These days, people worry about our data being on the internet.  What makes it more interesting is how many of us treat this like it is a new issue.  If you watch The Net (1995), you will know that this is not true.  This movie turns thirty this year, yet it contains elements you will find familiar.  It is not just the angst over our privacy.  In one scene, albeit in crude, 1990s format, software engineer Angela Bennett (Sandra Bullock) orders a pizza online, choosing toppings as she does so.  I can remember 1995, but not having the ability to customize my delivery on the world wide web.  Then again, I did not own a computer at that time.  That also seems like a strange sentence to write.  As you read this review, feel free to comment below if any of this appears odd to you.

Despite mentioning a moment ago that this film stars Sandra Bullock, The Net begins with a distraught Under Secretary of Defense Bergstrom (Ken Howard) trying to assure people he is talking on his cellular phone (I thought I would lean into the 1990s here) that he has done what they have asked.  I guess this is not enough because we see him soon produce a revolver, putting it in his mouth and then pulling the trigger.  His suicide is reported on the news as being done because he had recently learned that he has the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).  This story is seen by Angela, who works by herself at home on the other side of the country in Los Angeles.  Her job involves taking a look at programs sent to her by various clients, detecting bugs and viruses, and fixing them.  In addition to leading a solitary life, she is unknown to her neighbors, and is gradually being forgotten by her mother, Mrs. Bennett (Diane Baker), who is suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease.  All she has is her computer, but she chats with people on the internet about her hopes, such as finding the right man.  Because she has not had a vacation in years, she is looking forward to finally getting away when she is contacted by Dale (Ray McKinnon), a programmer for a company called Cathedral.  He has sent her another program, but it contains a special character in the bottom right-hand corner that, when clicked, reveals a host of website data that has the look of classified information.  So concerned is Dale by what he has sent her that he insists on flying down from San Francisco in his private plane to go over it with her in person.  Despite being scheduled to leave for Mexico the next day, she agrees.  However, on the way his aircraft’s instruments lead him astray and he crashes into a smoke stack, killing him.  She waits a little while before departing for the airport, but on the way out she learns that Dale has died.  Shaken, she carries on with her flight after a glitch at LAX almost cancels the trip.  While sitting on the beach, she meets Jack Devlin (Jeremy Northam).  She notices him because he orders her favorite drink, and she stands out to him because she is also doing work while relaxing.  Eventually, their interaction takes them offshore for some adult time.  Aside from my Catholic views on such behavior, I would think she would recognize the danger before the inevitable attempted murder occurs.  Remarkably, she figures it out when he decides to think of carnal matters instead of carnage.  During her attempted escape in the dinghy, she runs into a rock and wakes up in a Mexican hospital without any identification.  The hotel claims she had checked out a week ago, and the computers appear to confirm this narrative.  She next goes to the closest United States embassy, but when she gives them her social security number, they come back telling her that her name is Ruth Marx.  Not seeing any alternative, she signs the temporary visa as this person.  Upon returning to her house, Angela finds it empty and for sale.  When she gets into an argument with the real estate agent, the police are called.  Watching outside is Jack, who digitally adds a number of serious felonies to Ruth Marx’s criminal record, prompting the cops to seek to arrest her.  She manages to get away, and in desperation, she turns to Dr. Alan Champion (Dennis Miller), her former therapist turned lover.  He is incredulous about Angela’s story, but agrees to help.  The person she tries to contact is somebody from the online chat room, but Jack gets to this person before Angela can meet him.  Further, Dr. Champion is forced to be hospitalized when his medication is tampered with, and he is eventually killed by these same shadowy figures.  Following another run-in with Jack, Angela learns of Dr. Champion’s passing and is picked up by the police the next morning.  She is soon bailed out by a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent named Ben Phillips (Robert Gossett), though he also turns out to be a fake, part of a shadowy group of conspirators known as the Praetorian.  For her, all roads seem to point to Cathedral headquarters in San Francisco.  Making her way there, she manages to slip into their offices and discovers where the cubicle of the person posing as Angela Bennett (Wendy Gazelle) is located.  The real Angela prompts the computer to activate the fire alarm, and while everyone is out of the building, she uses the fake Angela’s computer to download the file that had caused her all the trouble.  Angela next tries to sneak back out, but is followed by Jack and her double into a technology convention going on across the street.  There, Angela finds a computer on which she can send the proof she needs to the FBI to clear her name and expose Cathedral for its nefarious deeds.  Jack attempts to stop her, but he ends up falling to his death.  We close with Angela getting her mother to move in with her, her real identity being stored.

In addition to The Net starring Sandra Bullock, whom I enjoy, it is also great to see people caring for those who cannot do so for themselves as with Angela and her mom.  The Church calls on us to defend and help the weak in our society, something I wish more Catholics understood.  Though Faith is not a part of this story, Angela speaks to the proper attitude when she describes her work as finding faults and fixing them.  This may not sound like the best way of going about interactions with others, but this refers to problems with programs rather than looking for things that are wrong with another’s character.  If you are like me and know little about computers, you will understand that there are so many of us that are virtually defenseless against malicious hackers that seek access to our sensitive information.  Somebody who can prevent worse things from happening like Angela is doing God’s work in a digital age.  Her problem, though, is being disconnected from humanity.  Angela makes some questionable choices, and arguably her worse one is choosing a life of solitude.  To be sure, there is a time and place for being alone.  As I have recently learned from studying the Catechism of the Catholic Church, it is in those quiet moments that God is more easily heard.  The danger, as we see in the film, is that it becomes a situation where you choose being cut off from society.  Even the most ascetic Catholic hermits belong to some kind of community, even if they meet with them a little less frequently than would you or me.  Communing with one other is part of the Mass, with our fellow Catholics and Jesus in the Eucharist.  Taking these steps also makes it harder for one to be misidentified and to have happen to you the sort of thing you see Angela endure.

Indeed, one could make the argument that The Net is an extreme case of identity threat.  In this, too, the movie is relatable despite it being thirty years old.  My only complaint with it is that there are moments when she behaves in inexplicable ways.  Thrillers tend to get me thinking about how I would react in a similar situation, and frankly (I believe) I would behave differently.  Still, this does have Sandra Bullock in it, so that is always worth something.