Technical Accuracy in a Movie?

by Charles Miller on May 16, 2003

I'm going to see The Matrix Reloaded in about two and a half hours. Just now, I was reading JWZ's blog and discovered that it contained evidence of the first ever technically accurate computer-hacking scene in a movie.

I kid you not.

In order to break into a computer, a movie character scans it with nmap, and then runs a known SSH1 root exploit on it. All on a plain green-screen terminal without fancy graphics.

Colour me amazed.

Of course, then I thought: “The only place you get technically accurate use of computers in a movie, is when according to the story, the world it's happening in isn't real.” The mind boggles.

Previously: Closures and Java: a Tutorial

Next: Viral Agents (minor Matrix Reloaded spoiler)