Computers in Movies
 

The weapons forum has their own thread about weapons (and their use/misuse in movies.... ) well, why not computers..

1. Word processors never display a cursor.

2. You never have to use the space-bar when typing long sentences.

3. Movie characters never make typing mistakes.

4. All monitors display inch-high letters.

5. High-tech computers, such as those used by NASA, the CIA or some such governmental institution, will have easy to understand graphical interfaces.

6. Those that don't have graphical interfaces will have incredibly powerful text-based command shells that can correctly understand and execute commands typed in plain English.

7. Note: Command line interfaces will give you access to any information you want by simply typing, "ACCESS THE SECRET FILES" on any near-by keyboard.

8. You can also infect a computer with a destructive virus by simply typing "UPLOAD VIRUS". (See "Fortress".)

9. All computers are connected. You can access the information on the villain's desktop computer even if it's turned off.

10. Powerful computers beep whenever you press a key or the screen changes. Some computers also slow down the output on the screen so that it doesn't go faster than you can read. (Really advanced computers will also emulate the sound of a dot-matrix printer.)

11. All computer panels operate on thousands of volts and have explosive devices underneath their surface. Malfunctions are indicated by a bright flash of light, a puff of smoke, a shower of sparks and an explosion that causes you to jump backwards.

12. People typing on a computer can safely turn it off without saving the data.

13. A hacker is always able to break into the most sensitive computer in the world by guessing the secret password in two tries.

14. You may bypass "PERMISSION DENIED" message by using the "OVERRIDE" function. (See "Demolition Man".)

15. Computers only take 2 seconds to boot up instead of the average minutes for desktop PCs and 30 minutes or more for larger systems that can run 24 hours, 365 days a year without a reset.

16. Complex calculations and loading of huge amounts of data will be accomplished in under three seconds. Movie modems usually appear to transmit data at the speed of two gigabytes per second.

17. When the power plant/missile site/main computer overheats, all control panels will explode shortly before the entire building will.

18. If you display a file on the screen and someone deletes the file, it also disappears from the screen (See "Clear and Present Danger").

19. If a disk contains encrypted files, you are automatically asked for a password when you insert it.

20. Computers can interface with any other computer regardless of the manufacturer or galaxy where it originated. (See "Independence Day".)

21. Computer disks will work on any computer has a floppy drive and all software is usable on any platforms.

22. The more high-tech the equipment, the more buttons it will have (See "Aliens".)

23. Note: You must be highly trained to operate high-tech computers because the buttons have no labels except for the "SELF-DESTRUCT" button.

24. Most computers, no matter how small, have reality-defying three-dimensional active animation, photo-realistic graphics capabilities.

25. Laptops always have amazing real-time video phone capabilities and performance similar to a CRAY Supercomputer.

26. Whenever a character looks at a monitor, the image is so bright that it projects itself onto their face. (See "Alien" or "2001")

27. Searches on the internet will always return what you are looking for no matter how vague your keywords are. (See "Mission Impossible", Tom Cruise searches with keywords like "file" and "computer" an 3 results are returned.)

I never really paid attention to it, now I will, thanks for the post.

my favorite.

28. There is always a front end to the CIA's database with no passwords that can be accessed by clicking on a odd character on a random webpage. (See "The Net")

:) man that was funny

Re: Computers in Movies
 

I also love in Mission Impossible when he types "INTERNET ACCESS" in order to bring up the newsgroups.... classic...

that was great! I coudn't have said it better myself

29. All *REAL* hacker work is done on a consumer-grade slick-looking GUI (Swordfish)

These have gotten so cliche that the times when computers were ACCURATELY portrayed stand out more than the times when they were not:

A. Hackers use command lines to impliment published exploits to gain access to secure systems (Matrix II)

B. Ridiculous shut-down time/save times exist in the office environment (the apple/windows hybrid OS in Office Space)

I'm sure there are others...

Fantastic post, so true :)

30. All of these computers have image enhancing software which turns a low res image into an ultra-detailed high-res pic.

Also, who can forget this classic line?
"Wait. I know this. THIS IS A UNIX SYSTEM!!!"

Great line from a great movie ;)

that LCD display setup in swordfish was fantastic though, i aim for that one day..

Jurrasic Park used a SGI 3D directory navigator to hack into the security system, when she says this is a unix system.

all that said, that computer in swordfish STILL makes my gator drule

No one ever uses a mouse. Screens pop up and rotate and the like just by typing. And notice that they are never doing something simple like pressing an arrow key, they are TYPING as in sentences????


You can use a laptop to access anything, anywhere without any cords.




What is really sad is that one of the more realistic computer movies of our time was "Wargames" At least it had realistic equipment and real-looking interfaces.

"Shall we play a game?"

Most of the OS's are mac's. My god...who uses a mac still geesh...:p
Nah, anytime I see anything computer related on a movie, I cringe...

31. You can destroy a computer simply by shooting or bashing the monitor. (more movies than I care to write here)

32. Everyone has a camera and a t3 line in their house. (american pie -shannon elisabeth scene)

Update, I was up late last night watching a movie, as usual, and there it was, a computer being used. I caught a few of the things that Dimbulb mentioned. What a crack up!!

Hahaha, I was going to say that! Funny stuff "Hey, this is unix, I know this!!!"

You can turn them off incase your wondering

so thats not too bad really

but the rest are good

How many people do you know that can actually do that though ;)

its a basic function in word

I would like to know how they get rid of the annoying scrolling line that occurs because the monitor's refresh rate is much faster than the camera's. News stations don't bother to get rid of it so I wonder if it's that complex.

i love watching computers in movies, mostly because i'm a big nerd, but also because it's obvious that the actor doesn't know how to do much more than checking his or her AOL email account.

not to sound like an elitest here, but come on, some of these operating systems are brilliantly simple to use, yet some how can only be managed by the "super hackers".

this thread is definitley worth a chuckle ;)

It's called MovieOS.

But how many people know that? lol

true, ill give you that

I had to be in a commercial once, and they wanted 'computery' looking stuff, so i just carreid on doing what i was doing, and they said no computery stuff, i just looked blank, then my boss said load up debug and make it scroll pages and page of hex dumps and tap the keyboard a lot... the film people went yeah thats it, computery stuff.

that's so bad. :lol:
What was this for anyway?

It was a documentary for the BBC on making video games, as per usual with those the programmers get to sit in back looking all shifty with scrolling hex.

they just have to match the refresh rate of the monitor frame rate of the camera and then tune it so each frame of film corresponds to the end of the crt scan.

or get an expensive digital camera

you can also buy screens for your monitor that will have the same effect

adjusting the shutter speed of the camera to sync with the refresh rate of the monitor.... it's pretty easy can be done by the camera operator.

i used to insist on them doing it all the time back in the day when I was on the studio floor every day... now it's just set like that from the beginning of the day.

*EDIT* damn.. didn't get all the way down to the bottom of the thread before i posted this...

owned :D

Didn't they make a virus in CAD3D in Swordfish?

Duh, I should've figured. The shutter speed needs to be slightly less than the inverse of the monitor's refresh rate. I guess there are just some lazy cameramen in television because even my parents' camcorder can shutter as briefly as 1/4000 of a second.

My favorite was always in the movie Hackers, they didnt even have an operating system really, it was just them typing and pictures of the pi symbol flying all around and E=MC2 etc. That movie was great

Save for the "Gibson" almost every computer in that movie was a apple.

When I took my dad and brother to see that movie, my dad (who has a PhD in geek-related stuff) and I stood up and cheered. We got so many weird looks from the random... users.

*sudders in distaste*

Well, the sshnuke exploit didn't actually exist - but the vulnerability that it exploited was real.

Still, it was a lot of fun to see them use nmap and then actual procedure to exploit a host.