This movie excels in its class. Money can't buy everything, but it can usually buy a better film. Despite the handicap of a low budget, this one is entertaining, well paced, well cut, and surprisingly free of the absurd movements similar low budget movies usually end up with.
The flying sequences work a hundred times better than those in Time Chasers, another 80s movie which looked and sounded a lot like Prime Risk but ended up being a lot sillier. Hey it's an 80s movie, scenes of sneaking around and hinging crucial plot points on pushing people into the back of various vehicles were mandatory back then.
Most interesting of all was that the hacker elements were actually technically feasible for once. The main character learns to clone ATM cards, and in the process comes across a bigger operation run by the commies, which almost takes out the U.S. banking system. The main character understands circuit level functioning of the Z80 processor and know her way around a frequency counter. Oh yeah, did I mention the hacker in this movie is a woman? The male characters were made amazingly one-dimensional so that she could steamroll over them, but still, this was quite a role for the time, especially compared to the whiny 'What's a moddemmm?' girl in War Games.
Yeah there are some small goofs here and there, and the plot falls back on some well-worn Hollywood conceits.. but still.. It's worth watching.. and there is a TTY machine in the opening credits!.. and many, many, many reel-to-reel computer tapes!
The flying sequences work a hundred times better than those in Time Chasers, another 80s movie which looked and sounded a lot like Prime Risk but ended up being a lot sillier. Hey it's an 80s movie, scenes of sneaking around and hinging crucial plot points on pushing people into the back of various vehicles were mandatory back then.
Most interesting of all was that the hacker elements were actually technically feasible for once. The main character learns to clone ATM cards, and in the process comes across a bigger operation run by the commies, which almost takes out the U.S. banking system. The main character understands circuit level functioning of the Z80 processor and know her way around a frequency counter. Oh yeah, did I mention the hacker in this movie is a woman? The male characters were made amazingly one-dimensional so that she could steamroll over them, but still, this was quite a role for the time, especially compared to the whiny 'What's a moddemmm?' girl in War Games.
Yeah there are some small goofs here and there, and the plot falls back on some well-worn Hollywood conceits.. but still.. It's worth watching.. and there is a TTY machine in the opening credits!.. and many, many, many reel-to-reel computer tapes!