| “ | There is no right and wrong. There is only fun and boring. | „ |
| ~ Belford's nihilistic philosophy. |
Eugene Belford, aka "The Plague". is the main antagonist of the 1995 thriller film Hackers. He is a computer hacker who attempts to defraud the company he works for of millions of dollars and stage a terrorist attack on the company's oil fleet to cover it up.
He is portrayed by Fisher Stevens, who also portrayed Shady Shin in The Legend of Korra and Iggy in Super Mario Bros.
Overview[]
Belford is a brilliant computer security officer for the Elligson Corporation, a mineral conglomerate; he is also a computer hacker and cyberterrorist known online as "The Plague". He plans to hack into the company's encrypted database and steal $25 million in transactions with a worm file that he designed. He also plans to use the file to capsize the company's oil fleet in order to create a distraction.
In the film[]
One night, Belford sees on Elligson's database that teenage hacker Joey Pardella has broken into a Gibson supercomputer owned by the company and inadvertently downloaded his worm file. To recover the worm, Belford creates a computer virus he names "Da Vinci" and contacts the Secret Service, telling them that the file that Pardella downloaded is the code to the virus, which he claims is meant to capsize the company's oil tanker fleet. Pardella is arrested, but he hides the disk containing the file.
When Pardella's friend and fellow hacker Dade Murphy, aka "Zero Cool", copies the disk, Belford takes an interest in him and sends him a laptop; when Murphy turns the computer on, Belford appears onscreen, entreating Murphy to help him steal from Elligson. When Murphy refuses, Belford threatens to create a fake criminal record for Murphy's mother and have her imprisoned. Murphy then reluctantly agrees to give Belford his copy of the disk.
Murphy and his fellow hackers Kate Libby, Emmanuel Goldstein, Paul Cook, and Ramon Sanchez discover that the worm file is going to sink Elligson's fleet to cover up his theft. Belford retaliates by framing Goldstein and Cook for cyberterrorism, but Murphy and Libby help them escape the Secret Service and use payphones and acoustic couplers to hack the Gibson. They then contact hackers worldwide to help them distract Belford long enough to crash the Gibson, thwart the attack on the fleet, and reveal Belford's plot to steal the money.
Belford manages to flee the country just ahead of the Secret Service. While onboard a flight to Japan, Belford contacts Murphy via his laptop to gloat about escaping - moments before a phalanx of FBI agents, who covertly followed him onto the plane, arrest him.