Movies with electronics related storyline

[RoGeorge]

It happened that I've watched again a film from when I was a kid, and found out it had a sequel I didn't know.  Thought might be nice to have a list of movies with plots close to electronic tinkering.

Short Circuit (1986)


Short Circuit 2 (1988)

 
Please add to the list if you know any titles.   

[DrG]

I claim PITV (Pandemic-Induced Television Viewing), but I recently watched the complete series of Sliders (1995-2000) https://en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Sliders .

What distinguished this show, IMO, was how great the potential they had and how horribly they failed. While not based on circuitry, the "Timer" was the single piece of equipment that allowed them to hop dimensions by opening a "vortex".

The original was a modified Motorola phone to which a few 7 segment LEDS were added (I didn't check but, apparently the prop department did add some circuitry to randomly light the segments).

see https://sliders.fandom.com/wiki/Timer


Of course, "fans" have rebuilt it:


Which somehow makes me feel a little better about every stupid circuit that I ever managed to cobble together for no good reason.

[JohnnyMalaria]

[DrG]

Yeah. his IMSAI 8080


and I read that a HP 9845C was used for the game graphic screens.

and the WOPR was based on some old pictures of tabulating machines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WarGames

[RoGeorge]

Apparently there also were some remakes/sequels for the "Electronic Dog" (that's how it was translated here back then, the original title was CHOMPS).

C.H.O.M.P.S. (1979)


Robo-Dog (2015)


Robo-Dog: Airborne (2017)

[DrG]

ok, sticking more strictly to the topic

[voltsandjolts]

Electronics _is_ the storyline for this one:

[Alex Eisenhut]

This Island Earth.

[Sal Ammoniac]

"Spare Parts" is about a high school robotics team that competes in a competition against college teams.

[Sal Ammoniac]

Not a movie, but a TV series: "Halt and Catch Fire" is about the early days of the PC industry.

[coppercone2]

The re-release of Fail-Safe with George Cloony is really good

Then for electronics movies,
Runaway, it is about IC masks for a specific purpose, and killer robots, drones, etc (KGB assassination type shit), some hacking, bug finding, etc


Death Machine, campy killer robot movie.. more hollywood but the robotic systems are kind of interesting, they make this thing... fast.. which is a little unusual for the usual bad robot deal.


all the terminator movies, but they don't really tinker outside of a few repair jobs

ghost in the shell?

[harerod]

I heard about that one bloke from Oz, who keeps cranking out video after video, presumably all being strongly electronics-themed. Whether he does full feature length as well, I couldn't say, though.

[JohnnyMalaria]

The re-release of Fail-Safe with George Cloony is really good

Hmmm, now I'm torn whether to invest the $2.99 on Amazon Prime to watch it. The scene in the original with Larry Hagman and Henry Fonda on the phone with the Soviet leader is so powerful.

[mariush]

My mind went to The Imitation game ... but it's not that much electronic ... still, good movie:

[Nusa]

Back To The Future, all of them.

[coppercone2]

The re-release of Fail-Safe with George Cloony is really good

Hmmm, now I'm torn whether to invest the $2.99 on Amazon Prime to watch it. The scene in the original with Larry Hagman and Henry Fonda on the phone with the Soviet leader is so powerful.

I would say you won't be disappointed for 3 dollars. I watched both, I thought george cloony might be a vampire for a second, it does not feel like a modern movie. Like if you went back in time, downgraded the quality and aired it on 1960's tv, people might buy that its from their time.

[JohnnyMalaria]

The re-release of Fail-Safe with George Cloony is really good

Hmmm, now I'm torn whether to invest the $2.99 on Amazon Prime to watch it. The scene in the original with Larry Hagman and Henry Fonda on the phone with the Soviet leader is so powerful.

I would say you won't be disappointed for 3 dollars. I watched both, I thought george cloony might be a vampire for a second, it does not feel like a modern movie. Like if you went back in time, downgraded the quality and aired it on 1960's tv, people might buy that its from their time.

I just finished watching it and have to say it was as compelling and sobering as the film. I'm glad that they kept it set in the 60s and didn't try to modernize it.

[coppercone2]

trying to imagine it modernized makes me brain malfunction

Maybe it can go as far as 1980, but after the collapse of the USSR... i feel like it would not be hard to convince a pilot to land anymore because the fanaticism is down

they would need to rewrite a good book and then base the movie on that, just a script writer trying to translate it would fail so hard, back then you had like.. real people involved with the issues easily available, you can't just shift that kind of rhetoric and politics and people 60 years easily for the same situation to occur. Not saying that something like that cannot happen anymore, but the idea of a script writer predicting it in such a plausible way that is believable is difficult (but the sequence of events now that would be required to happen would likely be hard to believe as they happened right now in the order that they would need to occur for this to happen), I almost feel as if you did have a nuclear war scenario right now, and you went back in time to make a movie, people would just not believe it.

That missile alert in hawai was the most relevant thing and thats not even mentioned anymore.

you would need to fit the fattest most jiggly ass possible into one of those air force skirts to get people into the theater ... then have them twerk 

[NiHaoMike]

I remember some movie about a machine that makes wishes come true, I forgot the title.

Jurassic Park has a scene with the circuit breakers that's quite interesting in a way. Surprisingly, the part with having to "pump" the main breaker to turn it on is realistic, not sure about the smaller breakers that are turned on by pressing buttons but I suppose that's possible.

Then also in Jurassic Park, there's a scene with the girl and the UNIX computers that means a lot to me because one of my friends thinks of herself as like the real life version of that character.

[Microdoser]

Demon Seed

[cdev]

Electronics _is_ the storyline for this one:

What's the synopsis I've 've seen too many of these kinds wind eyed dreamer employers.

They don't pay.

[David Hess]

Brainstorm (1983) and In ascolto (2006) a.k.a. "The Listening" has as much electronics as any of the above.

[coppercone2]

There is also the 90's


featuring a nice radio telescope

I love this one

[Ed.Kloonk]

Not exactly on topic but I'm sure many of you might find it interesting..

The Proper People explore an abandoned movie theater c.2005




 

[MK14]

EDIT: 2 of the following, are already mentioned before in this thread. (Part of the reason I messed up was ...) I originally had a much earlier version of this page, which didn't have as much as there is now. Because I was doing something else, and didn't update the page, until later. (Imitation game and Halt and catch fire, are the repeats).

[MK14]

A little bit of radio-ham, and possibly valve/tube stuff:



Some Electronic equipment use and ancient computers in background, rather than electronics as such:

[LaserSteve]

The Manhatten Project. Teen builds functional Nuke as Science Project.  Trailer Sucks, Movie Awesome. Exponential Decay is not your friend. The wire snipping scene is amazing.
Bran Ferren's scenery,  special effects,  and robotics are awesome. A lot of thought went into garage mechanics and manufacturing scenes.

https://youtu.be/spOWFb7zfOo

[Gyro]

This Island Earth.

Absolutely. You wouldn't catch an AB 619 capacitor 'doing a Rifa'!   

https://mullard.org/blogs/news/82061699-its-a-bead-condenser-model-ab-619-with-a-breakdown-voltage-of-33-000-volts

[JohnnyMalaria]

Electronics _is_ the storyline for this one:

What's the synopsis I've 've seen too many of these kinds wind eyed dreamer employers.

They don't pay.

I won't give you the synopsis but I'll give you one very important outcome of this true story: the ARM processor. Even the real inventor had a cameo role as a barmaid. She's the one portrayed as the guy in the white shirt in the center.

[Skashkash]

No interocitors, but my personal favorite is 1985's  Real Genius.



'up the voltage'

[I wanted a rude username]

Explorers (1985) is a children's film with an electronics/maker focus.



23 (1998) falls more on the computing side, but deserves a mention as arguably the finest cybercrime film of all time.



(It's not widely available with English subtitles, but the magic string "23 Nothing is as it Seems - DVDRip AC3 xvid (1998)" can help solve that problem.)

[cdev]

The testament of Orpheus by Jean Cocteau lacks an electronics theme except for the fact that the protagonist is obsessed with numbers stations that he hears on a radio, and its loosely based on the myth of orpheus and Eurudyce, and the various scenes where he transitions between our world and the underworld are well done despite obviously being done on a modest budget.

"Pi The movie" has scenes about computers and is sort of based on a similar kind of plot, messages from some distant entity (very) loosely based on number theory (calculating pi and mathematics and its set in NYC, Brooklyn, and captures a bit of the frenetic world of quants.. perhaps..  mostly it seems to be about obsession.  Its soundtrack is pretty good if you like fast techno..and there is lots of well done handicam footage that gives the film an arresting presence and grittiness.

[cdev]

So, thats very interesting, presumably she didnt fry up her own chips at home, though.. LOL.

Thats good because in the beginning part I watched, Sinclair seemed like he had an annoying personality.

I've seen a lot of these enterpreneur types who want other people to finance their schemes, oftn they end up ripping large numbers of people off for money. So during that time I made a vow to myself that I was not going to be drawn into their movies nomatter what they said or did, and in retrospect it was a very good decision. During the late 90s I would get solicited by people who wanted me basically to give them my ideas for free every couple of days. I was on all sorts of RFP lists so I guess I asked for it. It was madness. Up until around 1997 the web was a fun cool business and then all these sleazy multimedia people flooded in all trying to make a quick buck, milking it for all it was worth. I could tell you entertaining stories about some of the more colorful ones. "Net slaves" and "Burn Rate" are two good books about that period that show how many people (countless) got ripped off by these wild eyed dreamer types and their often sketchy "startups".

By 1999 it seems that most f the low hanging fruit firm ideas had been done or were being done and the later enterpreneuers were flailing for good ideas, and coming up empty.

A lot of the Internet firms were like something out of the Middle Ages with all sorts of back stabbing and court intrigue between the leadership people, . Some businesses exploded like comets, burning brightly but then burning out, burning through their investors money in short periods of time and then suddenly one day, being "liquidated" with employees checks bouncing and computer equipment being auctioned off. One couple I knew had their firm fold almost overnight shortly after they found out she was pregnant and she had to have her baby uninsured which was really costly. They never got repaid.

During that period, in the SF Bay Area if you had cash to buy them,  all sorts of deals were to be had at auction on fancy high tech chairs and other office equipment,  and servers..

Seems like there is a similar flow of people towards New York and its Silicon Alley, judging by how many trend-obsessed people I know of whom have been getting apartments in New York, but maybe its just the people with the money taking advantage of a slight dip in prices due to coronavirus to buy 'pied a' terre' apartments there?

Its still risky to live there because its literally almost impossible to do your daily business there without coming into close physical proximity with thousands of people a day.  At least it was last time I was there, around a year ago. There are far fewer people on the stret today, I hear and see. Kind of like a ghost town..

This is why the whole idea of tracking people and the European vaccine passport seems totally futile and a waste of time. (one with scary people and their creepy pet projects, like ID2020 involved in it. See https://norberthaering.de/en/power-control/id-2020-en/  )

They were already trying to execute a huge power grab and no doubt were planning extensively in advance to use the next pandemic to force a kind of digital totalitarianism on society, totally against peoples wishes. Their "Great Reset" should be seen in the context of  the TISA's global power grab - a laundry list of bad, voter-rejected changes and baggage trying to hitch itself to the corona virus so it can be forced on people as part of the emergency response.  The technocrats cheerleading neoliberalism are the type that fetishize emergencies and especially emergency power (thats a diagnostic sign of fascism) and no doubt would invent their own emergencies if none came up they could take advantage of when they wanted one. Exactly the very last kind of people you would ever want in charge in any real emergency and the kind least likely to behave responsively.

[wilfred]

Absolutely. You wouldn't catch an AB 619 capacitor 'doing a Rifa'!   

There was always "Reefer Madness (1936)". The only movie that had about the same smoke and slightly less stink. Actually it might have been more.

Don't even think about watching it, or the trailer.



Also there was "The Conversation" with Gene Hackman. Is this where the term hacker came from? Also fresh from "American Graffiti" were Harrison Ford in a small role and Cindy Williams pre "Laverne and Shirley"

The main character made custom listening devices to record conversations for clients. It is about as near to electronics being central to a movie plot that I can readily recall. Unless you count hacking a TI "Speak'n'Spell" to phone home with. Or perhaps the professor making a radio out of coconuts.

[Cyberdragon]

Here's a crappy one (electronics related)

[cdev]

The Conversation was a good film about surveillance, which has realistic depictions of how I would imagine electronic surveillance was done in the pre-Internet era. Its set in San Francisco in the late 70s.

Also "The lives of Others" was an excellent film, a German film about the Stasi and how they attempted to ruin the lives of dissidents. and tried to divide or ruin people. In its case a German couple involved the arts, in its case they were innocent of any anti-GDR activities. It showed how much energy they wasted spying on them. Itcontained an excellent  portrayal of a Stasi official who was trying to do his job and not frame them .(I think, my memory of the plot is fading because I saw it some time ago)

That film deservedly won a lot of awards.

Has anybody here ever gone to the Stasi museum? (In Berlin, I am pretty sure) I have always wanted to visit it just to see what seems to be a unique museum and set of exhibits, (Including the machines that read out the numbers in the mysterious numbers stations, broadcast to GDR's spies outside of the country. An iconic bit of Cold War history. )


Also, deserving honorable mention is 'Death of a Dictator" an episode of Ted Koppel's /ABC-TV news show about the Romanian revolution that took the viewer into the action in a big way - down into a warren of concealed tunnels beneath Bucharest and safe houses maintaied by Romania's feared "Securitate" secret police. (The tunnels were so extensive that they are almost certainly still there) used by Ceausescu for surveillance equipment and spying on it seems everyone. Later in he show after the viewers have already been taken down into the tunnels once and have seen lots of footage of them, rooms of dozens of analog tape recorders (including classic Revox and Tandberg gear and huge walls of patch cables ) a revolution, and changes in staffing, the Army's security apparatus leadership is shown denying the tunnels existence! One gets the feeling that those at the top change but the underlying problems in society that make the in group fearful of the public remain

Koppel with great showmanship and rich irony also shows the chaotic final days of the Romanian dictatorship and the last speech, as well as the conditions leading to the summary execution of Ceausescu and his hated wife both of whom evidently thought until then that help from his army was on the way due to his wearing some kind of rescue beacon in his watch. However they imprisoned him in an all metal armored vehicle and drove them around so that anybody looking for them would have had a hard time finding them. also of course any signals it emitted would have been blocked. So help never arrived.

IMHO they should have been put on trial, not summarily executed, but then there would have been a significant risk of another coup, perhaps even despite their universal unpopularity.

[cdev]

Brainstorm (1983) and In ascolto (2006) a.k.a. "The Listening" has as much electronics as any of the above.

it would be nice to see a recent documentary about the NSA updated for the Internet era. But, of course.. they likely would never allow it. 


All in all the misuse of electronics and the potential privacy problems with overreach is a tremendously important subject, but its one that has gotten a very sketchy and inadequate treatment in film and especially the media.

The treatment of "hackers" has been especially sensationalistic and bad.

It would be great if films assumed a higher level of knowledge and just explored what-if scenarios without all the stuff they put in to "sex it up".

[Syntax Error]

To mind within the electronics genre, BLOWOUT (1981)  "A movie sound recordist (John Travolta)  accidentally records the evidence that proves that a car accident was actually murder and consequently finds himself in danger." IMDb https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082085

Also FREQUENCY (2000) "An accidental cross-time radio link connects father and son across 30 years. The son (Dennis Quaid) tries to save his father's life, but then must fix the consequences." IMDb https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0186151/

Then any movie that features time travel, robots, warp drive, replicators, transporters, biotech, nanotech, laser beams, cyborgs, teenage geeks, wierd science, alien technology and, any reference to a Philip K. Dick novel.

One movie that would not have been possible without the 27MHz crystal oscillator is CONVOY (1978) "10-4 Rubber Duck [helical whip aerial embedded in rubber]"  IMDb https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077369

Actually, any movie about amplified heavy metal music. Thank  you Mr Schottky

[cdev]

Movies about electronics and computing are just the larger than life full size versions of the ridiculous ad industry clip-art image fails we often see. It shows how little ordinary people often know about technology. We've failed in explaining tech areas to the public at large, or at least, the screenwriters.

[JohnnyMalaria]

I watched this last night. You need a very dark sense of humor and a good ear for accents...



(Electronically-controlled detonators and eating SIM cards)

One of the lead actors plays the lead in Sound of Metal - a drummer who goes deaf and gets an implant.

[Sal Ammoniac]

[Cyberdragon]

Movies about electronics and computing are just the larger than life full size versions of the ridiculous ad industry clip-art image fails we often see. It shows how little ordinary people often know about technology. We've failed in explaining tech areas to the public at large, or at least, the screenwriters.

In a sci-fi show I watch with alien tech, a corpse got "electrostatically charged" and dust was floating around it. The dude sticks his phone out and it hovers mid-air and charges!

[SG-1]

TRON comes to mind.

[mariush]

Movies about electronics and computing are just the larger than life full size versions of the ridiculous ad industry clip-art image fails we often see. It shows how little ordinary people often know about technology. We've failed in explaining tech areas to the public at large, or at least, the screenwriters.

In a sci-fi show I watch with alien tech, a corpse got "electrostatically charged" and dust was floating around it. The dude sticks his phone out and it hovers mid-air and charges!

Your post reminded me of something... Just checked out a sci-fi series a few days ago, Debris : https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11640020/

Supposedly some kind of huge alien spaceship started to break apart above Earth and pieces of it fell down all around the world and some had special properties like gravity modification, teleporting people a few meters, hallucinations ... and that's just the pilot episode.

[alpher]

Here's one of the better ones Johny Mnemonic from 1995 :
https://youtu.be/Uwl5MBzTCRQ

[BrianHG]

My favorite is the original Ghost In The Shell Anime series 'Stand Alone Complex' and the first Anime 2 movies.  It deals with cyberization, brain implants, the hacking of human brains through the implants and a dedicated police force for dealing with such crimes.

For those interested, here is an overview of the series:
(Please ignore the pitifully horrible 2017 live action movie adaptation of the true series.)

[nicknails]

I haven't watched it in a long time, but I remember Virus being good.

[coppercone2]

oh man virus, that one was something else

if you like weird navy electronics stuff you will like it

also, the recent Battleship movie features an alien being clocked in the head with a top end portable R&S Spectrum analyzer

[David Hess]

it would be nice to see a recent documentary about the NSA updated for the Internet era. But, of course.. they likely would never allow it.

At least in the US, their options to not allow it are limited to behind the scenes intrigue, but I wonder if that is why The Listening was a foreign production.  The film was unusually well done for a counter-establishment film.

There are several post-Snowden documentaries about the machinations of the NSA.  What they and others have been doing is no surprise to those who follow the crypto community in some detail.

Movies about electronics and computing are just the larger than life full size versions of the ridiculous ad industry clip-art image fails we often see. It shows how little ordinary people often know about technology. We've failed in explaining tech areas to the public at large, or at least, the screenwriters.

That is always or almost always the case.  At best you can find Easter Eggs planted by people who know the source material.

[rdl]

Apollo 13

[Ed.Kloonk]

Apollo 13

Speaking of disaster films,

Speed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_(1994_film)

[MathWizard]

There's an 80's/90's movie, about little dinner plate sized intelligent Robot/Alien things, that are trying to get home, or are hiding on Earth or whatever, in some apartment building they must save. I don't remember it much, but I'm pretty sure it was well done with special effects that hold up today.

Some other 80's movie, about some kid's that see a schematic in their dreams and they build a Spaceship out of a theme park ride vehicle, and go ...somewhere. It's all hooked up to their computer, I can't remember them making electronics, but they must.

i can't remember their names.

[Cyberdragon]

Movies about electronics and computing are just the larger than life full size versions of the ridiculous ad industry clip-art image fails we often see. It shows how little ordinary people often know about technology. We've failed in explaining tech areas to the public at large, or at least, the screenwriters.

In a sci-fi show I watch with alien tech, a corpse got "electrostatically charged" and dust was floating around it. The dude sticks his phone out and it hovers mid-air and charges!

Your post reminded me of something... Just checked out a sci-fi series a few days ago, Debris : https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11640020/

Supposedly some kind of huge alien spaceship started to break apart above Earth and pieces of it fell down all around the world and some had special properties like gravity modification, teleporting people a few meters, hallucinations ... and that's just the pilot episode.

That's the one yes, episode 6 I believe. Their scanners for alien radiation can apparently "scan for life signs" like a tricorder too.

[Cyberdragon]

There's an 80's/90's movie, about little dinner plate sized intelligent Robot/Alien things, that are trying to get home, or are hiding on Earth or whatever, in some apartment building they must save. I don't remember it much, but I'm pretty sure it was well done with special effects that hold up today.

Some other 80's movie, about some kid's that see a schematic in their dreams and they build a Spaceship out of a theme park ride vehicle, and go ...somewhere. It's all hooked up to their computer, I can't remember them making electronics, but they must.

i can't remember their names.

The first one is Batteries Not Included, with the sentient robotic spaceships that could molecularly repair anything and even reproduce. From the brief clip of when the old man looks at one with a magnifier, you can see a bunch of moving parts giving the impression they are made of a bunch of interconnected micromachines and they run on electricity, as a major plot point is them needing to recharge. There is also the scene where the guy tries to fix the broken baby robot with parts from an old tube TV and whatnot but he cant get the thing to take a charge enough to start the system (hence the title), until he knocks it into a sink where a toaster falls in and zaps it enough to bring it to life.

[Moshly]

I always loved Tron but the seen with the logic probe always drove me nuts (It's cleanly a logic PULSER)

A couple more not mentioned yet

[David Hess]

I always loved Tron but the seen with the logic probe always drove me nuts (It's cleanly a logic PULSER)

An easter egg like I described occurs in TRON after Flynn crashes the recognizer.  He encounters some weird looking programs which Lori calls "data pushers".  They were suppose to be low level programs like device drivers which indeed can be very weird because they operate at a much lower level than application programs, but only a programmer who had dealt with them would recognize the reference.

[AntiProtonBoy]

I'm surprised nobody posted The Conversation yet:

[I wanted a rude username]

Also there was "The Conversation" with Gene Hackman

The Conversation was a good film about surveillance

I'm surprised nobody posted The Conversation yet

It is a good film, though the ending is weak. I saw it as a double feature with Klute (1971), which was fitting.

[Syntax Error]

The China Syndrome (1979)

When failsafe systems seriously fail. Anticipating Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078966/

[GlennSprigg]

I MAY be off on a Tangent from this original Post/Topic... but I hate it when movies etc show particular 'props' in the background, that
'Those in the know' are aware of how fake it is!     One such example, was a movie (something like 'A Space Odyssey 2001 ?), where
the walls inside the spaceships passages were lined with 'technical' looking pieces, but are actually multiple plates from an 'Alpha-Laval
Heat Ex-changer, as per the photo below...


And I also hate it when in some Crime Scene Investigation movies etc, when they are in some Computer Lab, looking at some 'evidence'
on a monitor, and the chief instructs the 'Tech' to "Zoom in on that numberplate" etc... And all you see is the guy madly typing on his
keyboard for five or so seconds!!!  WTF??  Instead of using a mouse or whatever, he must be 'typing' into some 'Terminal'...  "Select that
part of the screen from 2063-1072 pixels to 2157-1200 pixels, and zoom in on it 10x" !!!   

[Psi]

Here's an old one some people might remember.

[coppercone2]

that movie looks sick

[coppercone2]

wow, this movie is great

next time I need to test something ima hook up a lead acid battery to some random connector looking things and put some juice in it

[Psi]

I have fond memories of this movie, definitely very electronics related.
but I suspect, if I ever re-watch as an adult, the memory will be ruined.

[coppercone2]

that was a great movie

also the SFX , in one scene, is scarier then many more attempts at a particular life form

[tom66]

The movie Chappie (2015) by Neil Blomkamp has a lot of electronics and software in it.  The scenes where you see a Linux-like shell are surprisingly accurate too.

[DrG]

Apollo 13

Speaking of disaster films,

Speed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_(1994_film)

[DrG]

Apollo 13

One of my all-time favorites. Before the big-screen, Hollywood version, there was an excellent Public TV (PBS here) documentary that I have not been able to find again.

They had a great series of scenes where, years later, they were interviewing the engineers and they asked them about wearing "pocket protectors "(older nerds know what those are - youngins might need to google the term). Each one was saying that they did not, personally, wear them, but many did. Then, for each one, they would show footage of them wearing a pocket protector

[mindcrime]

More "robotics" than "electronics", but how about Real Steel?

[Bud]

And I also hate it when in some Crime Scene Investigation movies etc, when they are in some Computer Lab, looking at some 'evidence' on a monitor, and the chief instructs the 'Tech' to "Zoom in on that numberplate" etc... And all you see is the guy madly typing on his keyboard for five or so seconds!!!  WTF??  Instead of using a mouse or whatever, he must be 'typing' into some 'Terminal'...  "Select that part of the screen from 2063-1072 pixels to 2157-1200 pixels, and zoom in on it 10x" !!!   

Because they were using Linux 

[Sal Ammoniac]

And I also hate it when in some Crime Scene Investigation movies etc, when they are in some Computer Lab, looking at some 'evidence'
on a monitor, and the chief instructs the 'Tech' to "Zoom in on that numberplate" etc... And all you see is the guy madly typing on his
keyboard for five or so seconds!!!  WTF?? 

Or even worse, the number plate is completely blurry and unreadable in the original until the tech hits a few keys and then the image magically comes into clear focus and is perfectly readable.

[Cyberdragon]

And I also hate it when in some Crime Scene Investigation movies etc, when they are in some Computer Lab, looking at some 'evidence'
on a monitor, and the chief instructs the 'Tech' to "Zoom in on that numberplate" etc... And all you see is the guy madly typing on his
keyboard for five or so seconds!!!  WTF?? 

Or even worse, the number plate is completely blurry and unreadable in the original until the tech hits a few keys and then the image magically comes into clear focus and is perfectly readable.

It is possible for AI to read text that's hard for a human to read. As for faces or other images, sofware was already being developed in 2017.

https://www.dpreview.com/news/4871415337/google-ai-adds-detail-to-low-resolution-images

[Sal Ammoniac]

And I also hate it when in some Crime Scene Investigation movies etc, when they are in some Computer Lab, looking at some 'evidence'
on a monitor, and the chief instructs the 'Tech' to "Zoom in on that numberplate" etc... And all you see is the guy madly typing on his
keyboard for five or so seconds!!!  WTF?? 

Or even worse, the number plate is completely blurry and unreadable in the original until the tech hits a few keys and then the image magically comes into clear focus and is perfectly readable.

It is possible for AI to read text that's hard for a human to read. As for faces or other images, sofware was already being developed in 2017.

https://www.dpreview.com/news/4871415337/google-ai-adds-detail-to-low-resolution-images

Yeah, but there was no AI "reading" the number plate text in these CSI shows--the number plates were perfectly readable by eye after "enhancing" the image. While some improvement may be possible in the future with better software, when these shows were made this was pure BS.

[Cubdriver]

Here's an old one some people might remember.

Terrible trigger discipline.  Keep your booger hook off the bang switch until you're on target.

-Pat

[jimdeane]

Real Genius (1985) has a few hacks, from using a slice of solid CO2 as a fake "quarter" to get coffee, to Lazlo hacking up a computer sweepstakes signing plotter to enter sweepstakes. But the ultimate hack was the reprogramming of the airborne laser target tracking computer to target [spoiler redacted] instead of the intended demonstration target. It involved pulling a ROM chip, programming a new ROM chip with target coordinates that were transferred by (radio or early cellphone) modem, burning the new ROM, and installing it in the control circuit.

[mindcrime]

There's also Shocker, where a demon turns into pure electricity... or something like that.



Not the greatest movie ever, but the soundtrack was amazing.

[cdev]

Movies routinely portray technology as incomprehensible to average people, or as malicious and evil.

The media do too. Its often kind of funny, if it wasn't so tragic. Take for example any story that talks about computer security. Why cant the government agencies that work with computing make more of an effort to educate the public so that we will have better computer security in users. It wouldn't be so difficult for them to do this. They used to do it.


*sigh*

[mindcrime]

Why cant the government agencies that work with computing make more of an effort to educate the public so that we will have better computer security in users.

Why would the government want to improve computer security among the public? That would just make it harder for them to spy on us. 

[Alex Eisenhut]

30 years ago ... ouch

[cdev]

Why are they assuming the worst in people? Most people are basically honest, studies show.

Why cant the government agencies that work with computing make more of an effort to educate the public so that we will have better computer security in users.

Why would the government want to improve computer security among the public? That would just make it harder for them to spy on us.

[Cubdriver]

Why are they assuming the worst in people? Most people are basically honest, studies show.

Why cant the government agencies that work with computing make more of an effort to educate the public so that we will have better computer security in users.

Why would the government want to improve computer security among the public? That would just make it harder for them to spy on us.

Projection.  If you can't be trusted, you naturally assume others can't be either.

-Pat

[RoGeorge]

And You Thought Your Parents Were Weird (1991) - VHS Trailer

[jonovid]

batteries not included (1987) Trailer

[I wanted a rude username]

On a meta level, it is quite interesting that few films focus on specialist trades like ours ... and those that do tend to "other" the specialist, showing him as brilliant, eccentric, single, and often autistic.

Wonder why that is. Inability of the artist to understand the engineer? Or just not wanting to delve into particulars, focusing instead on parts of the story applicable to all viewers?

[mendip_discovery]

Not a film but in the UK we had on the BBC a series called Bugs.

https://youtu.be/nDmptnw7zYo

[TimFox]

I have been trying to locate a movie (possibly made for TV) that I saw in the early 2000s.
Premise:  a computer system to defend the Government and all it entails interprets the Patriot Act as giving it the authority for regime change.
Meanwhile, back in Chicago, our hero has been located downtown.
He is lifted out a high-rise window, and boards the 'L' train, where the Argyle stop is close by (due to some relativistic effect).
The evil computer grabs control of the 'L' system and actually controls the train (as opposed to track 3rd-rail power and turnouts).
There seems to be a commercial port at Argyle with computer-controlled cargo cranes (that port is unknown to Chicago maps).
Luckily, he is able to get the high-school band that is about to perform in front of the President back in Washington before the bomb in the tuba goes off.
I'm not clever enough to have imagined this--can anyone help me with the name of the film?

[RoGeorge]

Search for Argyle computer defense movie

[Bud]

Blackberry

https://youtu.be/cXL_HDzBQsM

[TimFox]

I found the movie:  Eagle Eye (2008).  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1059786/plotsummary/?ref_=tt_stry_pl
That synopsis does not discuss the CTA 'L'.
Typical plot bit:  The president's cabinet is announced and the members begin to file in. The president arrives. Sam's class, whose recital has been moved from the Kennedy Center to the capitol to play the national anthem prior to the president's speech, begins to play. The trigger that will set off the explosive necklace is set to activate when Sam plays a sustained "high F" on his trumpet corresponding to the word "free" in the last stanza of the national anthem. ARIIA had arranged this as poetic justice, believing the president to not be brave.  ARIAA is the computer that has taken on regime change as a task.
From an IMDB contributor about the 'L' stations (I misremembered Argyle for Wilson, the two stations on the Red Line are close to each other, but far from downtown).
"Early in the movie when Jerry is on the El train in Chicago, he is shown at the Quincy stop, but the train that he is on is a specific type of train that is only utilized on the Blue line route that doesn't go through the Quincy station. Also, shortly after leaving the Quincy station he is shown at the Wilson station, which is on a completely different train line and would probably require at least 30 minutes to get to even if on the correct train line."
Quincy is a stop on the Loop 'L' for the Brown and Orange Lines.  Wilson and Argyle are stops on the Red Line, which is a subway downtown and elevated on the north side.

[RJSV]

   Scanning through all these movie titles, I can't help wondering; As a handful of the movies seem to exhibit a 'self-mocking' or on the other hand, a lack of circumspection, I kept a lookout, for the movie 'Galaxy Quest' as that movie made it clear....they were mocking the DORK lifestyle, shamelessly.
Of course, Tim, 'The Tooltime Guy' played it up, in character as a useless error prone hapless 'hero'.

   You gotta laugh, at the deliberate lameness.   'Lameidity'

[mendip_discovery]

I remember one from when we first got Sky (16 channels)

1993 - The Tower
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108371/

"A man working at an ultramodern corporate building finds himself and a colleague trapped inside with a homicidal security system hell-bent on killing them both after perceiving them as a "threat"."

The full Film can be found here,

[schmitt trigger]

There is a Cold War thriller, which for the life of me I can’t remember the name…. Anyways, about a radar station north of the Arctic Circle, probably the DEW line, in the dead of the winter.

Classic plot: a bad guy, presumably a Soviet operative, thrashes the station, including the only short wave radio. Left several dead operators but our hero somehow survives.

Our hero finds a damaged resistor on the radio, and proceeded to fix it with the graphite from a #2 pencil.

[BrianHG]

I remember one from when we first got Sky (16 channels)

1993 - The Tower
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108371/

"A man working at an ultramodern corporate building finds himself and a colleague trapped inside with a homicidal security system hell-bent on killing them both after perceiving them as a "threat"."

The full Film can be found here,

@20:35 in the video, he is working on an open Amiga 1000 computer.  LOL, 1993, they should have been old and long gone. @21:35, the painted the rear plastic bezel black.

[Electro Fan]

Halt and Catch Fire
 

https://youtu.be/_CtzaSzO2cE

You’ll probably know if it’s for you after watching Episode 1.
Then get ready for about 39 more.

[I wanted a rude username]

1993 - The Tower
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108371/

"A man working at an ultramodern corporate building finds himself and a colleague trapped inside with a homicidal security system hell-bent on killing them both after perceiving them as a "threat"."

There was a 1986 MacGyver episode with this theme: The Human Factor. With Wargames and similar, homicidal AIs were very much in the Zeitgeist.

[RoGeorge]

Found another one, the main character is a radio-TV repair man.

It's Only Money (1962) - trailer

[alpher]

https://youtu.be/XfR9iY5y94s?si=d0YPYGm2BKRFH9Wq

[alpher]

https://youtu.be/i5txwFv-zYM?si=Wdo-PNhfM_sSvm6p

[RoGeorge]

Robot Dreams (2023) - Official Trailer
Madman Films

[coppercone2]

i want to know the movie about the DEW line

[KE5FX]

Ice Station Zebra?  "The first thing we do, we kill all the lawyers smash the shit out of the radio" was a classic Alistair MacLean trope.

[coppercone2]

idk the movie described in this thread sounds different.

There is a Cold War thriller, which for the life of me I can’t remember the name…. Anyways, about a radar station north of the Arctic Circle, probably the DEW line, in the dead of the winter.

Classic plot: a bad guy, presumably a Soviet operative, thrashes the station, including the only short wave radio. Left several dead operators but our hero somehow survives.

Our hero finds a damaged resistor on the radio, and proceeded to fix it with the graphite from a #2 pencil.

[cosmicray]

30 years ago ... ouch

Glad I'm not the only one thinking of this movie.

[RoGeorge]

Screamers (1995) - Official Trailer
ScreamFactoryTV

[Mortymore]

Flash of Genius



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_of_Genius_(film)

[coppercone2]

Screamers (1995) - Official Trailer
ScreamFactoryTV

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/jobs/oppertunity-at-neb/

[RoGeorge]

Crabs! (2021)


Dude in a wheelchair builds himself an exoskeleton and goes to the prom party, though the storyline is about Crabs! 

[RoGeorge]

Invalid - 2023 - Movie Trailer - English Subtitles
Phoenix Media Distribution



Don't argue with a man while he's soldering.