Remember when ordering pizza online was science fiction? When having an email address made you a basement-dwelling tech nerd? The Net dropped in 1995 with ideas about identity theft and internet surveillance that were so ahead of their time, audiences didn't know what to make of it. While everyone was lining up for Waterworld on opening day, this Sandra Bullock thriller slipped through the cracks—and that's exactly why it's slept-on cinema.
The Slept-On Cinema Take
The Net follows computer programmer Angela Bennett (Sandra Bullock) as she uncovers a conspiracy involving a program called "Gatekeeper" that can access any system. When her identity gets erased by cyber-terrorists, she becomes a ghost in the machine, fighting to prove she exists. It's a thriller that predicted our digital nightmare decades before we all started worrying about data breaches and online privacy.
Here's the thing: critics gave it a lukewarm 40%, and audiences weren't much kinder at 44%. But as Stan and Grobe point out on Slept-On Cinema, this movie was dealing with concepts that were completely foreign in 1995—when there were only 23,000 websites and people used AOL dial-up. Internet users were viewed as "losers in basements," and the general public didn't understand the reach of the technology. The Net was trying to warn us about threats we couldn't even imagine yet.
Plus, it got absolutely buried by Kevin Costner's waterlogged mega-budget disaster film. Talk about bad timing.
The Draft Breakdown
In true Slept-On Cinema fashion, Stan and Grobe drafted their favorite elements from The Net:
Round 1 - Stan: Sandra Bullock
This is a Russell Westbrook-level performance where Bullock carries the entire team on her back. She's in nearly every frame, making you care about a character who could easily be one-dimensional. Stan calls it the kind of star turn that drags a good (not great) script across the finish line.
Round 1 - Grobe: The Score
Specifically, Annie Lennox's haunting version of "A Whiter Shade of Pale"—the only song in the entire movie. It's an unexpected choice that somehow works perfectly for this paranoid tech-thriller vibe.
Round 2 - Grobe: The Internet's Mystique
The movie's greatest strength is also its biggest challenge: capturing the misunderstanding of the internet's reach in 1995. No one knew its limitations yet, which meant anything was possible on screen. Planes, prescriptions, identities—everything could supposedly be hacked. That mystique gives The Net its tension.
Round 2 - Stan: Gibsons
The cocktail of choice throughout the film: a martini garnished with an onion instead of an olive. Almost every character drinks one, and Stan suggests it's an "inside joke with the bartender." It's the kind of weird detail that makes rewatches fun.
Round 3 - Stan: Double Agent Slip-Up
The classic spy movie trope where the villain reveals they know something they shouldn't—like when the FBI agent mentions the disc was destroyed, even though he wasn't supposed to know about it. It's a bit clunky, but these moments are comfort food for thriller fans.
Round 3 - Grobe: Ordering a Pizza
Grobe circles back to the BOLO list for this pick: the novelty of ordering via Pizza.net. Remember, in 1995 a large pizza with two toppings cost $14.00, and ordering online seemed like witchcraft. It's a time capsule moment that's both dated and charming.
Sleeper - Grobe: "Where Are You?" in the Office
The scene where Angela confronts her impostor in the cubicles and uses the fire alarm to escape. It's a tense, clever sequence that gets overshadowed by the bigger set pieces but deserves recognition.
Sleeper - Stan: Angela's Neighbor
Mrs. Bennett appears for only 90 seconds but delivers rapid-fire suspicious dialogue that's pure gold: "Did they do that? I don't think they do that." She's a scene-stealer who doesn't get nearly enough credit.
BOLO Moments
Keep your eyes peeled for these quintessentially '90s details:
• One unnecessarily sliced hand - Because all thrillers from this era required some minor hand trauma
• Ordering pizza online - A large with two toppings for $14.00 in 1995 money
• The importance of the "mainframe" - Said with maximum gravitas
• The number of crashes - Boat crash, plane crash, car crash—The Net has them all
• Three very well-timed local news stories - Convenient exposition delivery system
• Trying to be cutting edge - Using terms like "IRL" (In Real Life), which they had to explicitly explain to 1995 audiences
• One drawbridge escape - A calm, oddly satisfying way to end a chase sequence
Why You Should Watch It
The Net isn't perfect—Stan admits "in terms of suspense, this net is full of holes," and Grobe notes that "the movie, it turns out, isn't about the internet at all," which feels like a waste of a great premise. But here's what makes it worth your time: it's a genuine artifact of the mid-'90s trying to grapple with technology that would reshape our entire world. It predicted identity theft, data breaches, and digital surveillance before any of us had a Facebook profile to protect.
Plus, Sandra Bullock is fantastic. She makes you believe in Angela Bennett's terror even when the script gets wobbly. And there's something deeply satisfying about watching a thriller that takes computers seriously—even if it takes them too seriously sometimes.
Both Stan and Grobe agreed they'd put The Net on their video store's "Staff Picks" shelf. It's the kind of movie that rewards a rewatch with friends, a Gibson in hand, ready to yell at the screen about how much they got right (and hilariously wrong) about our digital future.
Listen to the Full Episode
Want to hear Stan and Grobe debate whether Pierce Brosnan could've saved this movie? (Stan insists it would've been Thomas Crown Affair-level.) Curious about their spin-off ideas, including "Rise of the Praetorians" and "Ruth Marks Prequel"?
Check out Episode 1 of Slept-On Cinema wherever you get your podcasts, and join the conversation about why The Net deserves way more credit than its 40% Rotten Tomatoes score suggests.