Sneakers

In 1969, Martin Brice and Cosmo hatch a scheme to move funds from causes they deem evil to noble but underfunded ones designed to help the world. They intend to erase corruption and influence social good through their hacking. When Martin steps out to fetch food, the police arrive and arrest Cosmo, forcing Martin into hiding.

Decades later in San Francisco, Martin is living under the alias Martin Bishop and leads a penetration testing security team. The crew includes former CIA operative Donald Crease, conspiracy-minded Darren 'Mother' Roskow, hacking prodigy Carl Arbogast, and blind phone phreaker Irwin 'Whistler' Emery.

Martin is approached by NSA agents Dick Gordon and Buddy Wallace, who reveal they know his true identity and offer to clear his record if he recovers a Russian-funded black box. The mission is framed as a public-interest retrieval, and he reluctantly agrees to assemble his team for the job.

With help from his ex-girlfriend Liz, Martin and his team steal the Setec box. They soon realize the device is not a mere artifact but a codebreaker capable of penetrating even the most secure networks.

Martin discovers that 'Setec Astronomy' is an anagram of 'too many secrets', hinting at the device's dangerous potential. He locks his team in the office to control its handling and prepare for a handover to the NSA.

The next day Martin delivers the box to the agents but flees after learning mathematician Gunter Janek was murdered the night before. The team realizes the box was funded by the NSA and that the supposed agents are impostors.

Martin's friend Gregor, a Russian consulate spy, identifies one as a former NSA agent now working for a crime syndicate. Men posing as FBI agents arrive, kill Gregor with Martin's gun to frame him, and abduct Martin.

Martin awakens in an unknown location and learns Cosmo's agents are behind his capture. Cosmo reveals his plan to erase financial and ownership records to equalize wealth, and he impatiently tries to recruit Martin to join him.

Martin and his team contact NSA operations director Bernard Abbott, who agrees to help if they can recover the box. Using sounds Whistler recalls, they pinpoint Cosmo's office inside the PlayTronics toy company.

The team manipulates a dating service to pair Werner Brandes with Liz, allowing her to steal his access codes. Martin uses the stolen credentials to infiltrate PlayTronics and search for Cosmo's systems.

Brandes grows suspicious and takes Liz to his office, where Cosmo realizes her link to Martin. He locks down the facility and takes her hostage, threatening to expose Martin if the box isn't handed over.

Martin surrenders and hands over the box, but rejects Cosmo's offer to join him. Unable to kill his old friend, Cosmo lets Martin and the team go, only to discover that Martin has given him an empty box.

Back at their office, Abbott and his agents confront the team. Martin explains the box's danger and refuses to let it be misused. Abbott agrees to their terms: clearing Martin's record, funding a vacation for Crease and his wife, buying Mother a Winnebago, and sharing a phone number for an NSA agent to keep things quiet.

Martin reveals the box is useless; he has removed its core component to prevent misuse. The team negotiates a quieter life, while remaining fugitives from their past.

A news report reveals the Republican National Committee has gone bankrupt, and large anonymous donations arrive for Amnesty International, Greenpeace, and the United Negro College Fund. The events imply a shifting balance of power behind the scenes.