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{{
[[File:setecastronomy.jpg|frame|[[Significant Anagram|Setec Astronomy?]] ''Too Many Secrets'']]
A 1992 film starring Robert Redford and an [[All
Martin Brice ([[Robert Redford]]) and his best friend Cosmo ([[Ben Kingsley]]) spent their youth hacking into computer systems and 'sharing the wealth': ten thousand dollars here, thirty there, and all sent to various freedom-loving (and somewhat anarchistic) agencies. Despite their precautions, the Feds catch onto Martin and Cosmo; Cosmo is arrested and goes to prison, while Martin
▲A 1992 film starring Robert Redford and an [[All Star Cast]]. ''Sneakers'' is a complex thriller about a team of slightly shady security experts who find themselves in a conspiracy about cryptography, espionage, secrets, and betrayal.
Twenty-three years later, Martin Bishop is the team lead for the Sneakers, a team of security analysts who expose the weaknesses in the security systems of banks, corporations, and anybody else who'll cut them a cheque. This ''very''
▲Martin Brice ([[Robert Redford]]) and his best friend Cosmo (Ben Kingsley) spent their youth hacking into computer systems and 'sharing the wealth': ten thousand dollars here, thirty there, and all sent to various freedom-loving (and somewhat anarchistic) agencies. Despite their precautions, the Feds catch onto Martin and Cosmo; Cosmo is arrested and goes to prison, while Martin -- who was out buying pizza for the hungry hackers -- flees to Canada, changes his name, and disappears.
* Irwin "Whistler" Emery ([[David Strathairn]]), a blind soundman with perfect pitch.▼
▲Twenty-three years later, Martin Bishop is the team lead for the Sneakers, a team of security analysts who expose the weaknesses in the security systems of banks, corporations, and anybody else who'll cut them a cheque. This ''very'' disfunctional crew consists of:
* Darryl "Mother" Roskow ([[Dan Aykroyd]]), a conspiracy nut and phone phreaker ''par excellance''.▼
▲* Irwin "Whistler" Emery (David Strathairn), a blind soundman with perfect pitch.
▲* Darryl "Mother" Roskow (Dan Aykroyd), a conspiracy nut and phone phreaker ''par excellance''.
* Donald Crease ([[Sidney Poitier]]), ex-CIA, terminated because of his quick temper.
* Karl Arborgast ([[River Phoenix]]), a college delinquent and gadget-master.
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{{tropelist}}
* [[Air Vent Passageway]]: In the finale, Martin tries to get out this way. It ''almost'' works, but the people looking for him have very good hearing.
* [[Aliens Steal Cattle]]: According to Mother, anyway.
* [[All
* [[Are You Sure You Can Drive This Thing?]]: Whistler has to drive a truck. Whistler is blind, and has to receive instructions via walkie-talkie. [[Hilarity Ensues]].
* [[Beneath Notice]]: Carl dresses up as a gardener in order to sneak into the Playtronics headquarters. While he did arouse suspicion when he seemingly disappeared from the bathroom, the guards stopped worrying once they saw Mother dressed identically outside.
* [[Big Bad Friend]]: Cosmo.
* [[Big No]]: Abbot's response to Bish's suggestion that he chaperone Carl's date. Played for laughs.
* [[Bilingual Bonus]]: "Leroy Brown", sung at the Chinese restaurant. Also some elements of the Russian.
* [[Blind Driving]]: See [[Are You Sure You Can Drive This Thing?]] above.
* [[Blindfolded Trip]]: Martin is thrown into a trunk and taken to Cosmo's headquarters. Afterwards Whistler is able to work out where he went by asking him questions about what he heard and deducting from there.
* [[Bomb Throwing Anarchist]]: Averted. Cosmo seems to be the genuine article.
* [[Book Ends]] / [[Ironic Echo]]: Martin and Cosmo's reunion as adults, in Cosmo's office. Actually a chain of Ironic Echoes, as the first line is a throwback to the prologue so we know who's speaking.
{{quote|
''[...and after things don't go well...]''
'''Cosmo''': Pain? Try ''prison''. }}
* [[Boxed Crook]]: Martin, when approached by Gordon and Wallace.
* [[Check, Please!]]: At the end of the "computer date."
* [[Choke Holds]]: Dick Gordon knocks out Bishop with a sleeper hold. In contrast to the repeated [[Tap
* [[Conspiracy Theorist]]: Mother
* [[Cool Shades]]
* [[Cutting the Knot]]: When faced with a keypad lock on a door, Martin asks his [[Mission Control]] how to get past it. We see him listening and nodding to a seemingly lengthy explanation. Then he kicks in the door.
{{quote|
* [[Cyberpunk]]: This film is very, very Cyberpunk, just without the Chrome.
* [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]]: Cosmo is this, decidedly.
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* [[Dating Service Disaster]]: [[Invoked Trope]]. The protagonists hack a matchmaking service to set up a blind date between Liz and one of SETEC's employees in order to steal his identity. The results are predictably disastrous, and in fact cause Cosmo to figure out that it's a setup.
* [[Disability Superpower]]: Whistler, who's blind and has incredibly sharp hearing.
** For what it's worth, the character of Whistler is based largely on real-life blind phone phreak and hacker [
* [[Double Caper]]: The entire plot takes this form.
* [[Dramatic Gun Cock]]
* [[Earpiece Conversation]]: Marty's conversation with Dr. Rhyzkov, as prompted by everyone else.
{{quote|
'''Bishop''' (to distraught mistress): And give he...''help'', whenever he wants. Be a...''[[Last Minute Word Swap|beacon]]'' to him. }}
* [[Enhance Button]]: Occurs at least twice: during the surveillance of Janek's office and the PlayTronics building.
* [[Fakin' MacGuffin]]: At the end of the film, the villain ends up with an empty duplicate of the casing containing the [[MacGuffin]], while {{spoiler|Marty gives the real casing to the NSA -- but only the casing, keeping the [[MacGuffin]] itself}}.
* [[False
* [[False Reassurance]]
* [[Five
* [[Foreshadowing]]: Early in the film, a security guard is watching [[Orson Welles]]' ''Touch of Evil''. Pay attention to the brief piece of audible dialogue.
* [[Helium Speech]]: Carl at the party, much to the amusement of the others.
{{quote|
'''Bishop''': You're not getting paid that much, Carl.
'''Carl''': Well, you know, someone like Liz.
'''Bishop''': Definitely not getting paid that much. }}
* [[Hollywood Encryption]]: Averted ''hard''. The description of how cryptology works is dead-on accurate -- Len Adelman, cocreator of RSA (public-key) encryption, consulted on the movie.
* [[Hollywood Hacking]]: Also averted pretty thoroughly. The Sneakers' normal job is a genuine [
** One small issue--a box that lets you easily factor big numbers will allow you to read everyone's mail, but it will not necessarily allow you to hack into their computers unless they're using public-key authentication, which not everyone is. The sequence in which Cosmo threatens to modify known criminal databases to link Bishop's name with his past might not be accurate.
** A larger issue is the claim that 'the box' would be useless on Russian cryptographic systems and work only on American ones, therefore whoever commissioned its invention would only want to spy on Americans. In reality, math is math regardless of which nation is using it.
* [[Hostage for Macguffin]]: Cosmo demands the box in return for Liz.
* [[I Know You Know I Know]]
* [[Insult Backfire]]: Delivered indirectly by the [[Big Bad]], but with the insultee present.
{{quote|
'''Martin Bishop:''' You oughta have that guy checked for rabies.
'''Cosmo:''' Rabies occurs only in warm-blooded animals. }}
* [[Involuntary Charity Donation]]: In his younger days Martin gave $25,000 of the Republican Party to the Black Panthers. Richard Nixon gave to the National Association to Legalize Marijuana. At the end of the film the Republican National Committee is missing all their money and Amnesty International, Greenpeace and the United Negro College Fund report record anonymous donations.
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* [[Janitor Impersonation Infiltration]]: Karl dresses as a gardener to get inside the Playtronics building by pretending to need to use their bathroom.
* [[Just Like Robin Hood]]
* [[Kwyjibo]]: Martin attempts to play "scrunchy".▼
** [[Hilarious in Hindsight]]: It's listed as a legal word in the Official Scrabble Dictionary now (definition: an elastic hair tie).▼
* [[Lie Detector]]: Mother's voice stress analyzer.
* [[Mission Control]]: Martin and Carl tend to go in the field, while Crease, Whistler, and Mother play peanut gallery.
* [[Mundane Wish]]: A non-magical version appears after {{spoiler|the team is negotiating with the NSA for the box.}}
{{quote|
* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]: Martin and Cosmo appear to be quite heavily inspired by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, respectively.
* [[No Guy Wants an Amazon]] -- Inverted. Upon being offered anything they want in exchange for covering up the NSA's role in this affair, Karl asks for the phone number of the hot NSA chick holding him at gunpoint. She's so flattered she actually agrees.
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* [[Open Sesame]]: "Hi. My name is Werner Brandes. My voice is my passport. Verify me."
* [[Phone Trace Race]]
* [[Pistol
* [[Playful Hacker]]: The entire team
** That being said, it should be pointed out that this is one of the few films to really catch the feel of actual hackery... namely in that computer wizardry is only part of the job; there's a significant social engineering aspect that isn't depicted nearly as adeptly in most hacker representations in cinema. Needless to say that this is a favorite of many hackers and geeks of various stripes because it gets almost everything right.
* [[Politically
* [[Precision F
{{quote|'''Crease''': Motherfuckers mess with me, I'll split your head!|'''Whistler''': And give him head whenever he asks...}}
* [[Reconstruction]]: Of the cyberpunk genre, thanks to [[Shown Their Work]].
* [[Red Herring]]: And yes, {{spoiler|[[Incredibly Lame Pun|Communism]]}} is one of them.
* [[Rewind, Replay, Repeat]]: The protagonists repeatedly watch a videotape of Janek in his office, with a woman who's in the room saying "I leave message here on service, but you do not call," each time. Finally one of the group realizes that since Janek uses a phone message service, he doesn't need an answering machine, so the answering machine on his desk must be something else - the Little Black Box.
* [[Shout Out]]: ▼
▲** [[Hilarious in Hindsight]]: It's listed as a legal word in the Official Scrabble Dictionary now (definition: an elastic hair tie).
** While picking through Brandes' trash, Mother holds up a folded box of "Cap'n Crunch", as a tribute to famed phone phreaker John "Captain Crunch" Draper. Another reference appears during the Scrabble game, when the word "CRUNCH" appears before it gets turned into "SCRUNCHY".
** When Whistler says that he wishes for "peace on earth, good will toward men...
* [[Shown Their Work]]: Lots, but the most notable was having Professor Len Adleman -- one of the three mathematicians who invented the RSA cryptosystem (he's the "A")-- as a mathematical consultant on the film.
* [[Significant Anagram]]: Setec Astronomy
* [[Social Engineering]]: Many varieties.
* [[Stolen MacGuffin Reveal]]
* [[Storming the Castle]]
* [[The Syndicate]]:
{{quote|
'''Bishop''': Organized crime?
'''Cosmo''': Don't kid yourself. It's not that organized. }}
* [[Tap
* [[Technical Pacifist]]: Cosmo
* [[Television Geography]]: Averted. Most of the geography shown is quite accurate and reasonable. In particular the scene where they trace where Martin was taken can be logically followed to a location in the East Bay.
* [[Utopia Justifies the Means]]:
* [[Vanity License Plate]]: 180 IQ. Belonging to Werner Brandes.
* [[Viewer
* [[Voice
* [[What Do You Mean
* [[Why Are You Looking At Me Like That?]]:
{{quote|
* [[Why
** Also true of the [[Big Bad]] in terms of his ultimate goal.
* [[Wrong Wire]]: Not a bomb, but amusing nonetheless --
{{quote|
'''Carl''': Yes! The alarm's always the green one.
''*snip* Darkness falls around them as the burglar alarm keeps ringing.''
'''Bishop''': Good, Carl... }}
* [[You're Insane!]]: Martin's reaction to Cosmo.
* [[You Said You Would Let Them Go]]
{{quote|
'''Cosmo''': "[[Exact Words|I cannot kill my friend.]] [to henchman] Kill my friend." }}
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Films of the 1990s]]
▲[[Category:Sneakers]]
▲[[Category:Trope]]
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