January 11, 2010 • 37 mins
In response to a listener's request, Jonathan and Chris reveal their favorite "tech" movies of all time in this episode of TechStuff.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you get in touch with technologies with
tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello there, everybody,
and welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Polette,
(00:20):
and I am the tech editor here at how stuff
works dot Com. Sitting across from me as usual as
senior writer Jonathan Strickland turned down your lights, folks, I
guess that's your way of mentioning that that's going to
be the start of our movie episode. Yes, so this
episode comes to us courtesy of a little listener mail Missles.
(00:43):
Your mail comes from Richard, who says, would you guys
consider a podcast on your favorite and least favorite tech movies? Yes, Richard,
we would, We did consider it, and now we're doing it. Um.
We decided tech movies is kind of a hard thing
to quantify. We kind of decided to just go with
uh well, I mainly focus on science fiction films in
(01:05):
which the tech actually plays at least some role within
the story. It's not just a necessarily part of the background.
Although again fast and Loose were we didn't want to
hedge ourselves in too much, so Chris do you wanna
do you want to give it? Give us a start
here because your first pick and explain why you like it. Well,
(01:25):
my first pick, Jonathan, is one that we actually just
talked about. It was the first movie that came to
mind when I was thinking of movies with technology in
them that I really I thought was awesome and now
would be war games awesome. This shall we play a game?
And um, some of you younger listeners, we do have
(01:46):
quite a few of you, thanks for tuning in. Uh,
some of you longer, younger listeners may not be familiar
with this movie because it came out many years ago. Yes,
starring a young Matthew Broderick. The idea of being Um,
this was back when I think it's safe to say
that modems dialing in using your computer to to make
contact with another computer was sort of a novelty. Yeah.
(02:09):
I think that might have been like a three modem
that he was using. I mean, this was this was
a brand new I remember when I saw that movie.
I had never heard of using a computer to dial
into another computer at that point. But then again, also
I was quite young when this film came out. Of course,
in the movie, Matthew Broderick and Ali sheety, Uh, put
(02:30):
their take their phone off the hook, put it on
the modem phone cups. This was back when we used
to have to use well some of you, I I
doubt anyone listening to us as using a dialing modem
because we would take too long to download the episodes.
But yeah, we used to have to use phone lines
to connect to the internet. Actually before this is even
before the Internet. Yes, that's true, because they were dialing
(02:52):
directly into a machine and uh it was a government machine, right.
And in the beginning, you find out that he can
hack into the school computer and change things around there,
but it turns out he can hack into other things
as well. And he hears about this particular computer that
sounds like it has some incredible stuff on it, and
in true hacker fashion, he wants to know what that
(03:15):
stuff is. It's not that he wants to cause problems
or or be a pain in the butt. He's just
curious and he has to satisfy that curiosity. Yes, and
the computer asks him if he wants to play a game,
and uh, he's up for that, and so he starts
a game called Global Thermonuclear War. Uh. The problem being
that this computer happens to be owned by the federal
(03:37):
government and is used for war simulations. So of course
all the people at Norad and all the other folks
watching those boards with lots of blinking electronic planes on them,
U get very very nervous because it appears that there
is an actual attack being launched. Right, Yeah, so it
it the the computer with the simulation taps into essentially
(03:58):
the computer system as a whole for nora Ad, and
that's what kind of capitulates this into an awful, awful
problem where it looks like the world is on the
brink of actual thermonuclear war. And fortunately for us, Matthew
Broderick's character comes up with a solution at the very
end to try and teach the computer why this is
(04:20):
a bad idea. We shouldn't spoil it, I guess. Just
in case you haven't seen it, it is worth watching.
I mean, it's one of those movies where you're gonna
have to get over the dated references and everything. You know,
it's gonna seem kind of weird and cheesy to someone
who didn't who wasn't around in the early eighties or
you know, it was very young in the early eighties
and barely remembers it, but it is a legitimately good
(04:40):
tech movie. I'm glad you picked that one. Yeah, I
think we'll also give you an appreciation, especially for people
who weren't around back then, how far technology is come
in a very very short period of time. Really is
in the great scheme of things. Um. Also, I read
in Wired magazine a while ago, not too long ago,
but to apparently President Ronald Reagan had watched the movie
(05:03):
and it actually had clued him into the significance of
computer technology and the kinds of things that, uh it
could be used for, and apparently started the seeds of
a technology program in the government and you know what
needed to be protected. Which is funny because now just
today we had the as the day we're recording this,
(05:26):
we've had our cybersecurity coordinator named so kind of topical
today that that movie actually reminds me of one that
I didn't put on my list, but I probably should have,
because I do enjoy it quite a bit, which is
an older film but based on a similar topic, which
is Doctor Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying
and Love the Bomb. Yes, yes, the Kubrick film. Um.
(05:48):
Now in that movie, you have a uh, you have
several things all converging on one horrible, horrible event. The
first thing is you've got a crazy army base commander
who has decided that he wants to create a first
strike on the Russians because the Russians are up to
no good and will eventually attack, and they only answer
(06:10):
is to attack them first. So he uh, he's doing this.
On that he goes rogue essentially and and uh turns
against his own country in order to escalate a war
with Russia. Unfortunately, and unbeknownst to this commander, Russia has
developed a secret super weapon, a doomsday device, which will
(06:32):
essentially wipe out pretty much all life on earth. Um.
The whole idea being that by revealing the existence of
this weapon, no one would ever dare attack Russia because
it would automatically retaliate and there's no way to shut
it off. But Russia hasn't said anything about the device
(06:52):
because it was supposed to be a surprise. The President
wanted to reveal it on a certain day, and that
day had not yet arrived. And so you have this
whole group of people who are trying to figure out
how to get out of an impossible situation and doing
all they can to avert it. And um, I won't
spoil that one either, I'll just say that it uh,
it is a great movie. Peter Seller's plays half the
(07:14):
cast and he does a great job. Yes, and if
you if you have seen the movie, I would also recommend, Uh,
it's kind of a weird thing, but you should check
out the movie Failsafe because it will make you, especially
after having seen it. I had to watch it for
a class in college, and I suddenly went oh, because
Dr Strangelove actually makes a lot of references to that,
(07:36):
which is a very actual serious movie about the idea
that you know, Russian the Soviet Union in the United
States might go to all out nuclear war. Well, let
me do one that's actually on my list since that
one wasn't uh, keeping with kind of the young hacker theme,
Real Genius, Real Genius, starring a young Vel Kilmer. Uh.
(08:01):
And this is a movie about a college that uh,
that attracts really really smart people who especially are particularly
interested in things like physics, um, chemical engineering, that kind
of thing. And although their geniuses in every field essentially
at this this college, but the they actively recruit young
(08:24):
brilliant minds. And then it turns out that the professor
who is recruiting these young brilliant minds is doing so
in order to have them build a laser weapon device
that can be deployed from an airplane and pinpoint a
specific target on the ground from low orbit actually and
zap that target. And so essentially it's like the most
(08:47):
powerful sniper ever. And um, the professor has agreed to
a contract to that with the military to deliver this weapon.
But of course the professor himself is not developing any
of the technology because it's it's he's not smart enough
to do it. He has his students doing it unbeknownst
to them. They have no idea what it is that
they are, They don't know why they're developing the stuff
(09:08):
they're developing. They just think of it as a school project.
And uh, it's actually filled with wacky shenanigans. That description
of the plot makes it sound pretty serious, but it's
really a comedy and uh, and it's a pretty goofy one.
It Also, if you've only know Val Kilmer from his
later work, it'll it'll show him in a totally different
light to you. All Right, then your next favorite. Um,
(09:32):
I don't think this list would be complete without one
of us. And I bet, I'm willing to bet that
this may actually be somewhere on your list. Um, that
would be Blade Runner. You know what, not on my
list really well. Blade Runner is based on a book
by Philip K. Dick called Do Android's Dream of Electric Sheep.
And it's about it's about androids who walk among us, um,
(09:55):
some of whom have become very dangerous. Um and uh.
They're actually called replicants, both in the book and the movie. UM.
And it's uh, it's really dark and and it's kind
of scary because it gets into what it what it's
like to be human, what it means to be human,
and you know, there are questions about who is actually
(10:15):
human and who is actually a replicant. Um. So it's
because the main character is is his job is to
hunt down these replicants who have gotten out of hand
and are dangerous to human life. Um and uh, we'll
get into too much detail. That's interesting because it depends
it fully depends upon which version of the film you see. Yeah,
(10:36):
that's true because depending on the different version of the film,
some people turn out to be replicants and sometimes they don't. Yes,
And apparently part of that has to do with the
budget of the original movie and what they were able
to include and how long it was supposed to be
and all this other stuff. I have something. This is
not one of my favorites, actually one of my least favorite.
Are we gonna add some least favorites in with the favorite?
(10:57):
I'm just gonna sneak it in because it's related to
the one you said. So you talked about Blade Runner
and replicas in that what it means to be human.
I have a similar movie that tried to do that,
but I think was ultimately a failure. Aial Intelligence also
ties back into Dr Strangelove because it was originally a
Kubrick project. AI. The reason why I do not like
(11:20):
AI as well. There's several reasons. One, the movie should
have ended twenty minutes before it actually ended. Um, there
was a perfect tragic Kubrick ending. They could have finished
the film, and yes, it would have been sad, but
it was the right ending for that movie. Uh. And
instead it kept ongoing. Um. And it just there were
(11:42):
some really important, deep questions that it was asking, but
it wasn't. I don't think it gave the audience enough
to really make up you know, each each individual audience
member couldnot make up his or her own mind, because
the way Spielberg made that movie, the answer was already
made for you. The question I would say is, does
(12:06):
an artificially intelligent creature doesn't have the same sort of rights?
And uh, does it have rights like a human being
would have rights just because it is self aware? Um,
and has this ability to learn and possibly even feel.
That's another question is could an artificially intelligent construct actually
(12:28):
experience what we consider to be emotions? We don't know
that answer, but this movie managed to answer the question
for you. I think it's much more interesting to pose
that question to the audience and have that be a debate.
I mean, is it is it right to even create
an artificially intelligent construct if there is the potential for
(12:49):
it to develop not just self awareness but emotions? Um?
Is that the responsible thing to do? Because you have
essentially created a slave at that point, and that was
kind of the point of the movie. But again, like
I said, they answered the question for you without really
giving you the opportunity to ask it yourself. So did
(13:09):
you want to get back to one on your list. Sure,
I say a good one A movie I really enjoyed
Twelve Monkeys. Twelve Monkeys one of Terry Gilliams movies. I
Know I'm a I'm an enormous jelly Terry gilliam fan.
I could also easily put Brazil on here. Twelve Monkeys
in Brazil to me go hand in hand. Both of
(13:29):
them are about dystopian worlds. In twelve Monkeys, it might
even not be a real world. It's hard to say
because how much of that is actually supposed to be
happening and how much of it is within the mind
of the main character. Um. Now, twelve Monkeys, you've got
the story of a a guy who sent back in
time to change events and and sort of the the
(13:52):
series of circumstances that he encounters as he tries to
do this, and he misinterprets events and changes the wrong thing,
and uh, it kind of poses the question of is
time malleable or if you could travel through time, could
you actually make a difference or would you really just
be playing into the same events that that you noticed
in the future. Like if you went back in time
(14:14):
and try to change things, would it turn out that
the things you try to change actually lead to the
events being the way they were when you started. Um,
so I think that's it now. Now it's not really
all about the tech. In fact, that technology takes a
kind of a back seat in that one. But all
the visions of the dystopian future are really really disturbing
in that very visual gilliam style. So that's one that
(14:36):
sticks with me. Okay, then your turn. Um, speaking of
movies that involved tech, but they it sort of takes
a back seat. One of my favorites would probably be
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, another one I haven't
seen really Yeah, oh well it's uh, you know, the
tech really sort of plays that well, it's a crucial
(14:57):
part in the movie, but it's not about the technology,
but um about the company that will let you erase
your memories. So essentially you're able to start over if
you have something that you just want to forget about.
And actually sees from Dollhouse just flashed through my mind.
But that's a TV show talking about erasing your memories. Um,
(15:19):
but it's it's really really enjoyable. Um, and I liked
it very much, but uh, you know, I won't get
into the details of the movie. But the characters, of
course um interact with one another, and you know, find
out when they get their access to their old memories
back some things that you know, they were a little
(15:39):
surprised to find out. So it's it's an ext onent movie.
It's weally, it's kind of weird, but you know it
would be because it's about memory. And everyone I know
who saw it really enjoyed it. That's just one. You know,
there's always those movies that get away from you that
you never got a chance to see and have lots
of um. I was gonna mention Gatica. You know, people
(16:00):
like that as a as a tech movie. There's something
about dystopian futures that I find really really fascinating. I like.
I like both in in novels and in films, and
I think part of the reason why I like it
is because I consider them warnings like this is a
warning of what can happen if you aren't careful, and
(16:21):
you know, just just think about the consequences of your
actions and the act not not your actions as in
you the individual, but actions kind of as a collective group,
and and the decisions we make and how that can
lead to a really terrible situation. Now in Gatica, you've
got a world where you've got these genetically hiss genetically
(16:42):
designed people who are you know, more or less as
as perfect as they possibly can be. Kind of a
brave new world situation. And uh, and they are given
preferential treatment because you will automatically know from a genetic
level these people are superior to the folks who are
born the good old fashioned way. And so why take
a risk on someone who wasn't designed when you know,
(17:05):
you know, genetically this person is perfect. Therefore they should
take the job. And uh, it's the story of a
guy who was not one of the designed, who uh nevertheless,
is determined to pursue his goal and as in order
to do so he must he must put upon the
appearance of being one of the perfect people. And the
(17:27):
it talks about the great lengths he goes to to
disguise his identity and try to slip under the radar
of a society that is not only incredibly advanced but
also incredibly paranoid. The the company he works for does
routine uh scans of things like even the keyboard. They'll
(17:47):
they'll vacuum up the skin particles that all between the
keys on a keyboard and analyze them to make sure
that the person who's sitting there is who they say
they are. So it's kind of interesting to show how
a person with a real drive and ambition will go
to incredible and dangerous lengths in order to achieve it. Um.
(18:09):
And also, I mean the audience is supposed to side
with the main character. You're supposed to say, Okay, well
this guy is right and this is a society that's wrong,
and uh, the movie makes that very easy. But it's
it's very well done. Great style to that movie. UM,
highly recommended. It's a little there's some disturbing moments in it,
I won't lie, but it's uh, I enjoyed it. All right. Well,
(18:30):
I've got a question for you. We both mentioned some
of the movies that we really like. Do we want
to get onto some of the ones that we really
don't because we're not gonna have a lot of time
if we go through all of our likes. All right,
let's go. If you want to mention your other likes
without getting into them, Wally, Oh yeah, definitely, Wally. Okay,
there we go. All right. So, also, Wally a little
bit of dystopian feature there. Yeah, let's go into the
(18:51):
ones that we either we call them least favorite, because
that's what Richard said, I like to call these hatred
with the passion of a thousand exploding on movies. Are
the Star Wars prequels on here? Then? No, I didn't
count Star Wars because those are fantasy films, not science fiction.
But they are about never go ahead. Um, but yes,
(19:11):
the prequels are terrible. Okay, so my my top disliked heavily,
leaning on tech film Independence Day. Oh that's on my list.
Do score big, you know. And what's crazy is the
very first time I saw it, I enjoyed that movie.
It was on subsequent viewings that I realized how stupid
that film is. Yeah, that's that's the annoying part of it.
(19:31):
I mean, the story itself is kind of fun, but
then the whole premise of bringing down an alien intelligence
with um a virus. Yes that was from my Mac
No less a virus. Mac computer known for the virus, Right,
how would you design a computer virus for an alien
technology that you have never encountered before? You don't know
(19:56):
what the operating systems like how why would it even
be based on binary? I am yeah, no that that movie,
just that premise alone drives me crazy. But there's plenty
in that film too. And of course that that started
the whole disaster porn thing that the guy started. You
know that he also did The Day After Tomorrow and
he did two thousand twelve, and so yeah, he needs
(20:18):
to be stopped. Um. I mean he makes stuff blow
up real good, don't get me wrong. And you're a
McKinsey brother, you like that stuff. But yeah, I'm not
a I'm not a fan of that. Um that movie.
So here's one of mine. Okay, this is like the
movie that I will never forgive my parents for taking
me to when I was a kid. So it was
a fantasy slash science fiction film. You're the Hunter from
(20:43):
the Future. Did you ever see this? But I've not
seen it, but I know it exists. It is so
terrible people, all right now, I am I'm telling you.
I'm telling you text stuff listeners, you know the how
they say that, oh that movie is so bad. It's good. Okay,
this movie is so bad, gut riching, lee awful. Do
not watch this movie. It is just it is boring.
(21:05):
It makes no sense. Uh the there are none of
the characters have any sort of charisma or acting ability.
Um it is. It is just a total mess of
a movie. It has prehistoric sections where where there's a
guy fighting dinosaurs and there's stuff on a spaceship and
there's no real explanation how this all works, and it's
(21:28):
just dumb. And I will never forgive my I can.
I can vividly remember my dad teasing me before we
go see this movie as why are we gonna go
see your movie? My movie? Not your movie? Your movie?
Ha ha ha, Dad, Well, not a lapse on you,
because I'm gonna bill you for the psychological damage that
(21:49):
film caused me over the last thirty years. Actually it's
not that long, but anyway, go ahead. This one is
is another one that's sort of peripheral. Arman, you know what.
I have not watched that I but I have seen
Phil Plate the Bad Astronomer, do a shot for shot
(22:09):
criticism of one I think two minutes section of that movie,
and it was so funny. I mean, if you want
to you know, land two space shuttles on an asteroid
that has headed for Earth, you know, then it's the
movie to watch if you actually believe that that's possible,
I have doubts. He talked about Plate talked about what
(22:33):
you would actually want to do in order to get
rid of uh, an asteroid that size. He said that
blowing it up is the last thing you want to
do because it just makes lots of asteroids heading towards
It's that that makes sense. But he talked about, you know,
what you would really want to do? This is kind
of just interesting from a science perspective. Phil Plate said,
what you might want to do is you want to
move the asteroid out of the way so it's no
(22:54):
longer moving within the path of the planet. So you
would do something like perhaps send a rocket up there
that could deploy a second rocket it would actually attached
to the asteroid and then propel the asteroid just a
few thousand miles off course, and that would allow it
to miss the planet. And it was interesting to me
(23:16):
that he could both deconstruct a film and show how
it could actually work. And also, uh, no one needs
to die or sing leaving on a jet plane. Um
lawnmower Man. Okay, the reason long Moro Man is just
a bad movie all around. But the really the reason
it made this list is not just because it's a
bad movie, but it's one of those films that gave
(23:37):
people the wrong idea of what virtual reality can and
can't do. You know. It gave people the unrealistic expectation
of what virtual reality is capable of doing. And I
think that is one of those movies that helped kill
the term virtual reality because once people realize that VR
wasn't anywhere near where the movies said it was, they
(23:58):
lost interest and therefore the our projects lost funding and
then set them back by like five years. So bad movie,
lawnmore Man, Bad movie. How many more bad movies do
you have? A few? Well, I've already done AI, So
that's off. I've got two more. Okay, because uh, I
was going to mention The black Hole, which you know,
(24:20):
it's got lasers, it's got robots, it's got a ship
that's going to be plunging into a black hole. What
could possibly be more boring than that movie? Oh my god? Yeah.
I you know what, if you have insomnia, here's what
you do. Just curl up in bed, put on the
black Hole, and prepare for the deep embrace of the
best sleep you've ever had in your life. And you know,
(24:42):
as a kid, though, I enjoyed it, but I didn't realize.
You know, it's surprising I should have been bored to tea. Yes,
the black hole, that's what has turned Chris Palette into
the dynamo he is today. Go ahead, okay, back to
the Future too. Back to the Future to only exists
as a link between the first and third movie. That's
(25:03):
the only reason for Back to the Future Too to exist.
And all the stupid futuristic tech they came up with
was dumb, cartoony, had no basis in reality. And we're
rapidly closing in on the year two thousand fifteen, that
is when they traveled to Have you seen anything flying cars? Huh?
Flying cars? It's funny that you would say that, because
(25:24):
I put Back to the Future three on. This is
a freaking awesome movie. Space Train. No, that's like steam punk, Man,
steam Punk is awesome. Okay. I would like to apologize
to all our listeners out there, who, along with me,
are screaming at Poulette saying, but Back to the Future
three it was a good movie. I have my defenders,
all right. The two people who wrote in agreed to
(25:48):
me that the Western aspect of Back to the Future.
Three alone makes it better than Part two. Part two
was terrible. Man, I mean, there's no defending Part two.
It is not. Here's here's the one reason why Part
two falls apart all by itself. It cannot stand alone
as its own movie because it all it is is
a transition between one and three. No, I will give
(26:10):
you that, but anyway, actually, three in a way can't
stand on its own either, because it depends upon the
ending of part two in order for it to make sense.
But that's the whole thing, because it reminds me of
another set of trilogy or another trilogy that was really dependent.
Oh my god, you better not be talking about that.
There's only one movie in the trilogy you're about to
talk about. Well, there's certainly one that stands on its own, Yes,
(26:33):
the Matrix. Yeah, because the sequels were about again, they
were about blowing stuff up. This is this. This part
of the podcast is called wind up Jonathan until his
head explodes again. And no, no, it's not worth that
because we're running out of time. But there's there's not
exactly a lot of plots. Okay, so the Matrix, the
first Matrix film was really really stylistic and cool and awesome,
(26:53):
and I loved it. And yeah, granted, the more you
started to think about things, the more it kind of
fell apart, but it still was really neat. The problem
was that Matrix two did not capitalize on the first
Matrix film, and not only that, but it kind of
ignored a lot of the stuff that were that was
set up in the first movie. Like the impression I got.
I don't know about you, but the impression I got
after watching the first Matrix film was that what these
(27:15):
characters were going to do next would be trying to
find a way to overthrow the robots and save the
human race. But then in parts two and three, essentially
the story was not, oh, no, that part of the
human race is pretty much done for. We're just gonna
save the ones that are left in the center of
the planet, you know, floating around and there, those are
the only ones we really want to save. That's pretty much.
(27:37):
It drew me nuts. Hated it. Hated it. Also, the Architect,
if you read that stupid, stupid speech he has and
you boil it down to what he's actually saying, he's
not saying a damn thing. OK, He's just using a
lot of twenty five dollar words to say nothing at all.
I can say nothing at all for cheap, That's all
(27:57):
I'm saying. Um a minority report that was actually on
my list of good but not at the top of
my life. See I I like the tech, but I
can't get past the basic premise, which is, how can
he be framed for a premeditated murder when he doesn't
even know the identity of the person he's supposed to kill?
(28:19):
How can he premeditate a murder for someone he doesn't know?
He can't And that's the point. Well, I know, but
how does the ball pop up? Then? Because the precods
are only seeing flashes of what's going on? But see
the no, the whole basis of it, like for the
murder too, for the murder to actually have to happen,
the ball has to pop up. It's a it's a
self fulfilling prophecy. There's no initial act for that ball
(28:43):
to pop up in the first place. That's my problem.
This, this this is my problem with a lot of Phillip
Kate Dick's stuff and also UH Highland stuff. UM a
lot they a lot of their their premises are based
upon things that have already that they're They're like a
closed loop system, right, There's no way to start it,
there's no way to finish it. It's just that you
(29:04):
experienced the loop. And I hate those because how does
that loop exist on? It's okay, Calm, I have a
movie that fits in both categories, one that I both
love and hate. Tron. Yeah, Tron was some of the
coolest effects I had ever seen at that point. I
(29:26):
mean it was, especially when you consider that most of
that stuff was hand drawn. It wasn't actually computer animation.
A lot and a lot of it was computer animation,
but not all of it. Um it was a really
cool concept. It was really really cool set design. Horrible script.
Horrible script. I didn't realize how horrible script it was
until I attended a staged reading of the screenplay of Tron.
(29:50):
It was done as a joke. All the actors were
dressed up in stage blacks with they Some of them
had glow tape on them so that when the UV
lights shined on them, they would actually glow lively characters
in Tron, And they treated it like it was Shakespeare.
And it was the funniest thing I've ever seen. And
I also realized at the same time how terrible that
screenplay was still looking forward to the sequel because I'm
(30:13):
a glutton for punishment. Yeah yeah, And uh, then I
have some honorable mentions. Honorable mentions go to Ghostbusters, which
is hands down a phenomenal movie, one of the funniest
comedies ever. But the reason it's an honorable mention is
because the tech is really really good tertiary. It's cool tech,
(30:34):
it's fun stuff. Um. But it also spawned an entire
industry that I kind of looked down on, which the
whole ghost hunting thing. But anyway, the Truman Show, which
was almost good but it was it was interesting because
it was really that that was kind of it's sort
of um predicted the whole live streaming thing, Like the
(30:57):
Truman Show was really looking ahead in a way because
there weren't a lot of uh, there wasn't a lot
of examples of live streaming at that point. Uh. The
Iron Giant, which is guys, if you have not seen
The Iron Giant by Brad Bird, do yourself a favor
and watch it. Have a box of Kleenex handy is
(31:18):
a is a phenomenal movie. I mean, he's got tons
and tons of heart. The main you know, one of
the main characters is this gigantic robot, and so that's
why it kind of fits in tech. But again it's
more of a it's more like a childhood friendship story,
very much like et ET would probably be the one
that I would link it to the most strongly. If
(31:39):
you have not seen Iron Giant, please rent that movie.
It is a phenomenal cartoon. It is uh and and
Brad Bird the guy who did it. He's also the
guy behind The Incredibles, so I mean, the guy knows
how to tell a good story. And my last one
is The Signal, which is a locally produced film and
actually did see receive wide distribution for like a day
(32:01):
and a half. But the story behind that is a
mysterious signal goes out over cell phones, television's radios, and
it turns on this kind of primitive um base nature
within people. People either get really violent or really paranoid,
really scared, whatever, and they start reacting to it in
very crazy ways. Only a few people seemed to be
(32:23):
resistant to it. Uh, No, one's really sure why. It's
told from the point of view of characters who are
in the middle of this experience, so they don't have
any expertise whatsoever. They don't know why things are happening.
They're just trying to survive. So um uh, it was
filmed in Atlanta. Actually, if you look very carefully in
one section, you will see the back of my head
(32:43):
because I was in a big, gigantic meleey scene in
that movie. Um And a lot of people might be saying, hey,
this sounds a lot like Stephen King's The Cell. Well,
when the movie was being made, it was actually being
made before The Cell was published, So this was not
This was not in reaction to The Cell. It was
being made concurrently with The Cell. Uh. It's a horror
(33:03):
movie in three parts. Three different directors directed it. One
did each part. The three parts are not the same
in tone, and it's was done on purpose, and each
part kind of concentrates on a different character within the story.
Um It it still works. Uh. It's probably not the
smoothest film you'll ever see, but it's it's ah an
(33:25):
interesting take and again the technology, they're sort of taking
a background to the story and you never really know
why it happened in the first place. That's all mine
very cool. Do you have any more you wanted to
add before we sign off. No show for the last
six minutes. I'm sorry, no, no, no. I you know
I had some others that that I've considered mentioning. Maybe
(33:48):
we'll do one of these in the year. Oh yeah,
iron Man stuff, I forget about that. Yeah, that's a
good one. And I mean we made it through without
mentioning the time machine right there. There's tons of tons
of stuff we do JO in a year from now.
Give us a chance to see some more movies. So
let's wrap this up with a little bit more listener mail.
(34:12):
This comes from Skyler, who says, so, there's been a
lot of love for three D lately and I was
wondering when we will have holograms to watch movies on,
maybe make a cool show. But answer back, so I
know I have the right email. Adjust Thanks Skylar. I
haven't answered him yet, so but I will. Hopefully he'll
get my email before he hears this, Skyler, it will
be a very very long time. Holograms are tricky, uh.
(34:36):
One of our colleagues, Tracy Wilson, wrote an article about holograms,
and I remember her, uh specifically having massive headaches while
she was working on this because it's a very difficult
concept to understand and explain, much less get it to
work correctly. Yeah, and they as Jonathan and I were
getting ready to do the podcast, I mentioned the technology
(34:58):
that CNN was using during the political season. Um, and
they had holograms of people They're in three D walking
in the studio delivering their reports. What it's not really
a true hologram. Um. Now, something like that might be possible,
but it would probably be I mean as expensive as
three D TVs are now that you could have to
(35:19):
have a lot more equipment and have to be bigger
to deliver that kind of experience in your home. You
could get like a lenticular display television or you know whatever,
and be able to see three D images like that.
But again, you would have to be looking at the screen.
If you were if you were looking uh from the
point of view of the set, like if you were
on the if the television set were immediately to your right,
(35:41):
let's say, and you're both you're looking into the room,
you wouldn't see an image. Even if a friend of
yours was standing opposite you and looking at the screen,
they might see a three dimensional image that appears to
be hanging in mid air, but you wouldn't see anything
because you're not looking at the lenticular display. And that's
that's sort of when when we got this email, I
was thinking, um that he might be imagining sitting around
(36:02):
the movie watching, you know, like all him and all
his friends watching the movie. I think of being able
to stand up and move around and see the same
scene from a totally different perspective and you know, the
camera angle is not changing, You're the one changing. Yes,
but you'd have to have you'd have to shoot that
in a very very yeah, dogmatic way. You could do it,
(36:22):
You could probably do it, and well you can dome expense,
you could do a computer graphics version, you could build
three D modeled things. But yeah, but doing it in person, Yeah, no,
I can't. I can't imagine. Yeah, it's gonna be that's
gonna be a while. Yeah, Unfortunately, let's way for the singularity.
It will come then, Thanks a lot, Skyler. Well, if
any of you have any questions or suggestions, comments, anything
(36:43):
like that, write us. Our email address is tech stuff
at how stuff works dot com. And remember visit our
website for articles on everything from lenticular displays to why
I hate Back to the Future too. Actually, we don't
have an article on that, but we have plenty of
other ones. Yeah, I could go on for days. Um
and remember we have a live show every Tuesday one
(37:03):
pm Eastern. You can find links to that on our blogs.
Just go to the house Supports dot com. Look on
the right side. You'll see links to the blogs there
and Chris and I will talk to you again really soon.
For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit
how stuff Works dot com and be sure to check
out the new tech stuff blog now on the House
Stuff Works homepage, brought to you by the reinvented two
(37:31):
thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you get in touch with technologies with
tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello there, everybody,
and welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Polette,
(00:20):
and I am the tech editor here at how stuff
works dot Com. Sitting across from me as usual as
senior writer Jonathan Strickland turned down your lights, folks, I
guess that's your way of mentioning that that's going to
be the start of our movie episode. Yes, so this
episode comes to us courtesy of a little listener mail Missles.
(00:43):
Your mail comes from Richard, who says, would you guys
consider a podcast on your favorite and least favorite tech movies? Yes, Richard,
we would, We did consider it, and now we're doing it. Um.
We decided tech movies is kind of a hard thing
to quantify. We kind of decided to just go with
uh well, I mainly focus on science fiction films in
(01:05):
which the tech actually plays at least some role within
the story. It's not just a necessarily part of the background.
Although again fast and Loose were we didn't want to
hedge ourselves in too much, so Chris do you wanna
do you want to give it? Give us a start
here because your first pick and explain why you like it. Well,
(01:25):
my first pick, Jonathan, is one that we actually just
talked about. It was the first movie that came to
mind when I was thinking of movies with technology in
them that I really I thought was awesome and now
would be war games awesome. This shall we play a game?
And um, some of you younger listeners, we do have
(01:46):
quite a few of you, thanks for tuning in. Uh,
some of you longer, younger listeners may not be familiar
with this movie because it came out many years ago. Yes,
starring a young Matthew Broderick. The idea of being Um,
this was back when I think it's safe to say
that modems dialing in using your computer to to make
contact with another computer was sort of a novelty. Yeah.
(02:09):
I think that might have been like a three modem
that he was using. I mean, this was this was
a brand new I remember when I saw that movie.
I had never heard of using a computer to dial
into another computer at that point. But then again, also
I was quite young when this film came out. Of course,
in the movie, Matthew Broderick and Ali sheety, Uh, put
(02:30):
their take their phone off the hook, put it on
the modem phone cups. This was back when we used
to have to use well some of you, I I
doubt anyone listening to us as using a dialing modem
because we would take too long to download the episodes.
But yeah, we used to have to use phone lines
to connect to the internet. Actually before this is even
before the Internet. Yes, that's true, because they were dialing
(02:52):
directly into a machine and uh it was a government machine, right.
And in the beginning, you find out that he can
hack into the school computer and change things around there,
but it turns out he can hack into other things
as well. And he hears about this particular computer that
sounds like it has some incredible stuff on it, and
in true hacker fashion, he wants to know what that
(03:15):
stuff is. It's not that he wants to cause problems
or or be a pain in the butt. He's just
curious and he has to satisfy that curiosity. Yes, and
the computer asks him if he wants to play a game,
and uh, he's up for that, and so he starts
a game called Global Thermonuclear War. Uh. The problem being
that this computer happens to be owned by the federal
(03:37):
government and is used for war simulations. So of course
all the people at Norad and all the other folks
watching those boards with lots of blinking electronic planes on them,
U get very very nervous because it appears that there
is an actual attack being launched. Right, Yeah, so it
it the the computer with the simulation taps into essentially
(03:58):
the computer system as a whole for nora Ad, and
that's what kind of capitulates this into an awful, awful
problem where it looks like the world is on the
brink of actual thermonuclear war. And fortunately for us, Matthew
Broderick's character comes up with a solution at the very
end to try and teach the computer why this is
(04:20):
a bad idea. We shouldn't spoil it, I guess. Just
in case you haven't seen it, it is worth watching.
I mean, it's one of those movies where you're gonna
have to get over the dated references and everything. You know,
it's gonna seem kind of weird and cheesy to someone
who didn't who wasn't around in the early eighties or
you know, it was very young in the early eighties
and barely remembers it, but it is a legitimately good
(04:40):
tech movie. I'm glad you picked that one. Yeah, I
think we'll also give you an appreciation, especially for people
who weren't around back then, how far technology is come
in a very very short period of time. Really is
in the great scheme of things. Um. Also, I read
in Wired magazine a while ago, not too long ago,
but to apparently President Ronald Reagan had watched the movie
(05:03):
and it actually had clued him into the significance of
computer technology and the kinds of things that, uh it
could be used for, and apparently started the seeds of
a technology program in the government and you know what
needed to be protected. Which is funny because now just
today we had the as the day we're recording this,
(05:26):
we've had our cybersecurity coordinator named so kind of topical
today that that movie actually reminds me of one that
I didn't put on my list, but I probably should have,
because I do enjoy it quite a bit, which is
an older film but based on a similar topic, which
is Doctor Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying
and Love the Bomb. Yes, yes, the Kubrick film. Um.
(05:48):
Now in that movie, you have a uh, you have
several things all converging on one horrible, horrible event. The
first thing is you've got a crazy army base commander
who has decided that he wants to create a first
strike on the Russians because the Russians are up to
no good and will eventually attack, and they only answer
(06:10):
is to attack them first. So he uh, he's doing this.
On that he goes rogue essentially and and uh turns
against his own country in order to escalate a war
with Russia. Unfortunately, and unbeknownst to this commander, Russia has
developed a secret super weapon, a doomsday device, which will
(06:32):
essentially wipe out pretty much all life on earth. Um.
The whole idea being that by revealing the existence of
this weapon, no one would ever dare attack Russia because
it would automatically retaliate and there's no way to shut
it off. But Russia hasn't said anything about the device
(06:52):
because it was supposed to be a surprise. The President
wanted to reveal it on a certain day, and that
day had not yet arrived. And so you have this
whole group of people who are trying to figure out
how to get out of an impossible situation and doing
all they can to avert it. And um, I won't
spoil that one either, I'll just say that it uh,
it is a great movie. Peter Seller's plays half the
(07:14):
cast and he does a great job. Yes, and if
you if you have seen the movie, I would also recommend, Uh,
it's kind of a weird thing, but you should check
out the movie Failsafe because it will make you, especially
after having seen it. I had to watch it for
a class in college, and I suddenly went oh, because
Dr Strangelove actually makes a lot of references to that,
(07:36):
which is a very actual serious movie about the idea
that you know, Russian the Soviet Union in the United
States might go to all out nuclear war. Well, let
me do one that's actually on my list since that
one wasn't uh, keeping with kind of the young hacker theme,
Real Genius, Real Genius, starring a young Vel Kilmer. Uh.
(08:01):
And this is a movie about a college that uh,
that attracts really really smart people who especially are particularly
interested in things like physics, um, chemical engineering, that kind
of thing. And although their geniuses in every field essentially
at this this college, but the they actively recruit young
(08:24):
brilliant minds. And then it turns out that the professor
who is recruiting these young brilliant minds is doing so
in order to have them build a laser weapon device
that can be deployed from an airplane and pinpoint a
specific target on the ground from low orbit actually and
zap that target. And so essentially it's like the most
(08:47):
powerful sniper ever. And um, the professor has agreed to
a contract to that with the military to deliver this weapon.
But of course the professor himself is not developing any
of the technology because it's it's he's not smart enough
to do it. He has his students doing it unbeknownst
to them. They have no idea what it is that
they are, They don't know why they're developing the stuff
(09:08):
they're developing. They just think of it as a school project.
And uh, it's actually filled with wacky shenanigans. That description
of the plot makes it sound pretty serious, but it's
really a comedy and uh, and it's a pretty goofy one.
It Also, if you've only know Val Kilmer from his
later work, it'll it'll show him in a totally different
light to you. All Right, then your next favorite. Um,
(09:32):
I don't think this list would be complete without one
of us. And I bet, I'm willing to bet that
this may actually be somewhere on your list. Um, that
would be Blade Runner. You know what, not on my
list really well. Blade Runner is based on a book
by Philip K. Dick called Do Android's Dream of Electric Sheep.
And it's about it's about androids who walk among us, um,
(09:55):
some of whom have become very dangerous. Um and uh.
They're actually called replicants, both in the book and the movie. UM.
And it's uh, it's really dark and and it's kind
of scary because it gets into what it what it's
like to be human, what it means to be human,
and you know, there are questions about who is actually
(10:15):
human and who is actually a replicant. Um. So it's
because the main character is is his job is to
hunt down these replicants who have gotten out of hand
and are dangerous to human life. Um and uh, we'll
get into too much detail. That's interesting because it depends
it fully depends upon which version of the film you see. Yeah,
(10:36):
that's true because depending on the different version of the film,
some people turn out to be replicants and sometimes they don't. Yes,
And apparently part of that has to do with the
budget of the original movie and what they were able
to include and how long it was supposed to be
and all this other stuff. I have something. This is
not one of my favorites, actually one of my least favorite.
Are we gonna add some least favorites in with the favorite?
(10:57):
I'm just gonna sneak it in because it's related to
the one you said. So you talked about Blade Runner
and replicas in that what it means to be human.
I have a similar movie that tried to do that,
but I think was ultimately a failure. Aial Intelligence also
ties back into Dr Strangelove because it was originally a
Kubrick project. AI. The reason why I do not like
(11:20):
AI as well. There's several reasons. One, the movie should
have ended twenty minutes before it actually ended. Um, there
was a perfect tragic Kubrick ending. They could have finished
the film, and yes, it would have been sad, but
it was the right ending for that movie. Uh. And
instead it kept ongoing. Um. And it just there were
(11:42):
some really important, deep questions that it was asking, but
it wasn't. I don't think it gave the audience enough
to really make up you know, each each individual audience
member couldnot make up his or her own mind, because
the way Spielberg made that movie, the answer was already
made for you. The question I would say is, does
(12:06):
an artificially intelligent creature doesn't have the same sort of rights?
And uh, does it have rights like a human being
would have rights just because it is self aware? Um,
and has this ability to learn and possibly even feel.
That's another question is could an artificially intelligent construct actually
(12:28):
experience what we consider to be emotions? We don't know
that answer, but this movie managed to answer the question
for you. I think it's much more interesting to pose
that question to the audience and have that be a debate.
I mean, is it is it right to even create
an artificially intelligent construct if there is the potential for
(12:49):
it to develop not just self awareness but emotions? Um?
Is that the responsible thing to do? Because you have
essentially created a slave at that point, and that was
kind of the point of the movie. But again, like
I said, they answered the question for you without really
giving you the opportunity to ask it yourself. So did
(13:09):
you want to get back to one on your list. Sure,
I say a good one A movie I really enjoyed
Twelve Monkeys. Twelve Monkeys one of Terry Gilliams movies. I
Know I'm a I'm an enormous jelly Terry gilliam fan.
I could also easily put Brazil on here. Twelve Monkeys
in Brazil to me go hand in hand. Both of
(13:29):
them are about dystopian worlds. In twelve Monkeys, it might
even not be a real world. It's hard to say
because how much of that is actually supposed to be
happening and how much of it is within the mind
of the main character. Um. Now, twelve Monkeys, you've got
the story of a a guy who sent back in
time to change events and and sort of the the
(13:52):
series of circumstances that he encounters as he tries to
do this, and he misinterprets events and changes the wrong thing,
and uh, it kind of poses the question of is
time malleable or if you could travel through time, could
you actually make a difference or would you really just
be playing into the same events that that you noticed
in the future. Like if you went back in time
(14:14):
and try to change things, would it turn out that
the things you try to change actually lead to the
events being the way they were when you started. Um,
so I think that's it now. Now it's not really
all about the tech. In fact, that technology takes a
kind of a back seat in that one. But all
the visions of the dystopian future are really really disturbing
in that very visual gilliam style. So that's one that
(14:36):
sticks with me. Okay, then your turn. Um, speaking of
movies that involved tech, but they it sort of takes
a back seat. One of my favorites would probably be
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, another one I haven't
seen really Yeah, oh well it's uh, you know, the
tech really sort of plays that well, it's a crucial
(14:57):
part in the movie, but it's not about the technology,
but um about the company that will let you erase
your memories. So essentially you're able to start over if
you have something that you just want to forget about.
And actually sees from Dollhouse just flashed through my mind.
But that's a TV show talking about erasing your memories. Um,
(15:19):
but it's it's really really enjoyable. Um, and I liked
it very much, but uh, you know, I won't get
into the details of the movie. But the characters, of
course um interact with one another, and you know, find
out when they get their access to their old memories
back some things that you know, they were a little
(15:39):
surprised to find out. So it's it's an ext onent movie.
It's weally, it's kind of weird, but you know it
would be because it's about memory. And everyone I know
who saw it really enjoyed it. That's just one. You know,
there's always those movies that get away from you that
you never got a chance to see and have lots
of um. I was gonna mention Gatica. You know, people
(16:00):
like that as a as a tech movie. There's something
about dystopian futures that I find really really fascinating. I like.
I like both in in novels and in films, and
I think part of the reason why I like it
is because I consider them warnings like this is a
warning of what can happen if you aren't careful, and
(16:21):
you know, just just think about the consequences of your
actions and the act not not your actions as in
you the individual, but actions kind of as a collective group,
and and the decisions we make and how that can
lead to a really terrible situation. Now in Gatica, you've
got a world where you've got these genetically hiss genetically
(16:42):
designed people who are you know, more or less as
as perfect as they possibly can be. Kind of a
brave new world situation. And uh, and they are given
preferential treatment because you will automatically know from a genetic
level these people are superior to the folks who are
born the good old fashioned way. And so why take
a risk on someone who wasn't designed when you know,
(17:05):
you know, genetically this person is perfect. Therefore they should
take the job. And uh, it's the story of a
guy who was not one of the designed, who uh nevertheless,
is determined to pursue his goal and as in order
to do so he must he must put upon the
appearance of being one of the perfect people. And the
(17:27):
it talks about the great lengths he goes to to
disguise his identity and try to slip under the radar
of a society that is not only incredibly advanced but
also incredibly paranoid. The the company he works for does
routine uh scans of things like even the keyboard. They'll
(17:47):
they'll vacuum up the skin particles that all between the
keys on a keyboard and analyze them to make sure
that the person who's sitting there is who they say
they are. So it's kind of interesting to show how
a person with a real drive and ambition will go
to incredible and dangerous lengths in order to achieve it. Um.
(18:09):
And also, I mean the audience is supposed to side
with the main character. You're supposed to say, Okay, well
this guy is right and this is a society that's wrong,
and uh, the movie makes that very easy. But it's
it's very well done. Great style to that movie. UM,
highly recommended. It's a little there's some disturbing moments in it,
I won't lie, but it's uh, I enjoyed it. All right. Well,
(18:30):
I've got a question for you. We both mentioned some
of the movies that we really like. Do we want
to get onto some of the ones that we really
don't because we're not gonna have a lot of time
if we go through all of our likes. All right,
let's go. If you want to mention your other likes
without getting into them, Wally, Oh yeah, definitely, Wally. Okay,
there we go. All right. So, also, Wally a little
bit of dystopian feature there. Yeah, let's go into the
(18:51):
ones that we either we call them least favorite, because
that's what Richard said, I like to call these hatred
with the passion of a thousand exploding on movies. Are
the Star Wars prequels on here? Then? No, I didn't
count Star Wars because those are fantasy films, not science fiction.
But they are about never go ahead. Um, but yes,
(19:11):
the prequels are terrible. Okay, so my my top disliked heavily,
leaning on tech film Independence Day. Oh that's on my list.
Do score big, you know. And what's crazy is the
very first time I saw it, I enjoyed that movie.
It was on subsequent viewings that I realized how stupid
that film is. Yeah, that's that's the annoying part of it.
(19:31):
I mean, the story itself is kind of fun, but
then the whole premise of bringing down an alien intelligence
with um a virus. Yes that was from my Mac
No less a virus. Mac computer known for the virus, Right,
how would you design a computer virus for an alien
technology that you have never encountered before? You don't know
(19:56):
what the operating systems like how why would it even
be based on binary? I am yeah, no that that movie,
just that premise alone drives me crazy. But there's plenty
in that film too. And of course that that started
the whole disaster porn thing that the guy started. You
know that he also did The Day After Tomorrow and
he did two thousand twelve, and so yeah, he needs
(20:18):
to be stopped. Um. I mean he makes stuff blow
up real good, don't get me wrong. And you're a
McKinsey brother, you like that stuff. But yeah, I'm not
a I'm not a fan of that. Um that movie.
So here's one of mine. Okay, this is like the
movie that I will never forgive my parents for taking
me to when I was a kid. So it was
a fantasy slash science fiction film. You're the Hunter from
(20:43):
the Future. Did you ever see this? But I've not
seen it, but I know it exists. It is so
terrible people, all right now, I am I'm telling you.
I'm telling you text stuff listeners, you know the how
they say that, oh that movie is so bad. It's good. Okay,
this movie is so bad, gut riching, lee awful. Do
not watch this movie. It is just it is boring.
(21:05):
It makes no sense. Uh the there are none of
the characters have any sort of charisma or acting ability.
Um it is. It is just a total mess of
a movie. It has prehistoric sections where where there's a
guy fighting dinosaurs and there's stuff on a spaceship and
there's no real explanation how this all works, and it's
(21:28):
just dumb. And I will never forgive my I can.
I can vividly remember my dad teasing me before we
go see this movie as why are we gonna go
see your movie? My movie? Not your movie? Your movie?
Ha ha ha, Dad, Well, not a lapse on you,
because I'm gonna bill you for the psychological damage that
(21:49):
film caused me over the last thirty years. Actually it's
not that long, but anyway, go ahead. This one is
is another one that's sort of peripheral. Arman, you know what.
I have not watched that I but I have seen
Phil Plate the Bad Astronomer, do a shot for shot
(22:09):
criticism of one I think two minutes section of that movie,
and it was so funny. I mean, if you want
to you know, land two space shuttles on an asteroid
that has headed for Earth, you know, then it's the
movie to watch if you actually believe that that's possible,
I have doubts. He talked about Plate talked about what
(22:33):
you would actually want to do in order to get
rid of uh, an asteroid that size. He said that
blowing it up is the last thing you want to
do because it just makes lots of asteroids heading towards
It's that that makes sense. But he talked about, you know,
what you would really want to do? This is kind
of just interesting from a science perspective. Phil Plate said,
what you might want to do is you want to
move the asteroid out of the way so it's no
(22:54):
longer moving within the path of the planet. So you
would do something like perhaps send a rocket up there
that could deploy a second rocket it would actually attached
to the asteroid and then propel the asteroid just a
few thousand miles off course, and that would allow it
to miss the planet. And it was interesting to me
(23:16):
that he could both deconstruct a film and show how
it could actually work. And also, uh, no one needs
to die or sing leaving on a jet plane. Um
lawnmower Man. Okay, the reason long Moro Man is just
a bad movie all around. But the really the reason
it made this list is not just because it's a
bad movie, but it's one of those films that gave
(23:37):
people the wrong idea of what virtual reality can and
can't do. You know. It gave people the unrealistic expectation
of what virtual reality is capable of doing. And I
think that is one of those movies that helped kill
the term virtual reality because once people realize that VR
wasn't anywhere near where the movies said it was, they
(23:58):
lost interest and therefore the our projects lost funding and
then set them back by like five years. So bad movie,
lawnmore Man, Bad movie. How many more bad movies do
you have? A few? Well, I've already done AI, So
that's off. I've got two more. Okay, because uh, I
was going to mention The black Hole, which you know,
(24:20):
it's got lasers, it's got robots, it's got a ship
that's going to be plunging into a black hole. What
could possibly be more boring than that movie? Oh my god? Yeah.
I you know what, if you have insomnia, here's what
you do. Just curl up in bed, put on the
black Hole, and prepare for the deep embrace of the
best sleep you've ever had in your life. And you know,
(24:42):
as a kid, though, I enjoyed it, but I didn't realize.
You know, it's surprising I should have been bored to tea. Yes,
the black hole, that's what has turned Chris Palette into
the dynamo he is today. Go ahead, okay, back to
the Future too. Back to the Future to only exists
as a link between the first and third movie. That's
(25:03):
the only reason for Back to the Future Too to exist.
And all the stupid futuristic tech they came up with
was dumb, cartoony, had no basis in reality. And we're
rapidly closing in on the year two thousand fifteen, that
is when they traveled to Have you seen anything flying cars? Huh?
Flying cars? It's funny that you would say that, because
(25:24):
I put Back to the Future three on. This is
a freaking awesome movie. Space Train. No, that's like steam punk, Man,
steam Punk is awesome. Okay. I would like to apologize
to all our listeners out there, who, along with me,
are screaming at Poulette saying, but Back to the Future
three it was a good movie. I have my defenders,
all right. The two people who wrote in agreed to
(25:48):
me that the Western aspect of Back to the Future.
Three alone makes it better than Part two. Part two
was terrible. Man, I mean, there's no defending Part two.
It is not. Here's here's the one reason why Part
two falls apart all by itself. It cannot stand alone
as its own movie because it all it is is
a transition between one and three. No, I will give
(26:10):
you that, but anyway, actually, three in a way can't
stand on its own either, because it depends upon the
ending of part two in order for it to make sense.
But that's the whole thing, because it reminds me of
another set of trilogy or another trilogy that was really dependent.
Oh my god, you better not be talking about that.
There's only one movie in the trilogy you're about to
talk about. Well, there's certainly one that stands on its own, Yes,
(26:33):
the Matrix. Yeah, because the sequels were about again, they
were about blowing stuff up. This is this. This part
of the podcast is called wind up Jonathan until his
head explodes again. And no, no, it's not worth that
because we're running out of time. But there's there's not
exactly a lot of plots. Okay, so the Matrix, the
first Matrix film was really really stylistic and cool and awesome,
(26:53):
and I loved it. And yeah, granted, the more you
started to think about things, the more it kind of
fell apart, but it still was really neat. The problem
was that Matrix two did not capitalize on the first
Matrix film, and not only that, but it kind of
ignored a lot of the stuff that were that was
set up in the first movie. Like the impression I got.
I don't know about you, but the impression I got
after watching the first Matrix film was that what these
(27:15):
characters were going to do next would be trying to
find a way to overthrow the robots and save the
human race. But then in parts two and three, essentially
the story was not, oh, no, that part of the
human race is pretty much done for. We're just gonna
save the ones that are left in the center of
the planet, you know, floating around and there, those are
the only ones we really want to save. That's pretty much.
(27:37):
It drew me nuts. Hated it. Hated it. Also, the Architect,
if you read that stupid, stupid speech he has and
you boil it down to what he's actually saying, he's
not saying a damn thing. OK, He's just using a
lot of twenty five dollar words to say nothing at all.
I can say nothing at all for cheap, That's all
(27:57):
I'm saying. Um a minority report that was actually on
my list of good but not at the top of
my life. See I I like the tech, but I
can't get past the basic premise, which is, how can
he be framed for a premeditated murder when he doesn't
even know the identity of the person he's supposed to kill?
(28:19):
How can he premeditate a murder for someone he doesn't know?
He can't And that's the point. Well, I know, but
how does the ball pop up? Then? Because the precods
are only seeing flashes of what's going on? But see
the no, the whole basis of it, like for the
murder too, for the murder to actually have to happen,
the ball has to pop up. It's a it's a
self fulfilling prophecy. There's no initial act for that ball
(28:43):
to pop up in the first place. That's my problem.
This, this this is my problem with a lot of Phillip
Kate Dick's stuff and also UH Highland stuff. UM a
lot they a lot of their their premises are based
upon things that have already that they're They're like a
closed loop system, right, There's no way to start it,
there's no way to finish it. It's just that you
(29:04):
experienced the loop. And I hate those because how does
that loop exist on? It's okay, Calm, I have a
movie that fits in both categories, one that I both
love and hate. Tron. Yeah, Tron was some of the
coolest effects I had ever seen at that point. I
(29:26):
mean it was, especially when you consider that most of
that stuff was hand drawn. It wasn't actually computer animation.
A lot and a lot of it was computer animation,
but not all of it. Um it was a really
cool concept. It was really really cool set design. Horrible script.
Horrible script. I didn't realize how horrible script it was
until I attended a staged reading of the screenplay of Tron.
(29:50):
It was done as a joke. All the actors were
dressed up in stage blacks with they Some of them
had glow tape on them so that when the UV
lights shined on them, they would actually glow lively characters
in Tron, And they treated it like it was Shakespeare.
And it was the funniest thing I've ever seen. And
I also realized at the same time how terrible that
screenplay was still looking forward to the sequel because I'm
(30:13):
a glutton for punishment. Yeah yeah, And uh, then I
have some honorable mentions. Honorable mentions go to Ghostbusters, which
is hands down a phenomenal movie, one of the funniest
comedies ever. But the reason it's an honorable mention is
because the tech is really really good tertiary. It's cool tech,
(30:34):
it's fun stuff. Um. But it also spawned an entire
industry that I kind of looked down on, which the
whole ghost hunting thing. But anyway, the Truman Show, which
was almost good but it was it was interesting because
it was really that that was kind of it's sort
of um predicted the whole live streaming thing, Like the
(30:57):
Truman Show was really looking ahead in a way because
there weren't a lot of uh, there wasn't a lot
of examples of live streaming at that point. Uh. The
Iron Giant, which is guys, if you have not seen
The Iron Giant by Brad Bird, do yourself a favor
and watch it. Have a box of Kleenex handy is
(31:18):
a is a phenomenal movie. I mean, he's got tons
and tons of heart. The main you know, one of
the main characters is this gigantic robot, and so that's
why it kind of fits in tech. But again it's
more of a it's more like a childhood friendship story,
very much like et ET would probably be the one
that I would link it to the most strongly. If
(31:39):
you have not seen Iron Giant, please rent that movie.
It is a phenomenal cartoon. It is uh and and
Brad Bird the guy who did it. He's also the
guy behind The Incredibles, so I mean, the guy knows
how to tell a good story. And my last one
is The Signal, which is a locally produced film and
actually did see receive wide distribution for like a day
(32:01):
and a half. But the story behind that is a
mysterious signal goes out over cell phones, television's radios, and
it turns on this kind of primitive um base nature
within people. People either get really violent or really paranoid,
really scared, whatever, and they start reacting to it in
very crazy ways. Only a few people seemed to be
(32:23):
resistant to it. Uh, No, one's really sure why. It's
told from the point of view of characters who are
in the middle of this experience, so they don't have
any expertise whatsoever. They don't know why things are happening.
They're just trying to survive. So um uh, it was
filmed in Atlanta. Actually, if you look very carefully in
one section, you will see the back of my head
(32:43):
because I was in a big, gigantic meleey scene in
that movie. Um And a lot of people might be saying, hey,
this sounds a lot like Stephen King's The Cell. Well,
when the movie was being made, it was actually being
made before The Cell was published, So this was not
This was not in reaction to The Cell. It was
being made concurrently with The Cell. Uh. It's a horror
(33:03):
movie in three parts. Three different directors directed it. One
did each part. The three parts are not the same
in tone, and it's was done on purpose, and each
part kind of concentrates on a different character within the story.
Um It it still works. Uh. It's probably not the
smoothest film you'll ever see, but it's it's ah an
(33:25):
interesting take and again the technology, they're sort of taking
a background to the story and you never really know
why it happened in the first place. That's all mine
very cool. Do you have any more you wanted to
add before we sign off. No show for the last
six minutes. I'm sorry, no, no, no. I you know
I had some others that that I've considered mentioning. Maybe
(33:48):
we'll do one of these in the year. Oh yeah,
iron Man stuff, I forget about that. Yeah, that's a
good one. And I mean we made it through without
mentioning the time machine right there. There's tons of tons
of stuff we do JO in a year from now.
Give us a chance to see some more movies. So
let's wrap this up with a little bit more listener mail.
(34:12):
This comes from Skyler, who says, so, there's been a
lot of love for three D lately and I was
wondering when we will have holograms to watch movies on,
maybe make a cool show. But answer back, so I
know I have the right email. Adjust Thanks Skylar. I
haven't answered him yet, so but I will. Hopefully he'll
get my email before he hears this, Skyler, it will
be a very very long time. Holograms are tricky, uh.
(34:36):
One of our colleagues, Tracy Wilson, wrote an article about holograms,
and I remember her, uh specifically having massive headaches while
she was working on this because it's a very difficult
concept to understand and explain, much less get it to
work correctly. Yeah, and they as Jonathan and I were
getting ready to do the podcast, I mentioned the technology
(34:58):
that CNN was using during the political season. Um, and
they had holograms of people They're in three D walking
in the studio delivering their reports. What it's not really
a true hologram. Um. Now, something like that might be possible,
but it would probably be I mean as expensive as
three D TVs are now that you could have to
(35:19):
have a lot more equipment and have to be bigger
to deliver that kind of experience in your home. You
could get like a lenticular display television or you know whatever,
and be able to see three D images like that.
But again, you would have to be looking at the screen.
If you were if you were looking uh from the
point of view of the set, like if you were
on the if the television set were immediately to your right,
(35:41):
let's say, and you're both you're looking into the room,
you wouldn't see an image. Even if a friend of
yours was standing opposite you and looking at the screen,
they might see a three dimensional image that appears to
be hanging in mid air, but you wouldn't see anything
because you're not looking at the lenticular display. And that's
that's sort of when when we got this email, I
was thinking, um that he might be imagining sitting around
(36:02):
the movie watching, you know, like all him and all
his friends watching the movie. I think of being able
to stand up and move around and see the same
scene from a totally different perspective and you know, the
camera angle is not changing, You're the one changing. Yes,
but you'd have to have you'd have to shoot that
in a very very yeah, dogmatic way. You could do it,
(36:22):
You could probably do it, and well you can dome expense,
you could do a computer graphics version, you could build
three D modeled things. But yeah, but doing it in person, Yeah, no,
I can't. I can't imagine. Yeah, it's gonna be that's
gonna be a while. Yeah, Unfortunately, let's way for the singularity.
It will come then, Thanks a lot, Skyler. Well, if
any of you have any questions or suggestions, comments, anything
(36:43):
like that, write us. Our email address is tech stuff
at how stuff works dot com. And remember visit our
website for articles on everything from lenticular displays to why
I hate Back to the Future too. Actually, we don't
have an article on that, but we have plenty of
other ones. Yeah, I could go on for days. Um
and remember we have a live show every Tuesday one
(37:03):
pm Eastern. You can find links to that on our blogs.
Just go to the house Supports dot com. Look on
the right side. You'll see links to the blogs there
and Chris and I will talk to you again really soon.
For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit
how stuff Works dot com and be sure to check
out the new tech stuff blog now on the House
Stuff Works homepage, brought to you by the reinvented two
(37:31):
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