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The most obvious and glaring problem with any thriller that uses technology to drive the plot is that it can often run the risk of seeming outdated before it even reaches theaters. That may not have been the case with 1995’s The Net, but looking back on the high concept caper through a modern lens is more likely to generate laughs than tension.
We should point out that director Irwin Winkler’s far-fetched roller-coaster was a certifiable smash hit after earning $122 million at the box office on a $22 million budget, which was no doubt assisted hugely by the presence of popular A-lister Sandra Bullock in the lead role. The film also deserves a little bit of credit for being one of the first major Hollywood productions revolving around the perils of the internet and the ways the nascent technology could be used for nefarious purposes, something that came true a thousand times over and then some.
Bullock’s programmer gets caught in the middle of a conspiracy when her colleagues at a new freelancing job star dying in mysterious circumstances, right around the time she was handed a computer disc that everyone she comes into contact with appears to be chasing in one way or another. Her identity gets erased from existence and replaced with that of a wanted criminal, meaning that she’s got nobody to turn to for help, forcing her on the run before she ends up as the next one to bite the dust.
The Net is incredibly silly, but almost endearingly so, especially when things gradually become more and more implausible. In a full circle moment, though, the paranoid genre piece about the dangers of being online has come back around to secure a spot on Netflix’s most-watched rankings, per FlixPatrol. Now available at the push of a button, it’s a time capsule that offers a look into a world where people were predicting that the internet may turn out to be… well, less dangerous than it actually is today.