Taglines: To trust can be murder.
Sneakers movie storyline. Martin Bishop is the head of a group of experts who specialise in testing security systems. When he is blackmailed by Government agents into stealing a top secret black box, the team find themselves embroiled in a game of danger and intrigue. After they recover the box, they discover that it has the capability to decode all existing encryption systems around the world, and that the agents who hired them didn’t work for the Government after all…
Sneakers is a 1992 American comedy caper film directed by Phil Alden Robinson, written by Robinson, Walter Parkes, and Lawrence Lasker and starring Robert Redford, Dan Aykroyd, Ben Kingsley, Denise Dowse, Mary McDonnell, River Phoenix, Sidney Poitier, David Strathairn, Timothy Busfield and Time Winters.
About the Story
In 1969, students Martin Brice and Cosmo are sneakers who hack into computer networks using university equipment, to redistribute conservative funds to various liberal causes. The police burst in and arrest Cosmo while Martin is out getting pizza, and Martin becomes a fugitive.
In the present day, Martin, now called Martin Bishop, is running a team of security specialists in San Francisco, including Donald Crease, a former CIA officer and family man; Darren “Mother” Roskow, a conspiracy theorist and electronics technician; Carl Arbogast, a young hacking genius; and Irwin “Whistler” Emery, a blind phone phreak.
Martin is approached by NSA officers Dick Gordon and Buddy Wallace, who know of his former identity. In exchange for clearing his record, he’s asked to recover a “black box” from mathematician Dr. Gunter Janek, who has developed the box under the project name “Setec Astronomy” supposedly for the Russian government. Martin is hesitant but agrees to help.
With help from his former girlfriend, Liz, Martin and his team secure the box, which is disguised as a telephone answering machine. During their subsequent celebration party, Whistler, Mother, and Carl investigate the box, finding it capable of breaking the encryption of nearly every computer system. Martin works out that “Setec Astronomy” is an anagram of “too many secrets”, and issues a lockdown until they can deliver the box the next day.
Martin hands the box to the NSA officers, but quickly leaves after Crease discovers that Janek was killed the night before. He contacts a friend named Gregor in the Russian consulate, who confirms that the officers were rogue agents, and that Janek was working for the NSA. Before Gregor can elaborate further, fake FBI agents kill him and kidnap Martin to a remote location where he’s reunited with Cosmo, who Martin thought had died in prison.
While in prison, Cosmo developed ties with organized crime, allowing him to escape and become wealthy. He explains his plan to use Janek’s box to destabilize the world economy, and offers Martin the chance to join him. Martin refuses, whereupon Cosmo uses the box to break into the FBI and connect Martin’s current identity with his former name. Cosmo has Martin knocked out and taken back to the city.
Sneakers (1992)
Directed by: Phil Alden Robinson
Starring: Robert Redford, Dan Aykroyd, Ben Kingsley, Denise Dowse, Mary McDonnell, River Phoenix, Sidney Poitier, David Strathairn, Timothy Busfield, Time Winters
Screenplay by: Phil Alden Robinson, Lawrence Lasker, Walter Parkes
Production Design by: Patrizia von Brandenstein
Cinematography by: John Lindley
Film Editing by: Tom Rolf
Costume Design by: Bernie Pollack
Set Decoration by: Samara Schaffer
Art Direction by: Dianne Wager
Music by: James Horner
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for brief sexual references.
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
Release Date: September 11, 1992
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