Robert Redford leads an all-star cast in one of the most satisfying suspense films! Computer expert Martin Bishop (Redford) heads a team of renegade hackers - including a former CIA employee (Sidney Poitier), a gadgets wizard (Dan Aykroyd), a young genius (River Phoenix) and a blind soundman (David Strathairn) - who are routinely hired to test security systems. But Bishop's past comes back to haunt him when government agents blackmail the "sneakers" into carrying out a covert operation: tracking down an elusive black box. Along with his former girlfriend (Mary McDonnell), Bishop's team retrieves the box and makes a stunning discovery - the device can break into any computer system in the world. With factions from all sides willing to kill for the powerful box, Bishop and his team embark on their most dangerous assignment ever in this exhilarating high-tech caper from Phil Alden Robinson (Field of Dreams).
This enjoyable thriller, written and directed by Phil Alden Robinson (the screenwriter of Field of Dreams), follows a raggedy group of corporate security experts who get in over their heads when they accept an assignment poaching some hot hardware for the National Security Agency. Robert Redford plays the group's guru, an aging techno-anarchist who has been hiding from the feds since the early 1970s; his companionable gang of freaks includes Dan Aykroyd, David Strathairn, Mary McDonnell, the late River Phoenix, and Sidney Poitier, as a veteran CIA operative turned "sneaker." The technological black box that everybody is after, an array of computer chips that can decode any encrypted message, isn't a very plausible invention, but it's a serviceable McGuffin, and the megalomania of the master plotter played by Ben Kingsley has more resonance than most. Modest inferences can be drawn about the very latest high-tech threats to civil liberties. --David Chute
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
Should have been called Hackers:
Indeed, this was the early 90's and I was DEEP in the "hacker scene." Except for the fact that everyone in the movie is a bit too old, it really has the feel of that sense of power you felt when you hacked into a system, or cracked someone's lame software copy protection. But the NAME of this movie is what limited its distribution. I was invited to see this by a colleague of mine and he only told me the name. Hell, I thought it was gonna be some basketball sports film or something. But I went anyway. Was I... more info
A fun movie with lots of great stars:
Robert Redford has been on the lamb for years and now runs a miscreant crew of nefarious characters who are paid to show companies their weaknesses. Along come some so called Government Agents who give him a choice...Help them or go to jail. The plot unfolds and Redford makes a play at the "man behind the curtain" and the girl. This is a great rainy day movie. It's both funny and has some pretty cool Mission Impossible moments.
Classic and a good movie:
i liked this movie when it came out. robert redford was funny,witty and charming. very interesting and entertaining for the redford fan.
Sneakers - the perfect action comedy!:
I first saw Sneakers when I was about 13 years old. I was fascinated beyond belief that hackers could be so powerful and that computers could be so powerful. That was back in 1993 or 94 - and it seams a world away now. One wouldn't think that Sneakers could still have any impact on people after all these years. But watching it again made me so happy. It made me realise that a good story with a great plot is much more powerful than new movies a bit like it (Die hard 4, Mission Impossible). Snearkers is not a... more info
