Re: [SLUG] Swordfish

From: Paul M Foster (paulf@quillandmouse.com)
Date: Sun Jun 10 2001 - 15:43:45 EDT


On Sun, Jun 10, 2001 at 03:02:03PM -0400, Jeff Skube wrote:

> Well yesterday I went to see Password Swordfish and me and my friend
> Kevin ( Also a Linux user ) noticed an odd thing in the movie. The
> first hacker type guy ( Yes I know the proper term is cracker ) was
> arrested after he came to America from Finland. Now its the funny part.
> The guys name was Axel Trovalds! I dont know if it was there on purpose
> but it was cool none the less.
>

Oh, things like that don't happen by accident. If you see someone in a
movie named "Zelazny" or "Tartikoff", it's normally an "in joke"--
something people "in the know" would understand. (Zelazny is a sci-fi
author, Tartikoff is/was a television executive.)

I don't know that they intended to impugn Linus. Maybe they did it to
appeal to hackers' perverse senses of humor. I doubt Linus himself
takes it seriously.

Of course, I haven't see the movie. Someone mentioned that "Antitrust"
was pretty inaccurate in a lot of ways, which is true. But then again,
these movies aren't made for hackers. They're made for the general
public who may not even know there is a guy named Torvalds. For those
who do know, they can feel like they're "cool" because they "get it".
Which is what the movie folks intended in the first place.

Paul



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