The birth of the internet brought about many changes and improvements to our lives, but perhaps the most impactful change can be felt in how much smaller it made the world feel. In no movie was this made more clear, than in You’ve Got Mail. The characters of Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) and Joe Fox (Tom Hanks) were diametrically opposed to one another, and were then brought together thanks to the anonymity of the young internet of the time. And nearly 20 years after its release, You’ve Got Mail remains a gold standard when it comes to the realistic depiction of the internet in film.
Punk music, skateboarding, hip-hop, the 1990’s were all about sticking it to the man, and it was cool. And what stuck it to the man more than hacking the “information highway” and bending it to your whim? Well, unfortunately, movies like The Net and Hackers didn’t quite capture the finer points of the life of real life Blackhats, a misstep that Hollywood would continue to make for many years to follow.
Much like hacking, virtual reality was a hot technology buzzword in the 90’s. The potential of slipping into a virtual fantasy that is completely tailored to every individual, is something that is understandably desirable. And while actual VR technology wouldn’t reach a wide adoption rate until 2016, it was movies like Lawnmower Man, Johnny Mnemonic and eXistenZ that fanned the flames of VR desire.