Sneakers

Sneakers was a moderate success upon its release in 1992 and has since become a cult favorite, championed by late Gen X and early Millennials, the last generations to come of age in a time before the internet. The film works as a premonition of things to come, a world where information is weaponized and faith in institutions and centers of power are shifting.  

Despite the heady themes I just mentioned, Sneakers is a great hangout movie. Few genres are more entertaining than the techno-thriller and heist flick. Our cast of characters are a group of happy warriors who function harmoniously as a team despite their differences. Robert Redford (Martin) heads a security consultant company with former CIA operative Donald Crease played by Sidney Poitier. In addition are Dan Aykroyd as tech specialist and conspiracy theorist "Mother," River Phoenix as hacker Carl Arbogast, and David Strathairn as phone freak "Whistler." Mary McDonnell rounds out the cast as Liz, Redford's former girlfriend, who remains an ally to the group.

The plot of Sneakers revolves around a "Black Box" with incredible encryption potential, the power to infiltrate governments, corporations, and banks. In the film's prologue, we see Martin as a college student with his friend Cosmo (Ben Kingsley), who were both hackers. As the authorities were coming to arrest them for illegal activity, Martin managed to escape to Canada, but Cosmo was arrested. We later learn Cosmo got an early release and sold his hacking services to criminal organizations. He wants to use the Black Box built by the NSA to destroy the world's financial system, making rich and poor equal. Out of the chaos will arise a new order.

Martin and Cosmo symbolized two sides of the New Left. Martin managed to redefine himself as a security expert, working within the system while never abandoning his anti-establishment ethos. Cosmo took the opposite track; he became further radicalized and concluded chaos was the only answer to an unjust system. Although Cosmo is the antagonist his words have proved prophetic:

There's a war out there, old friend. A world war. And it's not about who's got the most bullets. It's about who controls the information. What we see and hear, how we work, what we think . . . it's all about the information!

Sneakers handles the minutiae of heist films with gentle humor. There are agents who appear to be NSA but are covertly working for another government. To get past a voice-based security system Liz is sent under protest on a date with a hopeless milquetoast played by Stephen Tobolowsky. There's an absurd chase scene in a parking lot. And a pleasing denouement scene featuring a James Earl Jones cameo. 

Written by Lawrence Lasker and Walter Parks, the team behind the iconic '80s techno-thriller War Games, the script has the precision of a European thriller. James Horner's ethereal music matches the finesse of the production design. Phil Alden Robinson's direction deftly handles a complex plot with a cast of heavyweights.

Ultimately, there's more to Sneakers than merely being an above average heist film with some sharp insight into the post-Cold War world. It's also a redemptive fable for the boomer generation. I'm a little out of date here, referring to the backlash towards boomers on social media during the early 2020s (they elected Reagan and Trump, got drunk on credit and doomed future generations, while also destroying the planet with fossil fuels) gets a redemptive counternarrative in Sneakers.

There's a utopic undercurrent to the story, evident with the casting. Poitier was a part of so many important movies and a living legend, his reserved presence evokes a dignity rare in modern movies. Redford will always be remembered as a great movie star, his role here as the seasoned liberal who still lives by a more mature '60s ethos approaches aspirational. Aykroyd's presence will always recall early SNL, the closest American pop culture ever came to something approaching the Beatles (I have a theory many are obsessed with early SNL but I may be projecting). Finally, River Phoenix represented Gen X, the youngest member of the group who gets on fine with everyone. If the characters share one common trait, is they're all motivated by something beyond money. 

The ideological and generational harmony among the ensemble is why I think many go back to Sneakers. One need not disavow all their youthful ideals and cynically go for the big money. Ideals and making the world a better place still matter.