Phil Alden Robinson followed baseball classic Field of Dreams with Sneakers, a suspense-filled caper led by Robert Redford and a star-studded cast. Kino Lorber Studio Classics released Sneakers on 4K Ultra HD earlier this year.

I have to admit, I was late to Sneakers. I’ve been a Dan Aykroyd fan ever since discovering The Blues Brothers in the late 1990s, but I had never even heard of this film. That changed when Kino Lorber announced in August 2023 that the film would be coming to 4K Ultra HD. The release was later confirmed for April 2025, but after Robert Redford’s passing, I knew it was finally time to sit down and watch it.

In 1969, college hackers Martin Brice (Robert Redford) and Cosmo (Ben Kingsley) redirect money from corrupt institutions to underfunded causes. When police raid their operation, Martin escapes but Cosmo is arrested, forcing Martin to live under the alias Martin Bishop. By the early 1990s, Bishop leads a San Francisco security team: former CIA officer Donald Crease (Sidney Poitier), conspiracy-minded technician Darren Roskow (Dan Aykroyd), young hacker Carl Arbogast (River Phoenix), and blind phone phreak Irwin Emery (David Strathairn). Approached by supposed NSA agents, Bishop is promised a cleared record if he retrieves a black box from mathematician Gunter Janek (Donal Logue). With the help of his ex-girlfriend Liz Ogilvy (Mary McDonnell), the team secures the device.

They soon discover it is a universal codebreaker, capable of breaching government, corporate, and financial systems. Bishop locks it down, but when he hands the box over, the team learns the “NSA agents” were imposters and that Janek has been murdered. Bishop is kidnapped and confronted by Cosmo, who now works with organized crime. Cosmo believes the box can erase financial systems and create equality by eliminating records of wealth and ownership. Martin refuses, considering the plan reckless and extreme.

Escaping, Bishop turns to NSA director Bernard Abbott (James Earl Jones). The team traces Cosmo to PlayTronics, a toy company, and manipulates an employee, Werner Brandes (Stephen Tobolowsky), to gain access. Bishop infiltrates the building but is forced to surrender when Elizabeth is taken hostage. Cosmo again pleads for his help, but Bishop tricks him with a dummy device and leaves with his team.

Back at their office, Bishop bargains with Abbott, demanding cleared records and personal favors for his team in exchange for the box. Abbott agrees, unaware Bishop has already removed its core component. Soon after, news reports reveal the Republican National Committee has gone bankrupt while activist groups Amnesty International, Greenpeace, and the United Negro College Fund receiving anonymous donations, hinting the device may not have disappeared quietly.

By the time Sneakers went into production, the script had been in development for nearly a decade, with co-writers Phil Alden Robinson, Lawrence Lasker, and Walter Parkes continually revising the story and characters as the political climate shifted. Many of the characters were inspired by real-life figures, and they would continually refine the script through production into its final form.

Even though Sneakers was released in 1992, Aykroyd’s feels timeless. His deep belief in wild conspiracy theories gives him a modern edge that would easily resonate in the 2020s. You can thank Danny’s brother for the contributions to his character. Mother’s eccentric worldview constantly clashes with Donald Crease, the ex-CIA operative who serves as the team’s grounded backbone and father figure. It’s a dynamic that threatens to pull the group apart, but also makes their chemistry all the more compelling.

At its core, Sneakers is about the dawning of the information age. Watching it in 2025, the technology feels quaint compared to today’s smartphones and digital networks, yet that dated quality becomes part of the charm. The film reflects a time when “hacking” was still an emerging concept, and the team’s efforts to stay off the grid feel prophetic in light of modern surveillance culture.

The film’s lasting relevance lies in its message: nothing is truly secure, and information is always vulnerable. Sneakers anticipates the rise of misinformation and disinformation campaigns, issues that now dominate political discourse. While the film plays as a caper in a high-tech spirit of The Dirty Dozen, its warnings about unchecked technology remain strikingly prescient.

Robert Redford, long associated with political thrillers of the 1970s, blends that gravitas with the wry comedic tone he perfected in The Sting. Robinson once described Redford as embodying the “smart, American hero who gets in over his head,” and it’s a description that fits perfectly here. That mix of intelligence, charm, and vulnerability makes Sneakers one of the most fitting films to revisit in honor of Redford, who passed away at 89. More than thirty years after its release, the film holds up as both a sharp caper and a prescient warning about the digital age.

DIRECTOR: Phil Alden Robinson
SCREENWRITERS: Phil Alden Robinson and Lawrence Lasker & Walter Parkes
CAST: Robert Redford, Dan Aykroyd, Ben Kingsley, Mary McDonnell, River Phoenix, Sidney Poitier, David Strathairn, Timothy Busfield, George Hearn, Eddie Jones, Stephen Tobolowsky

Universal Pictures released Sneakers in theaters on September 11, 1992. Grade: 5/5

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