From the moment that spy-craft could conceivably be done through a keyboard, thrillers and science fiction changed forever. You have the entire cyberpunk genre, of course, which includes everything from William Gibson’s classic 1984 novel Neuromancer to the less-than-stellar 1996 film Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace. But squarely in the middle of the dial-up age of thrillers sits The Net, which hit theaters 30 years ago today.
If you’re old enough to remember seeing the VHS at Blockbuster, you probably perceived The Net as simply another Sandra Bullock vehicle, one capitalizing on her co-starring role in 1994’s Speed. And at the time, you would have been right: The Net was an instantly anachronistic thriller with narrative and cinematic shortcomings saved by Bullock’s charm.
