Author Topic: Movies with electronics related storyline  (Read 12684 times)

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Offline MK14

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Re: Movies with electronics related storyline
« Reply #25 on: April 10, 2021, 05:36:48 am »
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:



 

Offline LaserSteve

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Re: Movies with electronics related storyline
« Reply #26 on: April 10, 2021, 01:11:01 pm »
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
« Last Edit: April 10, 2021, 01:30:13 pm by LaserSteve »
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Offline JohnnyMalaria

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Re: Movies with electronics related storyline
« Reply #28 on: April 10, 2021, 01:44:54 pm »
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.
« Last Edit: April 10, 2021, 01:48:11 pm by JohnnyMalaria »
 
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Offline Skashkash

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Re: Movies with electronics related storyline
« Reply #29 on: April 10, 2021, 07:56:13 pm »
No interocitors, but my personal favorite is 1985's  Real Genius.



'up the voltage'
 
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Offline I wanted a rude username

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Re: Movies with electronics related storyline
« Reply #30 on: April 11, 2021, 01:55:43 am »
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.)
 

Offline cdev

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Re: Movies with electronics related storyline
« Reply #31 on: April 11, 2021, 02:57:31 am »
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.
« Last Edit: April 11, 2021, 12:30:15 pm by cdev »
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Offline cdev

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Re: Movies with electronics related storyline
« Reply #32 on: April 11, 2021, 03:06:58 am »
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.
« Last Edit: April 11, 2021, 01:08:05 pm by cdev »
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Offline wilfred

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Re: Movies with electronics related storyline
« Reply #33 on: April 11, 2021, 03:11:24 am »

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


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.
« Last Edit: April 11, 2021, 03:15:39 am by wilfred »
 
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Offline Cyberdragon

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Re: Movies with electronics related storyline
« Reply #34 on: April 11, 2021, 04:31:40 am »
Here's a crappy one (electronics related)

*BZZZZZZAAAAAP*
Voltamort strikes again!
Explodingus - someone who frequently causes accidental explosions
 

Offline cdev

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Re: Movies with electronics related storyline
« Reply #35 on: April 11, 2021, 11:38:57 am »
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.
« Last Edit: April 11, 2021, 12:12:39 pm by cdev »
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Offline cdev

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Re: Movies with electronics related storyline
« Reply #36 on: April 11, 2021, 12:21:19 pm »
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".
« Last Edit: April 11, 2021, 12:26:27 pm by cdev »
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Offline Syntax Error

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Re: Movies with electronics related storyline
« Reply #37 on: April 11, 2021, 02:43:21 pm »
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 :-+
« Last Edit: April 11, 2021, 03:06:59 pm by Syntax Error »
 
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Offline cdev

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Re: Movies with electronics related storyline
« Reply #38 on: April 12, 2021, 01:57:06 pm »
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.
"What the large print giveth, the small print taketh away."
 

Offline JohnnyMalaria

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Re: Movies with electronics related storyline
« Reply #39 on: April 12, 2021, 02:23:24 pm »
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.

 

Offline Sal Ammoniac

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Re: Movies with electronics related storyline
« Reply #40 on: April 12, 2021, 05:17:11 pm »
Complexity is the number-one enemy of high-quality code.
 

Offline Cyberdragon

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Re: Movies with electronics related storyline
« Reply #41 on: April 14, 2021, 12:29:59 am »
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! :palm: |O
*BZZZZZZAAAAAP*
Voltamort strikes again!
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Offline SG-1

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Re: Movies with electronics related storyline
« Reply #42 on: April 14, 2021, 01:39:55 am »
TRON comes to mind.
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Offline mariush

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Re: Movies with electronics related storyline
« Reply #43 on: April 14, 2021, 05:55:39 pm »
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! :palm: |O

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.


 

Offline alpher

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Re: Movies with electronics related storyline
« Reply #44 on: April 14, 2021, 06:18:44 pm »
Here's one of the better ones Johny Mnemonic from 1995 :
https://youtu.be/Uwl5MBzTCRQ

 

Offline BrianHG

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Re: Movies with electronics related storyline
« Reply #45 on: April 14, 2021, 07:10:27 pm »
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.)



 
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Offline nicknails

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Re: Movies with electronics related storyline
« Reply #46 on: April 14, 2021, 07:57:01 pm »
I haven't watched it in a long time, but I remember Virus being good.

 
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Offline coppercone2

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Re: Movies with electronics related storyline
« Reply #47 on: April 14, 2021, 10:50:56 pm »
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
 

Online David Hess

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Re: Movies with electronics related storyline
« Reply #48 on: April 14, 2021, 11:16:27 pm »
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.
 

Offline rdl

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Re: Movies with electronics related storyline
« Reply #49 on: April 15, 2021, 02:31:45 am »
Apollo 13




 


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