Sneakers (1992) – 4K makeover sourced from the original camera negative
57 comments
·May 6, 2025voxadam
My voice is my passport. Verify Me.
richrichardsson
Just before I left the UK in 2018 there was starting to become this trend for voice verification on some services, in one particular one I had to go through the setup of (perhaps it was Virgin Media? I forget), they had me say "My voice is my passport" to train it on how I sound. I smiled to myself.
nullify88
Heavily referenced in Uplink, the hacker video game by Introversion Software.
devoutsalsa
This is always the first thing I remember about the movie...
COOTYS RAT SEMEN
"No, I don't."
"No. No."
Cyphase
When I was a kid we had a VHS recording of Sneakers, with the beginning of an episode of Letterman at the end. I remember my mom liking it. Fond memories. I need to watch it again.
A couple of scenes:
Carl: We've got customers.
Martin: Shoes?
Carl: Expensive.
Martin: *fixes tie* Look busy, guys.
*after apparently inconveniencing Liz, the group is walking out*
Cosmo: We'll call you a cab.
Liz: "Thank you. This is my last computer date."
*Cosmo stops walking, falling behind*
Cosmo: "Wait."
*the group stops and turns*
Cosmo: "A computer matched her with him? I don't think so."
*Liz's face falls as Cosmo's henchman start slowly walking up behind her.*
*dramatic music as we cut and zoom in to Cosmo's face*
Cosmo: "Marty."
*Cosmo turns and runs toward his office*gittes
Great movie! So many big named actors in it! The director also did Field of Dreams!
BLKNSLVR
I'm not a fan of baseball, but I liked Field of Dreams (at the age I was back when it would have made it to Australian TV).
jph
Sneakers and Setec Astronomy became my go to for example encryption code for years. If you're not familiar with Setec Astronomy, you're in for a treat. <3
ghostDancer
I think you keep too many secrets.
glimshe
Setec Astronomy is also the name, obviously inspired by the movie, of a successful MIT Puzzle Hunt group.
nullify88
There are some great stills from that movie. In particular the close up of a person's face with reflections of computer text in glasses often sticks with me. I know Timecop also has a similar scene just after the time jump. I think it looks really cool.
My brain is weird.
BLKNSLVR
Ironically, I think this movie is better suited to being watched on VHS quality.
InsideOutSanta
If you have a high-quality digital version of a movie, you can use one of the CRT shaders from modern emulators to make it look like any old TV you want.
losthobbies
I love this movie so much. I know there are parts that don't make sense but everyone in it is excellent and it's very quotable.
"Practice, Practice, Practice" "You...won't know...who to trust" "No more secrets"
The soundtrack is great too.
dang
Related. Others?
Sneakers – The Team's Demands [video] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41493927 - Sept 2024 (2 comments)
Sneakers Film Promotional Floppy - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38585213 - Dec 2023 (54 comments)
No-more-secrets: recreate the decryption effect seen in the 1992 movie Sneakers - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36799776 - July 2023 (257 comments)
Happy 30th anniversary to ‘Sneakers,’ a cult classic that was ahead of its time - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32788136 - Sept 2022 (47 comments)
Cracking the Code: Sneakers at 30 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31378418 - May 2022 (76 comments)
Memories of the “Sneakers” Shoot (2012) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29840802 - Jan 2022 (198 comments)
Sneakers: Robert Redford, River Phoenix nerd out in 1992’s prescient caper - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29620095 - Dec 2021 (7 comments)
Sneakers (1992), the Film - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26111977 - Feb 2021 (2 comments)
Tool Recreating the “Decrypting Text” Effect Seen in the Movie “Sneakers” - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11643270 - May 2016 (54 comments)
Sneakers - movie about pen testing, crypto/nsa, espionage, and deception (1992) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6196379 - Aug 2013 (5 comments)
What it was like shooting the movie Sneakers - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4498985 - Sept 2012 (46 comments)
Sneakers (Film, 1992) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1499298 - July 2010 (1 comment)
Joybubbles: the blind phreaker whom Whistler was based off of in Sneakers - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1443241 - June 2010 (1 comment)
shelled
Hey dang, do you do this manually or semi-manually or is it just automated from your a/c?
dang
Semi-manually, so I'm glad you included that option :)
This question comes up a lot - here's an answer that goes over it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40564558
kleiba
StackOverflow has this feature that when you write a new question, it tries to fuzzy-match that up against existing questions. I wonder if an approach similar to yours, using search, could be employed on HN as well to reduce the number of dupes?!
This would be helpful especially for those cases where the same story gets covered on multiple places on the internet and so URL matching doesn't help.
ctxc
I was kinda hoping it was manual (sorry). I was fired up at the opportunity to build something tiny that solves a pain, but...man you have a solid setup there :D
mosselman
Wow that is cool! Any chance you could share that Arc extension?
ccheever
I work at a company whose legal name is Monterey's Coast, Inc.
cantrecallmypwd
oystermen coast ;)
amnesty scooter
coyote smartens
economy tasters
sgt
Anyone noticed that streaming services start to compromise on quality? With Netflix it's been like that for a while. Apple TV+ seems to be the best. I really want to get into Blu-ray now, looking for a decent player.
voxadam
Life is great on the high seas. I've spent nearly 16 years "Passing the Popcorn" and couldn't be happier.
dmos62
Question: what's the streaming budget for the big platforms? Can they offer 50-100 mbps? For example, a 70 gb video for a 2.5 hour movie would need 67 mbps to stream. Having access to a rip like that for a popular movie (meaning new or classic) is normal "on the high seas" and it has a detectable difference on my budget-tier setup compared to a ~20 gb rip. I'm wondering if streaming platforms can afford to offer something like that.
russelg
Sony Bravia Core has movies up to 80mbps.
pimeys
Some butter with your popcorn? Here let me pass.
hudo
Netflix is "4K Ultra HD: Up to 7 GB per hour". Blu ray is 25GB per side, so max 50GB for 2 layers. Typical movies are 35-50GB. So, BR, and think even DVD still looks much better than any streaming service!
criddell
Sony’s streaming service is 80 Mbps or 36 GB per hour.
We’re going to have to disagree about DVDs though. They look awful on modern (big) televisions.
alias_neo
> Blu ray is 25GB per side, so max 50GB for 2 layers
Are pressed Blu-Rays limited compared to writeable ones?
I have 100GB BDXL blanks (single-sided) I use as one of the archives for my family photos/videos.
Couldn't a film BluRay also be 100GB on a single side?
foobarbecue
Yeah. I see overcompression on a lot of shows. Dark scenes and star fields tend to make it obvious. Three Body Problem was the worst -- I imagine it would have been consistently visually spectacular if they hadn't compressed it to shit. I've seen it on Apple TV too though-- e.g. really visible on Silo title screens. Love, Death and Robots on Netflix quality was great.
dmos62
In my experience, HDR format makes the most difference. There's a dramatic difference between HDR10 and DV.
theshrike79
They all give you "4k", but ATV+ has by far the best bit rate.
nullify88
I mostly see a lot of stuttering. Either during high action scenes or when there's little happening at all. It's especially noticable on HBO / MAX at 4k DV. I assumed it was due to aggressive encoding.
sixothree
I would describe Disney as barely 720p when used in any web browser.
foobarbecue
Seems to vary between shows. Been watching Andor on a good system (LG OLED 4K) and it's spectacular. No compression artifacts or splotchy dark areas.
GCUMstlyHarmls
That might be a DRM thing, I know some streamers will only send 720 to Linux x Browser combos.
Bluestein
Featured here often.-
... particularly sadly, at Earl Jones' passing.-
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41493927
Greatest movie :)
PS. The quote on "goowill not being something the government does" reads so poignant now ...
Karellen
Part of my headcanon for Sneakers is that Agent Abbot (Jones) is actually Admiral Greer (Jones' character from The Hunt for Red October/Patriot Games/Clear and Present Danger), set a bit earlier in his career, and going under a codename while working CyberOps for NSA ;-)
"The dialog is clear, sharp, stable, and easy to follow." if we didn't already know it was an older film this would be the thing that nailed it.