, and savvy are the filmmakers that realize this. They are the ones who invest as much in character and story as they do in the latest technological gadgetry, knowing that the former can and will far outlast the later.

Sneakers is a favorite of a lot of people for this very reason. The characters are all distinctively quirky and likeable, and the technology and special effects never get in the way of the people. The film also has a quote which, some thirteen years later after it was released, seems a wonderful encapsulation of the Internet and the modern world. Little wonder that so many hackers, and librarians like myself, are so fond of it.

Cosmo: You could have shared this with me.

Bishop: I know.

Cosmo: You could have had the power.

Bishop: I don't want it.

Cosmo: Don't you know the places we can go with this?

Bishop: Yeah, I do. There's nobody there.

Cosmo: Exactly! The world isn't run by weapons anymore, or energy, or money, it's run by little ones and zeroes, little bits of data. It's all just electrons.

Bishop: I don't care.

Cosmo: I don't expect other people to understand this, but I do expect YOU to understand this! We started this journey together!

Bishop: It wasn't a "journey", Cos. It was a prank.

Cosmo: 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!

Bishop: If I were you, I'd destroy that thing.