More Than 20 Years of the Web on the Big Screen 536
Carl Bialik from WSJ writes "WSJ.com has compiled clips from a dozen movies over the past 23 years that depict the internet, with varying degrees of accuracy. Among the selections: WarGames, Sneakers, .com for Murder, and Mr. & Mrs. Smith. The Matrix Reloaded used real Linux code, while Mission: Impossible had the improbable email addresses Job@Book of Job and Max@Job 3:14. In a related article, WSJ.com reviews some of the more-absurd Hollywood conventions when it comes to the web. Harry Knowles, of Ain't It Cool News, says, 'The thing that always gets me is watching people send emails. You click "send" and the entire document begins to fold into an envelope and disappear into the screen. I tend to send around 300 to 400 emails a day, and that would drive me insane.'"
Accurate or not (Score:2, Insightful)
The Web != The Internet (Score:5, Insightful)
Subject says it all.
Woah there, headline (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, just to further nitpick, I don't think Wargames even had the internet in it -- he found WOPR by dialing it up directly.
Doogie Howser and SATC epitomize pop 'puters (Score:5, Insightful)
As a narrative device it's lame, okay, but frankly I'll take that over the postmodern delayed deus ex machine of the geek's solution to a technical problem: Oooh, our brainwizard has been working away steadily at a problem all plot long, and now that we're ten minutes shy of the ending, she's finally broken through the security system/discovered the answer to the riddle/broken the code. The writers may as well have Geordi adjust the trust old modulation on the phase transponder, it's the same plot device.
Lately we're up to the level found in the funnies (other than FoxTrot): names get dropped. Ooh, she "googled" that term! That's about how far we've gotten with the Web in movies and TV... and the brain dead comic strip "B.C." for that matter.
Re:Click click click (Score:5, Insightful)
All true geeks use a Model M [wikipedia.org].
Don't forget the "small screen" too (Score:3, Insightful)
Comic book action stuff aside, one of the things that kicks the belief out, are the frequent computer superheroics. "Oh, I just machine coded up a thing-a-ma-bobbie to frammit the security on that secure line." (Ok, that's not a direct quote from the show - I said I watch it, not that I was an obsessive quote collecting fan.)
I am sure the same thing happens in just about any field that takes any expertise - entertainment media is bound to get things wrong, because their expertise is entertaining, not the subject matter of the plot vehicle. (Often on purpose - I mean who wants to watch a "real-time" show on a long drawn-out legal battle, for instance.)
In the end, the patient needs to be better at the end of the hour, the case solved, and the Internet deliver whatever lines it needed to to finish the story.
Re:Wow (Score:3, Insightful)
Disclaimer: I've not seen the film in years and my memory of it is a little patchy.
Re:Wow (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, in fairness to the film, if you watch the special edition/director's cut that whole part makes a LOT more sense than the theatrical release which outraged us all so very much.
In the director's cut, they add back enough footage to show that the communications of the aliens is sound/radio wave, and that he (Goldblum's character) had figured out the way their communications worked.
He didn't write a computer binary virus on his Mac and upload it to the aliens. He used his Mac which had been outfitted with signal processing gear, and transmitted a series of signals which acted on their system in the way a virus would operate on a computer. So the bar could be the same as an upload status -- "this much more signal to transmit".
As much as I thought it was a travesty when I saw the theatrical release, I thought the expanded version's explaination was plausible.
Likewise, if you want to see a film that made no sense in theatrical release but becomes clear in extended release -- The Abyss is a good example. SO much of what was cut ouf ot he theatrical release caused it to become muddled and confusing. The extended release made sense.
In both cases, the films were somewhat crippled by the way theye were initially released to the public, but SO MUCH BETTER in a director's cut.
Anyway, just some musings from a film geek.
Re:Internet ARPAnet (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Wow (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Wow (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The Web != The Internet (Score:3, Insightful)
This depresses me somewhat... The real world is full of trademarks and copyrighted works. It seems impossible to film anything, save naked humans or other animals in pristine nature, without violating something. It isn't trademakr violation for me to say "I am holding a can of Coke" or "Google offers a search engine". Should it be so legally dubious to do the same via film? Is trademark the relevant law here?
Re:Woah there, headline (Score:3, Insightful)
So, Matthew Broderick didn't have 7337 typing skillz, but the filmmakers did loan him Galaga to play, so when he's playing that game in the movie, that's really him playing.
Deliberate obfuscation (Score:2, Insightful)
Same thing seems to be starting for web addresses. If you use something bogus, like , the audience cannot flood some unsuspecting web site with "are you there" messages.
In other words, If you show too much reality on films, you get slashdot effects.
Re:true - He was wardialing numbers with modemss (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Accurate or not (Score:4, Insightful)
Right there it is totally unbelievable. How does a guy like that get a girl like that when he spends so much of his time trying to figure out how to connect voice synth to an accoustically coupled modem link...
-matthew
Re:Chloe O'Brien - Master H4Xx0r! (Score:1, Insightful)
It's a damn good thing that show has other good qualities...
Mmm yes... Her Great Gloriousness Elisha Cuthbert for example.