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The Net
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Irwin Winkler
Produced by	Rob Cowen Irwin Winkler
Written by	John Brancato Michael Ferris
Starring	Sandra Bullock Jeremy Northam Dennis Miller
Music by	Mark Isham Jeff Rona
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	July 28, 1995
Running time	114 min.
Country	United States
Language	English Spanish
IMDb profile

The Net is a 1995 film directed by Irwin Winkler and starring Sandra Bullock, Jeremy Northam and Dennis Miller. The storyline is based on the public fear of Big Brother in the United States. The film was followed by a short lived television series in 1998 and a direct-to-video sequel, The Net 2.0, produced and directed by the son of producer Irwin Winkler, in 2006. Only the TV series has continuity with the original film.

Angela Bennett (Sandra Bullock) is a computer software analyst (beta tester) for Cathedral Software, whose life completely revolves around her work. She is a quiet but strong-willed character, perceived as introverted by her neighbors.

A fellow analyst from Cathedral Software, Dale, sends her a program on a disk that when run displays a peculiar Pi (π) symbol in the lower-right corner. Dale instructs Angela to hold the CTRL and SHIFT buttons while clicking the π symbol, revealing that it gives the user entry point access to government and military computer systems. (We later find that they have recently implemented a newly developed piece of illegitimate 'protection' software called The GateKeeper System and this is what the film hinges upon.)

On vacation in Mexico, Jack Devlin (Jeremy Northam) acquaints himself with Angela under the pretense that he is just another computer hacker on vacation. He is later revealed to have been sent by an internet terrorist group known as the Praetorians. He tries to steal the computer disk she has with her (the virus which she discovers in the first scene being on the diskette), but she escapes. Now is when she learns what the Praetorians are capable of with the GateKeeper's backdoor. When she tries to re-enter the United States, Angela discovers that her identity has been changed by the hackers who are stalking her, and she is now listed as "Ruth Marx", a convicted prostitute with a string of drug offenses.

Arrested by the police, Angela escapes and goes on the run. Unable to find anyone who can identify her, she contacts her former lover and psychiatrist, but he is also murdered as a result of the hackers' machinations.

Desperate to escape the 'net', Angela/Ruth sneaks into the Cathedral office where the hacker is thought to be located. She identifies one of the hackers, now using Angela's identity, and contrives to uncover the master plan of the Praetorians, which is to install their own 'Gatekeeper' software into the mainframes of several government and military computer systems. Angela sets off the fire alarm and manages to copy all of the evidence of the hacker's plan onto a disk, just before the fake Angela makes it back to her desk.

At a computer convention, she sends an e-mail to the FBI, revealing the hackers' plan. Jack arrives at the computer station where Angela was working at and hacks into the FBI mainframe, he tells Angela that everything she did will be deleted by pressing the escape key. But what Jack didn't realize is that Angela inserted a disk that contained a virus that will infect any system when the escape key is pressed. In doing so, he releases the virus into Cathedral's mainframe and all of the files are deleted. Angela escapes and she is chased by Jack and the fake "Angela". Jack accidentally kills his partner and the real Angela ambushes Jack, knocking him off a catwalk and sending him to his death.

Based on the evidence that she has sent the FBI, the hackers are arrested, and Angela gets her life back.

With an estimated budget of $22 million and a release date of July 28th, 1995, The Net earned $50,727,965 in domestic box office. Including foreign markets, the film grossed $110,627,965 worldwide and an additional $23,771,600 in rentals.

The film was not received well overall by most critics, gathering a rating of only 30% at Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert, however, gave a positive review of three stars. Additionally, Sandra Bullock was nominated for "Most Desirable Female" at the 1996 MTV Movie Awards.

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

The Net (film)

• The Net at the Internet Movie Database
• Rotten Tomatoes page
• Roger Ebert Review