2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Not strictly a computer nerd movie on the surface, but included here because of the staggering influence that the ship’s psychotic computer HAL still commands among the techie community. Claims that the computer’s initials were chosen because (alphabetically speaking) HAL was “one better” than IBM may be unsubstantiated, but any geek worth his salt has, at some point, got their computer to call them Dave and quite probably sing to them: “Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do. I can feel my mind going, Dave, I can feel it"

Weird Science (1985)

“You created me, you are my master!” Two teenagers with limited skills in the area of interpersonal relationships feed centrefold statistics into their home computer and connect it up to a governmental super-computer. Lightning strikes, and hey presto, a curvy – but, crucially, brainy – Kelly LeBrock materialises in their bedroom to make their adolescent dreams come true. John Hughes’s daft electronic fantasy is careful to conclude that the boys’ ideal woman is more a motherly mentor than a wet-dream, but the premise (and iconic poster) clearly spoke to frustrated teen geeks everywhere

Disclosure (1994)

Computer executive and potential promotee Michael Douglas finds himself being sexually harassed by voracious careerist Demi Moore in this daft “water-cooler” hit that became the year’s biggest “talking point” picture. Poster images of Moore’s pins pulled in punters searching for topically raunchy thrills, but the real money shots came when the stars donned virtual reality headsets and started chasing digital information around the electronic “corridor” filing system; this was, remember, made at a time when the very concept of “virtual reality” seemed absurdly sexy

The Matrix (1999)

Keanu Reeves is a computer genius (I know - suspend your disbelief) who follows a white rabbit down an electronic hole and discovers that the entire world as we know it is a digital illusion conjured up by sentient machines who use human beings as batteries. We live, in effect, inside a huge computer program. Recruited to the resistance, Keanu uses his IT skills to become a martial-arts expert who runs around with a latex-clad Carrie-Ann Moss saving the (real) world. Two sequels followed, climaxing in The Matrix Revolutions in which Keanu completes his transformation from keyboard dork to cyber-Jesus. Result!

Hackers (1995)

“Hack the planet!” British director Iain Softley’s cyber-thriller is a guilty pleasure, crafted on the cusp of universal internet access, in which skateboarding computer nerds still have to use payphones to get online. Jonny Lee Miller is infamous young hacker “Zero Cool” who teams up with a renegade band of computer cowboys led by ultra-hot keyboard jockey Angelina Jolie to do battle with a fiendish cyber virus. Mainframes named after cyberpunk scribe William Gibson, neon-lit club-scenes in the droolsome Cyberdelia and virtual cameras zooming through computer circuit landscapes lend almost heartbreaking nostalgic appeal

π (1998)

Darren Aronofsky’s black-and-white oddity finds an obsessive, paranoid, socially anxious mathematician locking himself into an apartment crammed with computer circuitry (or “Euclid” to its friends) designed to crack the numerical patterns of the stock market and uncover the secret of life, the universe, and everything. Science, religion, money: it’s all here, and it all adds up to… 216! Or 3.141592 etc etc. Whatever. Owing a peculiar visual debt to both David Lynch’s Eraserhead and Shinya Tsukamoto’s cyberpunk classic Tetsuo: The Iron Man, π is the geek movie it’s OK for really smart people to like

The Social Network (2010)

An obnoxious college kid with zero social skills takes to the internet to badmouth his ex-girlfriend and hits on the idea of a website that logs the comparative hotness of all the female students in town. A few keystrokes later, said oik has invented “The Facebook” - or has he? David Fincher’s classy thriller makes the sight of speccy nerds arguing about copyright and occasionally going online about as exciting as possible,  while Aaron Sorkin’s script revels in the irony of uncommunicative social misfits conjuring a social network revolution - and even getting laid in the process!

Tron (1982)

The ultimate computer-nerd fantasy (or at least that’s what it looked like back in the 1980s) found hacker Jeff Bridges being broken down into digital bits and reconstituted within the circuitry of a computer game’s 3D graphics, where he is forced to battle for his life through a series of gladiatorial challenges. Unbelievably futuristic at the time of its release (“Wow, look at those lines!”), Tron continues to charm fans who dream of being sucked into a computer: the long-awaited sequel Tron: Legacy opens this Christmas, promising seasonal treats for ageing spods

WarGames (1983)

Matthew Broderick spends too much time fiddling with his keyboard. One day he accidentally hacks into the War Operations Plan Response computer and starts playing Global Thermonuclear War, which he mistakenly believes to be a super-realistic game. Next thing you know, he has become the most dangerous man on earth and is in the process of starting the Third World War. A terrific wish-fulfilment fantasy for frustrated war-gamers everywhere, John Badham’s lively fantasy was cannily marketed with oblique claims that such a scenario could actually happen!

eXistenZ (1999)

“I’m locked outside my own $38m computer game!” Game designer Jennifer Jason Leigh narrowly escapes assassination while demonstrating her latest fleshy creation and escapes with Jude Law into a virtual netherworld, replete with cybernetic bodily attachments. Rehashing the themes of Videodrome for the computer-gamer generation, director David Cronenberg’s most perversely teen-friendly shocker cleverly contemplates the future of virtual entertainment, with “game pods” and “umbrycord” connectors that link directly into the spine via oddly sexual “bio-ports”. Long live the new flesh… again