If you've been reading my .plan regularly, you might remember the other day when I came to the realization that WarGames and Hackers are kind of connected.

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Anyway.

Apparently realizing David Lightman and Dade Murphy existed in the same universe wasn't enough for my Gen-X brain. Now I've invented the movie that connects them.

It's called DIAL TONE.

Seattle. Mid-'80s. Eugene Belford is about 18 years old, screwing around with modems, wardialing and breaking into corporate systems. Eventually the FBI comes knocking, except they're blaming him for shit he didn't actually do.

The twist is that somebody else is out there doing it. The story would pull heavily from what Kevin Mitnick was actually doing around that time, with Eugene forced to use the exact skills the FBI is prosecuting him for to prove they're chasing the wrong hacker.

He clears himself of the serious shit, gets basically a slap on the wrist for the hacking he did do, and catches the attention of some corporate executive who realizes this kid just figured out something his security people couldn't.

He offers Eugene a computer-security job. In New York City. And that's the moment Eugene realizes he doesn't have to stop hacking. People will actually pay him to do it.

I'd pepper the whole movie with shit Gen Xers would recognize without ever explaining any of it. Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy in small roles. Jonny Lee Miller and Fisher Stevens playing completely different characters. Robert Redford as some Microsoft guy giving a talk at UW. Little hints that David Lightman was running around Seattle a few years earlier.

Nobody ever says these movies are connected. Then we get the last scene.

Eugene's in New York. Legitimate computer-security professional now. Getting paid to do the same shit that almost landed him in federal prison. There's a TV playing in the background.

Some kid calling himself Zero Cool just crashed 1,507 systems in one day. Eugene stops what he's doing. Looks at the television.

And somewhere in my head, the modem starts screaming.

Wait a damn minute....