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10. "Hackers" (1995)

After early work in unseen films such as "Cyborg 2," Jolie's first big film saw her play a hipster hottie with a mind for math in the 1995 guilty-pleasure cyber-action film "Hackers." Alongside Jonny Lee Miller (who would soon become her first husband), Jolie... more plays Kate Libby, a computer nut with the nom du keyboard Acid Burn. Kate is part of a group of youths who dig computer trickery for the thrill of it, who of course are soon set up to take a fall by an older, duplicitous computer security expert (played by Fisher Stevens) for his crimes and misdemeanors. Directed by Iain Softley ("Backbeat"), "Hackers" is soundly derided by real-life security experts, but you don't need a Ph.D. in computer science to see Jolie's performance as having the stuff young stars are made of. Snarling out attitude-laden lines such as, "Never send a boy to do a woman's job," Jolie's the best thing in "Hackers," which audiences and Hollywood both noticed. (United Artists/Courtesy Everett Collection)