Hackers Easter Egg - Hacker Magazine

Perhaps Mr. Goldstein is the editor, but I believe that it was a referance to the book 1984 by George Orwell, which is referanced in other parts of the movie. Emmanuel Goldstein was a character (I know the name is from the book, can't remember if it was an actual character) in 1984.

Actually, Mr. Goldstein was a technical consultant for "Hackers".

Hi there :) I believe that indeed the name Emmanuel Goldstein came from the novel "1984" by George Orwell. Emmanuel Goldstein is a character in the novel who showed himself - just a character that was an imaginary "god" or "good-doer" that the government rallied against. Hope this helps.

Hi there yourself... Emmanuel Goldstein the real name of hacker with the Handle "Cereal Killer" is named after the editor of 2600 the hacker quaterly, as a regular reader of said magazine it was mentioned in the issue that came out after the movie...And just an added treat the "Hackers" web page for the movie was of course.... hacked www.2600.com or if in London www.london2600.org.uk

Indeed Emmanuel Goldstein is the name of the elusive character in the book "1984", this is where "Eric Corley" a.k.a. Emmanuel Goldstein got his alias. Eric Corley is the Editor-In-Cheif of "2600 - The Hacker Quarterly" a magazine which is published, believe it or not, quarterly, and serves the hacker community well in the spread of information. Eric Corley a.k.a. Emmanuel Goldstein was a technical consultant during the making of the film and was honored by having a character named after him. I hope this clears this up. Oh and by the way, 2600 began being published in the year 1984, maybe that's an easter egg in itself.

Cereal didn't write the poem. It's an English class and they've been asked to quote significant authors. Cereal chooses Ozzy Osbourne's "Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most." My .02

Did you ever wonder why cereal killer never hacks once in the entire movie? Just food for thought

well, Ceral sorta does hack. In the scene where they're figuring out the worm, he's shown working at the computer. Then, at grand central station, it shows the phones that he fixed. After that he's on global TV which doesn't really count but oh well. Maybe Mathew Lillard's just really bad at typing or something.

In the movie Hackers Cereal Killer was a phone Phreak. Phreakers concentrate on the manipulation of phone systems. Witch would go a long with the magazine 2600. 2600 being the frequency that was WAS used by telephone companies to identify toll free calls. This was found out by a "hacker" named Captain Crunch when hey blew a whistle he found in a box of cereal into a telephone while it was connecting to another phone exchange. It gave you the ability to make long distance call for free. Hence: Emmanuel Goldstein, Cereal Killer and why he did not do much compute "hacking"

Actually, Cereal Killer was indeed a hacker - Phantom Phreak was the phone-manipulating dude. As for the name Emmanuel Goldstein, it may come partly from the editor/adviser guy and partly from Orwell's 1984 as the novel is mentioned in the movie (incidently, by Cereal Killer aka Emmanuel Goldstein).

Well, Emanuel Goldstein is named after the editor of 2600. The editor gets his name from 1984 but the name in Hackers was a reference specifically to the hacker. Quite a lot of people didn't notice this (including Emmanuel Goldstein aka Eric Corley himself. I've talked to him) but the magazine 2600 is shown in the movie. When we see a bird's-eye view of Acid Burn typing on her desktop computer, on the lower left corner of the screen is the magazine...2600!

Sorry, but you are all wrong. The HANDLE of the editor-in-chief of 2600 was Emmanuel Goldstein (he got it from neuromancer) but his real name was Eric Corley. He did not have the handle Cereal Killer. They named Cereal Killer Emmanuel Goldstein after him though. (Eric should be 40 years old now, btw)