The 1995 film 'Hackers' by Iain Softley is one of the quintessential films of the 90s, and over the years has achieved cult classic status. Made at a time when the Internet was unfamiliar to the general public, the film features many young actors who went on to have successful careers (Jonny Lee Miller, Angelina Jolie, Matthew Lillard, etc.).

Softley said that he wanted the film's music to be dreamlike and reflect aspects of data and technology being shown on-screen. The result was a compilation of not only Simon Boswell's score, but tracks from various artists that were massively successful at the time. The soundtrack itself has been successful with 3 separate volumes being released over the years, with the most recent release in 2020 celebrating the 25th anniversary of the film. Overall, the soundtrack showcases electronica and techno/house with artists like Prodigy, Underworld (Trainspotting), and Orbital - all of which pretty made their mark in history in the 90's.

In this snapshot, we focus on two scenes with the first being our intro to Dade Murphy (Jonny Lee Miller) aka 'Zero Cool' / 'Crash Override', and the second being a much older Dade competing with Kate Libby (Angelina Jolie) aka 'Acid Burn'. Orbital's 'Halcyon & On & On' is actually a beautiful track combining soft melodies mixing into techno. To this day, no track has ever come close to it. The second track features Prodigy's 'One Love' which was a very famous track at the time from their second album, 'Music for the Jilted Generation'.

Maybe it's because we feel a nostalgia for the 90s, who knows. The point is this Snapshot with the previous (Trainspotting) are transcendent films in their own unique ways, but utilize music that helped define the magic of that decade.

Where to watch: https://letterboxd.com/film/hackers/
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Every Monday and Wednesday, SCORE CUE SNAPSHOTS brings you iconic scenes married to the corresponding score cue without dialogue and SFX, thus allowing anyone to appreciate how the score works with what you see unfold on-screen.