merc, 1 year ago

Hacking is really a “montage” type activity, but is treated as something you can show in real time.

Like, imagine the A-Team building some weapon out of spare parts but you had to watch the entire build process including measuring, cutting, screwing up the cut, throwing away the part and trying again…

Or, imagine a martial arts film where the hero trains for the big fight… and you include the entire training regimen, showing them getting up at 6am each day to do sit-ups, then following the entire morning run…

Really a hacking sequence should have those zoomed-in calendars with days flipping by and getting crossed out.

If they really need the hack to be in the critical path of the action, it should only be something like:

Boss: We need to hack the satellite!
Hacker: What model is it?
Boss: It’s a… let me see… KU-STRZ-4 out of Azerbaijan.
Hacker: A 4-series? We’re in luck, NSA’s been sitting on a exploit for that model.

Otherwise it’s as stupid as:

Boss: We need to defeat Scar Killer in the Kumite tomorrow.
Soldier: I did some basic unarmed combat in boot camp, but…
Boss: You have 24 hours, get training!
Next day, the soldier is massively jacked and is throwing flip kicks etc.