POCKET-PROTECTOR PARIAH TO HERO.

Byline: Mark Leibovich Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire

They are the new computer superheroes.

Yesterday's pens-in-pocket-protector pariahs have emerged as heroes in this summer's blockbusters. In ``Independence Day,'' Jeff Goldblum's cable repairman tries to save the planet by bringing down an alien computer system. ``Mission: Impossible'' and ``Twister'' each feature protagonists who mix technical ingenuity with daredevil bravery. In ``Eraser,'' Arnold Schwarzenegger busts heads while Vanessa Williams cracks codes. And in ``The Rock,'' Nicolas Cage transforms from a mild-mannered chemical expert to an action hero in less than an hour.

Such portrayals are a natural byproduct of a culture increasingly infiltrated with and awed by technology - especially members of a younger generation raised on computers, who are the major target market for summer movies.

Nowhere has the phenomenon been more welcome than in Silicon Valley.

``Nerds were always the lowlifes, like in `Revenge of the Nerds,' '' says Carl Swirsding, who works at Symantec Corp. in Cupertino, Calif., and had just seen ``Independence Day.'' ``But this valley has impressed upon the world that nerdism is positive. And Hollywood is just responding to the themes of the day.''

Frederick Clarke, editor and publisher of Cine Fantastique, a Chicago-based review of horror, fantasy and science fiction film, says technical knowledge has gotten sexy in celluloid.

``Hollywood is catering to the current reality of its most desired audience,'' he says. ``If you're gonna be a hero, you can't very well call someone from Microsoft to help you out in the middle of an action scene, can you?

``It's the ultimate revenge of the nerd,'' says Clarke. ``Even Tom Cruise is one of them.''

Or at least what passes for a nerd on screen this summer. Typically handsome and fearless, Cruise hacks away with a decidedly acrobatic flair in Brian DePalma's ``Mission: Impossible.'' In one scene, he downloads an ultraclassified list while hanging suspended upside down inside CIA headquarters at Langley, Va.

``As a computer person, that scene really spoke to me,'' says Anne Richardson, a software consultant who was leaving a showing of the film. ``I do some of my best programming upside down.''

She is kidding. We think.

Nonetheless, Richardson, 24, was happy with this glitterized portrayal of her technologically inclined counterparts on screen.

``I grew up watching that wacko scientist with the big hair in the `Back to the Future' movies,'' she says. ``This is much better.''

But the new portrayals don't translate into good reviews. Swirsding thought ``Independence Day'' was ``half-lame.'' He was amused by its technical implausibility, and echoed a question resonating among many moviegoers: Is it really possible for a cable guy (Goldblum) to battle an alien space force with only an Apple Powerbook? Particularly given that two months after a recall that was supposed to last only a month, the Powerbook is still not back on store shelves.

``Why didn't they just visit the alien's homepage while they were at it?'' asks Chad Carrico, a software developer for Dow Jones in Palo Alto, who deemed the film ``fatuous drivel.''

Suzanne Forlenza, manager of entertainment, placement and marketing for Apple, concedes that interplanetary warfare would not be a practical application for the Powerbook.

But she says her goal is not to dazzle computer experts with Apple's superior technology; rather, it is to reflect a mainstream view that equates technical skill with prowess. ``Everyone is trying to make their movies cool,'' says Forlenza. ``And technology is cool these days.''

Steven Seagal used a Newton to send an SOS signal in ``Under Siege 2,'' she says. Sylvester Stallone used a Powerbook in ``Assassin'' (``He played a sympathetic assassin,'' she says). Apple released the 5300 Powerbook to the makers of ``Independence Day'' four months earlier than they did to stores. The company lent technical equipment and support to the film in return for the Apple products appearing on screen. The company pays nothing.

As computers become standard machinery in homes and offices, their experts become more accessible characters on screen. ``Even if you're not the genius like the movie star, at least you can identify with what he's doing,'' says film historian and author Danny Peary. ``Most of us have tapped away furiously, trying to figure something out.''

We're familiar with the time element. We've felt the satisfaction that comes when the computer does something we ask it to do. In that sense, he says, technology levels the playing field.

``When someone figures out an access code or downloads something just in time, we feel their power.''

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Photo

Photo: The star of ``Eraser'' busts heads, but Vanessa Will iams cracks codes.