After the feel-good mythology of Field of Dreams, director Phil Alden Robinson changed tack completely and came up with this smart and snappy caper that is blessed with a sparkling script and an outstanding ensemble cast. Robert Redford, graciously sending himself up just a little, plays the former student radical who now makes a living heading a team that is paid to break in to hi-tech buildings to show up lapses in security systems. However, his past returns to haunt him when he is blackmailed into stealing the ultimate codebreaker. Ignore the holes in plot logic and savour the relaxed and unselfish comic interplay from a cast that includes River Phoenix, Dan Aykroyd, Sidney Poitier, David Strathairn and Mary McDonnell.

When shadowy U.S. intelligence agents blackmail a reformed computer hacker and his eccentric team of security experts into stealing a code-breaking 'black box' from a Soviet-funded genius, they uncover a bigger conspiracy. Now, he and his 'sneakers' must save themselves and the world economy by retrieving the box from their blackmailers.