FILM · 1995 · USA
The Net
24 archived facts 2 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (24)
- #001
When Jack (Jeremy Northam) wraps his handkerchief around Angela's (Sandra Bullock's) bare midriff, it is a direct quotation from Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Notorious (1946), in which Cary Grant does the same to Ingrid Bergman and warns her she might catch cold without it.
- #002
On the checklist on Angela's computer, one item reads "Bring 2600 Mag," and 2600 is noted as a real hacker magazine.
- #003
The game Angela plays and debugs at the start of the film is the Apple version of Wolfenstein 3D (1992), similar to the console versions released for the Atari Jaguar and 3DO.
- #004
The Net is one of the few PG-13-rated films permitted to use the word "fuck" in a sexual context.
- #005
Angela's main computer was a PowerMac 8100/80, released in 1994 (with a WinTel OC NEXT beside it). It ran System 7 (the system software was not yet trademarked and was not called MacOS, simply System 7).
- #006
Angela's chat room contact Cyberbob tells her about the "Praetorians," an Illuminati-like group he says is connected to Wall Street. In reality, this is the name of a highly private internet and corporate security company in Texas whose clients include Wall Street.
- #007
A TV news report on Bergstrom's suicide is anchored by Daniel Schorr, a career journalist best known for his years as a correspondent on CBS News. Two years after The Net he played a news reporter in The Game (1997) (also written by John Brancato and Michael Ferris), and three years after that in The Siege (1998).
- #008
The computer convention scenes were shot at the 1994 MacWorld expo.
- #009
While Angela is in the chat room she is supposedly using text-to-speech software. Although this was first demonstrated during the Mac's original 1984 launch, it was only beginning to gain popularity around the time this film was shot. They also did not actually use this software; instead, normal voices were run through signal-processing hardware so the conversation would flow a little more smoothly.
- #010
The giant half-buried statue in the park where Bergstrom takes his life is "The Awakening" by Seward Johnson. It was moved from Hains Point to National Harbor in 2008.
- #011
The operating system Angela uses throughout the film is Mac System 7.
- #012
The book in Angela's hand and the one she throws to the ground in the beach scene is Gabriel García Márquez's 'Love in the Time of Cholera'.
- #013
The film was mentioned in the Seinfeld episode The Serenity Now (1997). It was the reason Frank was selling the computers in his garage.
- #014
This was Jeremy Northam's first film in America.
- #015
Mrs. Raines (Margo Winkler) is the wife of director Irwin Winkler.
- #016
Despite being the film's main villain, Jeff Gregg (Gerald Berns) appears in only a few brief television news reports.
- #017
Although the film is called "The Net," it actually has very little to do with the early days of the Internet. It is really a film about hacking and computer virus protection. Though this is more of a direct reference to the networks closing in around Angela.
- #018
Angela Bennett's favorite drink resembles a martini, mixing gin and vermouth but garnished with a cocktail onion instead of an olive. This is called a Gibson.
- #019
Sandra Bullock (Angela) and Ray McKinnon (Dale) also appeared together in The Blind Side (2009).
- #020
A Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors (1994) arcade unit can be seen in this film.
- #021
When Devlin learns that Angela gave the phone she was tracking to a homeless person, he murmurs "Clever girl." It is the famous last line of Muldoon in Jurassic Park (1993), released three years earlier. It is also somewhat of a harbinger, since neither character survives long after encountering the person they are speaking to.
- #022
During the beta test, Angela was to run "multifinder," which would allow her to run several separate applications at once. A second application could have been a web browser she would use to enter her beta test observations via an online form on the client's website.
- #023
The town Sandra claims as her hometown (La Junta, CO) is the birthplace of author Ken Kesey (One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest).
- #024
Champion says that two teenagers broke into the Atlanta computer system and wrote: "Braves suck!" In 1995, the year this film was released, the Atlanta Braves certainly did not suck; in fact, they won the World Series.
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