The 10 Best Movies About the Internet

Key Points:

• The Matrix (1999) plays on the internet’s danger from its evolution into a global simulation of life and how the human unconscious gets distracted and used to power the grid.
• Cyberbully (2019) is a realistic and true cyber-cruelty exposé with a striking and strong lesson on the dangers of the internet and the paths where social media can take us.
• The Social Network (2010) tells a story about the founding of Facebook as a social media network and the lawsuits that resulted from it.
• The documentary film, Catfish (2010), coined the phrase “catfishing,” when a man named Nev Schulman presented his own experience of being tricked online.

What would the world be like without social media and the internet? The film industry is taking the lead in exploring internet dangers through sci-fi, internet thrillers, and 90s movies, from feature films to documentaries and short films.

Finding the best internet movies can be a difficult task to accomplish because there are over a thousand movies to select from. The internet is a new phenomenon, and the film industry is still trying to figure out how to incorporate a pervasive communication system into movies in a certain way.

Below are some obvious choices, but they all explore the world’s connection with social media and the internet.

10. Cyberbully (2015)

The television thriller drama stars Maisie Williams, who plays the main and only character, and the film is produced in her bedroom, with some parts of computer-camera footage. For a duration of sixty minutes, her privacy gets hacked and she is put in danger by an anonymous user who just accuses her of crimes like a bully and she is forced to admit to such allegations.

With a very amazing performance, the story has an emotional grip from the start to the end, with dark secrets being revealed and suspenseful and disturbing peaks. This is a realistic and true cyber-cruelty exposé with a striking and strong lesson on the dangers of the internet and the paths where social media can take us. It doesn’t only reveal the results of cyberbullying but explains how vulnerable our privacy can be.

9. Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005)

It is an American romantic comedy film directed and written by Miranda July. She also plays a part in the movie as she stars in it. This was the first major studio film production for July, who was recognized for some of her short films and also through performance art.

The film plays a very crucial supporting role where two strangers meet online and plan to meet. The shocking fact is that neither one is what the other one is expected to be, which is just almost beside the point. But the fun part is how they get to hold their fateful meeting.

8. Hackers (1995)

This is among the most interesting 90s movies. During its initial release, it was widely panned as goofy and cheesy. But subsequently, it emerged as a classic cult in the web community. The movie presents the improbable, now-rote, and stylized but does some sort of heavy visualization of cyberspace.

The Hackers film also manages a few realism hints. The Hackers crew gives Jonny Lee Miller’s Dade a chance to enter their group, but they first challenge him to select a series of technical manuals that are believed to be essential reading for real hackers during the early 1980s.

7. The Social Network (2010)

This film is based on a 2009 book written by Ben Mezrich, known as The Accidental Billionaires. It tells a story about the founding of Facebook as a social media network and the lawsuits that resulted from it. This film stars Jesse Eisenberg, who plays Mark Zuckerberg, along with Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker and Andrew Garfield as Eduardo Saverin.

Although this film may not be an exact depiction of the founding of Facebook, it uses Zuckerberg’s life as a communication metaphor as well as alienation in the modern age. Since it was released, this film has taken part in start-up involvement and social media.

6. You’ve Got Mail (1998)

This is an American romantic film that stars Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks and is directed by Nora Ephron. This film was greatly inspired by the Hungarian play from 1937, Parfumerie, by Miklos Laszlo. It was co-written by Delia and Nora Ephron and told the love story of two individuals in an online romance who had no idea they were business rivals.

Being a 90s movie, it makes the film a quaint trip with its tech nostalgia. It received a “rotten tomato” rating of 69%.

5. AntiTrust (2001)

AntiTrust is an internet thriller that is directed by Peter Howitt and written by Howard Franklin. This film stars Ryan Philippe, who plays a young coder who is recruited to work for a vast computer conglomerate known as NURV. He is assigned to perform a task that amounts to a version of a satellite on the internet. This system will link all the communication devices on earth together (this includes PDAs and pagers, which were popular during that time.

Later, NURV turns out to be evil, and the boss, who is a fascist monopolist, is revealed to be a serial killer who doesn’t take time before preying on any open-source developers. The film received positive comments with a Rotten Tomato rating of just 24%.

4. The Matrix (1999)

The Matrix is a sci-fi movie, but it explains where technology might take us in the future. The matrix plays on the internet’s danger from its evolution into a global simulation of only life and how the human unconscious is distracted and used to power the grid.

Most people think that this film isn’t just a fantasy, but a prediction about the future. Second Life impresario Philip Rosedale was inspired by this film to come up with his own popular virtual world. It got a Rotten Tomatoes score of 88%.

3. Her (2013)

This movie took place in the modern days when men had already introduced the wearing of high waist pants. This movie tells an amazing story of a man who falls in deep love with his advanced operating system on his computer. At once, this movie is unbelievable and eerily believable. Though it might be extremely difficult to think of a computer with a personality, it is easy to think of someone just being dependent on their devices emotionally.

Her beautifully depicts how technology will continue to evolve in the future. But the important part is that it portrays how the human race may uncomfortably evolve. The movie received positive reviews and a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

2. Disconnect (2012)

Disconnect is an American psychological drama film written by Andrew Stem and directed by Henry Alex Rubin. By following three interconnected stories, this film explores how different people experience internet dangers through modern communication technology.

The film opened with a limitation on its release back on April 12, 2013, in 15 different theaters and made $124,000, with each theater-making an average of $8,267, and was also ranked number 31 at the box office. Disconnect received many positive reviews after it premiered at the Toronto Film Festival.

1. Catfish (2010)

This film started in 2007 as filmmakers Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman felt a new story was in progress when they were shooting the life of Ariel’s brother, Nev. These two filmmakers had no idea that the filming months would be the most uncomfortable and toughest in their lives. 

It premiered in early 2010 at the Sundance Film Festival. This led to a new MTV reality TV show series, “Catfish,” that premiered in 2012.

Nev, being the protagonist of the film, played a new role of being an investigator in the relationships in Catfish. The film got many positive reviews, with an 80% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The catfish has become a part of the lexicon of cultures.

Internet Movies: Horror

While we’ve ranked the ten best internet movies, we would be remiss if we didn’t include some bonus horror titles about the internet. If you’re a horror buff, you’re undoubtedly familiar with the concept of saying “goodbye” at the end of an Ouija Board session; if you don’t evil entities may infest your home. But what if the “person” you’re chatting with on the internet is really a supernatural entity? Will saying goodbye close out your chat session? Or will they be able to enter your home through your computer?

Ghost in the Machine (1993) is about a serial killer whose soul gets transferred into a computer when an electrical surge strikes the MRI machine he’s in after an accident. He proceeds to wreak evil through computer networks.

Other horror titles you may want to check out include Pulse, Unfriended, and Feardotcom. Watch them at your own risk!

Bottom Line: Best Internet Movies

There have been many great internet movies released in various genres such as internet thrillers, creepiest, sci-fi, and social media. From 90s movies to recent releases, the majority of these films depict internet dangers and how the world has evolved since the invention of the internet.

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