Imagine a sci-fi icon like Scott Bakula, beloved for his roles as Dr. Sam Beckett in Quantum Leap and Captain Jonathan Archer in Star Trek: Enterprise, starring in a Tom Clancy-inspired project that was destined to flop. It’s a stark reminder that even legends can’t escape the occasional career misstep. But here’s where it gets fascinating: this wasn’t just any flop—it was a high-profile, star-studded TV movie called NetForce (1999), based on Clancy’s novel series of the same name. And this is the part most people miss: despite its prestigious origins and a cast including Xander Berkeley, Kris Kristofferson, and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, the film’s attempt to predict the future of cybercrime aged faster than a dial-up modem.
Directed by Robert Lieberman (The Expanse), NetForce aimed to tackle the rise of internet-based crime through the lens of a near-future FBI division. But here’s where it gets controversial: while the premise was ambitious for its time, the execution felt more like a Hollywood action flick than a thoughtful exploration of technology. Bakula’s character, Deputy Chief Alex Michaels, leads a team of cybercops against a tech mogul (Judge Reinhold) whose plan to dominate the internet feels eerily prescient—yet the film leans heavily on explosions, gunfights, and assassinations instead of realistic hacking scenes. It’s as if someone tried to blend Die Hard with The Matrix and ended up with a digital fever dream.
The irony? While NetForce’s portrayal of technology now feels laughably outdated, its core idea—corporations controlling the internet—isn’t far off from today’s reality. But here’s the question: Did the film fail because it was ahead of its time, or because it oversimplified a complex issue? Watching it today requires the same suspension of disbelief as reading a Jules Verne novel and believing a cannon could launch humans to the Moon. It’s not unwatchable, especially for Bakula fans, but if you’re craving accurate tech portrayals, Star Trek: Enterprise is the smarter pick.
And this is the part that sparks debate: Was NetForce a noble failure or a missed opportunity? Let’s discuss—do you think Hollywood can ever get cybercrime right, or is it doomed to over-dramatize the digital world? Drop your thoughts in the comments!
