The emphasis on chase scenes in the film was largely the work of director Tony Scott, said Marconi. So theoretically, you could do a reverse diary," he said, meaning picking a point or object in time, then tracing physically where it came from. "For instance, there are satellites over every part of the earth, sending data 24 hours per day. Marconi added that the technology was more the flight of fancy of a writer as interpreted by Hollywood special effects specialists, or reading between the lines in European news articles about surveillance. "The building looks real, but I've never seen an office like ," said the NSA man, noting that the agency tends towards mahogany. Several audience members asked questions about whether the government really had the surveillance capabilities displayed in the film. The large audience received the film well, laughing at the more technologically improbable bits, such as a scene in which a computer "hypothesizes" a 360-degree, 3-D rendering of a package from a 2-D video still.Īfterwards, David Marconi, the primary screenwriter, fielded questions about the film, seated next to a man who identified himself only as a member of the NSA.
The movie is tightly edited, with chase scenes combining agents on foot, elaborate global tracking devices and geosynchronous spy satellites able to resolve faces on tops of skyscrapers - in other words, the Hollywood version of the NSA. Smith's character then suffers at the hands of NSA goons until a former covert operative played by Gene Hackman lends his expertise. That same audience sat in rapt attention that evening for the first ever "Def Con Goes To The Movies." The movie was Enemy of the State, a 1998 thriller starring Will Smith as a lawyer who accidentally runs afoul of a corrupt National Security Agency (NSA) administrator, Jon Voight, who's killed a Congressman over budget issues. If he gets home and his answering machine is connected to, he'll know you're the best," said Thieme. If you're good enough, you can find it, replied Jerrell.