Underground: The Julian Assange Story

The following thread is likely to contain spoilers. Do not read any further if you want to watch the telemovie for yourself.

I just finished watching this on Channel Ten (in Australia) and was rather impressed. I think the writing, acting and music was pretty well done overall. There were parts and aspects of the story that could have been explored further, but I think it was a good summation of the early life of Mr. Assange. It put things into perspective.

I was just wondering if anyone can confirm whether the part about Assange and his friends hacking into the US military files is legitimate, and if the information he uncovered (that the US military purposely bombed civilian shelters) can be verified.

For those that managed to watch it, what were your thoughts and opinions?

Good movie liked it would love a part 2 now.

Also the story is very legitimate, him and his friends did hack into them files.
It was probably allot easier then it is today.

It bought back memory of the commodore 64 lol

Both my partner and I really want to watch this... is it only available in Australia..? Or can we get it here in the UK too..? Or can we watch it online..?

reply to post by amraks


The 'nostalgia' moment for me was experiencing dial-up internet again. I had almost completely forgotten what that was like. We are so spoiled now with our instant, always on, non-interrupted internet connections.

reply to post by Dark Ghost


Hi, yes just watched it. I sort of went into shock when it was revealed that his mother escaped what( they,is, called the family) . That explains a hell of a lot, though i dont know how old julian was when they got away. Still in shock ,and my stomach turns when i think of that evil group of people . Still shocked.

Julian Assenge wrote the first free and open source port scanner in the world, named Strobe, in 1995. A port scanner is used to scan entire networks of computers for vulnerable services running. They are used both by security experts and hackers.

So to me, it seems quite likely this guy was into government networks back then. He has the intelligence, the skills and the motivation to try and uncover hidden truths using his computer skills. And back then, computer security was not very good. It still isnt.

If you want to have a look at his work, Strobe source code is available here (for linux):

www.security-science.com...

He also made some contributions to the Postgres SQL database in 1996 that shows an understanding in reading and understanding complex code written by others, finding bugs, and fixing them. Which is what a real hacker does, basically.

mat.caminos.upm.es...

He was actually caught and convicted of his hacking of NASA I think? I haven't seen this one. Don't know about the civillian thing thought.

It was a great movie. I think that some things needed more clarification, but otherwise, it was excellent.

I'm unsure of the authenticity surrounding his hacking of the US Government and attaining Gulf War targets etc.

The best movie in a long time.

reply to post by Dark Ghost


How about the bit where his mum try finally gets a hold of him.

Reminds me of my family members when we used to use dial up internet.

constant 4 hour sessions, depending if the computer froze up and I had to reset.

ahhh the memories. Yahoo was my funnest memories. the things I programmed for yahoo and people used them for years after I left that scene.


Also heres something interesting.

The BNRGATE firewall was an impossible battlement. It was a particular delight for Mendax to telnet out from behind this firewall into the Internet. It was as if he was walking out from the castle, past the guards and well-defended turrets, over the drawbridge and the moat, into the town below.

www.hackcanada.com...

Also I think they made him look a bit stupid as he wasn't hiding behind much anonymity in the movie, I noticed. But in real life he would of been hiding behind allot of systems.

reply to post by daaskapital


Do some searches for "Mendax"

To start
www.abovetopsecret.com...

It was a great show, they put him in the light where he should be and showed exactly what he thinks about the world and the US government.

He is a hero and this telemovie should show more people that don’t know him just how much they should consider him a hero and support what he is doing.

Great day in Australia - I hear he also wants to sue Julia for defamation; he could not have done that at a better time…. it shows our government to be weak and with tongue still directly placed down the back of the US governments dirty undies.

Hopefully it will wake a few more people up to speak out in support of him.

Mickierocksman

i really enjoyed it... explains why he is so determined to have the truth out there... seems to me that he in some way blames himself for the deaths of the people who died in that civilian shelter that was bombed by the US.

is there anyware online i can watch this?

Originally posted by haven123
is there anyware online i can watch this?

ten.com.au...

You may or may not need an aussie proxy for it to play, we usually gotta use US proxies when watching videos off their channels websites.

I watched about 20 seconds of this movie and it fulfilled my expectations that it would be disparraging to Assange which it was.

Something like this not going to portrary him as a fighter against tyranny thats for sure. it wouldnt be on TV if it did.

Originally posted by learnatic
I watched about 20 seconds of this movie and it fulfilled my expectations that it would be disparraging to Assange which it was.

Something like this not going to portrary him as a fighter against tyranny thats for sure. it wouldnt be on TV if it did.

hmmm well I take it you just do this with threads on ATS then come up with your conclusion with out reading opinions and the facts.

How is that going for you?

We missed the first twenty minutes of it last night damn it! But we enjoyed the rest.

To try and get the infomation out about the US targeting civilians..he gets a salute from me.

Yeah where`s part 2?

reply to post by gps777


there isn't a part 2 but should be.

Hey guys/gals can someone who watched the whole show from the start (I missed the beginning),please fill me in on who that guy was that was thumping on their door wanting his son back,that Julian threaten to kill if he ever came back again?

There where two vehicles and a number of young children in the back of both,the whole thing seemed pretty weird and disturbing,later in the show Jullian was expressing his concern about that guy to the police officer and said "do you know WHO! that man is?" and mentioned something along the line of Aryans,was he a cult leader or something?

Originally posted by gps777
Hey guys/gals can someone who watched the whole show from the start fill me in on who that guy was that was thumping on their door wanting his son back,that Julian threaten to kill if he ever came back again?

There where two vehicles and a number of young children in the back of both,the whole thing seemed pretty weird and disturbing,later in the show Jullian was expressing his concern about that guy to the police officer and said "do you know WHO! that man is?" and mentioned something along the line of Aryans,was he a cult leader or something?

He wanted to take Julian's brother to "The Family" cult.

en.wikipedia.org...(Australian_New_Age_group)