Outdated technology in movies.

Movies that feature technology are already outdated at the premiere. We know the tropes by now: hackers ramming their keyboard punching out line after line of code as if it were a race against the clock. Early ninety laptops managing feats that even current computers would raise an eyebrow at. And, of course, many more.
The goal of this article is to take you, dear reader, along several things I noticed/remembered from technology-movies. The do’s and don’ts as it were. Each paragraph I’m going to tackle a ‘techno’-movie and distil a lesson to be learned from it.

Hackers
This wonderful 90s movie cemented Angelina Jolie in the collective male mind palace. But this movie has so much more. Hackers is the pinnacle of ‘bad’ technology movies. It’s like this movie is desperately trying to do everything a hacker does the other way around.
Now this story starts with the word: ‘Hacker’. Back then there was no real consensus on what a hacker was. A hacker could either be a computer enthusiast (like little Lex in Jurassic Park) or somebody ‘hacking into a computer system’.

Anyway, as I said, this movie does every wrong what either definition of a hacker would really do. A hacker doesn’t slam his fingers on the keyboard in a wild frenzy because somehow somewhere there’s a referee taking score.

That’s the nice joke the movie Swordfish pulled. This time ‘round there was a referee involved and…something else.

A true hacker runs his little program and waits. A true hacker reads a site/program/whatever for leaks and abuses it. Basically a real hacker spends his/her time sitting still staring at the screen.

Then there are the funky effects on the laptops. Just running those animations on those old computers would use up all of the ram not on that singular machine but in the entire neighbourhood. But I’ll go into that sort of thing in the next paragraph.

What’s really interesting about Hackers is the way IT-genius is handled. Basically the movie sells the idea that: If you want to get ahead in IT? Do as little as possible!
In the first IT-bubble this was common practice. Companies would hire kids out of high school to design websites and whatnot for them. However, companies weren’t/aren’t stupid. If the kid does nothing or has a big mouth he’s fired.
Hackers displays one of these ‘wiz-kids’ with all the attitude that comes with it and actually makes him the villain. It’s like a warning to all those companies back then hiring high-schoolers. But then; did the companies listen to some silly movie? Of course not.

Independence day
The most famous one. Here we have Jeff ‘Brundle-fly’ Goldblum hacking a superior alien race mothership with a Mac-laptop. Like a single chisel trying to take down the Berlin wall.
It is explained in the deleted scenes of Independence day that there is quite a logical explanation behind it (re-engineering). But since that scene isn’t in the final movie (all of the patriotic stuff still is – even more in the extended version) it doesn’t count.

Now; I’ve always been on two minds about this little issue. Yes, the poor Mac would probably fry the minute it was plugged in. But, then again, a small computer could easily transmit a long-forgotten virus into a superior mainframe. This, a bit like ancient diseases popping up now and again.

The net
The whole concept of this movie is literally erasing a person online. The fun part being that this is now doable (the fear of the future of technology). There are various cases (in the past) of people trying hard to get their stole identity back only to be pushed back into a corner due to some clerical tomfoolery.

But why put that big pi symbol at the bottom of a webpage?
If this is Hollywood being smart than they’ve got quite a learning curve ahead of them. Everybody who visits a webpage and sees something strange they will want to click it. It’s human nature.

The lawnmower man
Computer programs as educational tools. Now this is something that (I think) is rather clear nowadays. Computer software can be used to educate people. It is, in fact, used to help people get over phobias in a safe environment.
True, the movie is a bit hefty on the special effects department (don’t get me started on the sequel) but overall the premise stays the same. However, it’s the supernatural element that throws it all out of whack.

Telekinesis, pyrokinesis, mindreading and whatnot. This is the age old fear of technology that Stephen King uses in his original story. And that’s what makes this movie so interesting to me. Here we have an absolute right on the money prediction on the future of technology and instantly the moviemakers/author grabs a dark disturbing side to accompany it. No matter how farfetched it is.

Sneakers
Sneakers is a perfect movie because the technology used is, in fact, believable in it being contemporary.

"A computer program linked you to her? Unlikely."

Want to disable an impossible key lock? ‘Kick it!’

Sneakers is one of those rare technology movies that is still watchable today because there’s no sci-fi to be found. Sneakers isn’t about predictions of the future. It is about the here and now (back then).

One (unwitting-I am sure) prediction this movie did makes is: too many secrets.
Sneakers uses the idea of every secret being public as a red herring throughout the tale. And with it it highlights one of the biggest discussion we are currently having in our facebook/wikileaks/whatnot-era.

The Jackal
To make one little sidestep at the end of this article to: the Jackal.
In this movie serial hitman Bruce Willis (a.k.a. the Jackal) manages to stay ahead of the FBI and CIA eventhough his mission has been compromised since the beginning. Then the dear man walks into an internet café and ask the proprieter if (to paraphrase): ‘does this computer has internet?’.

Pardon me but can I please assume that a hitman-extrodinaire would have some basic computer skills? Why oh why didn’t the FBI/CIA/Whatever hack him?
But that's the interesting part about late 90s movies - all the criminals in those movies are online yet the cops are still oldschool.

Conclusion
So there you have it: a few short paragraphs on the things outdated technology movie taught us. To summerize:
It showed use the time in which these movies were made. With companies hiring kids left and right to teach them about this strange new thing called ‘computers’.
But most of all those outdated movies made predictions that could very well happen nowadays but coated it with some very basic stupidity or highlighted some insanely far-fetched darkness to accompany it.