Okay confessional time: here at Comms Express we love a good film. Granted not the biggest and riskiest confession you’re ever going to encounter but it’s a start, and leads us into our latest blog!
Working within the computer world got us to thinking (always a danger!) of a few of the best films to feature computers, and in our last three choices their evolution over mankind – scary stuff! Chatting across the office threw up plenty; it would seem that Hollywood has been over-fishing these waters, with some hits and misses over the years.
We’re not here to name and shame so we’ll only centre on the best of the bunch as far as we’re concerned. First up we’re going for a couple of 80’s classics: War Games and Short Circuit. Matthew Broderick, the star of War Games, is the computer hacker extraordinaire! However perhaps he wasn’t the brightest when he hacked into US military and almost brought about WWIII with Russia! Short Circuit tells the tale of Robot No 5, who after a bolt of lightning strikes him is convinced that he is alive, and with the aid of Ally Sheedy (what happened to her?) must convince his creator Steve Guttenberg not to send him back to the lab.
Moving away from these we’ve gone for three films where we humans are very much secondary, the computers have taken over control and how! We never get to know the name of the collective machines in The Matrix who after proving victorious in a prolonged war with humanity now wish to reproduce us in order to harvest the collective energy we produce. Enter Neo, a computer programmer, who just may have the key to saving humanity from the beastly machines. To be fair we’re not sure the outcome as the two sequels left us cold so we’ve just wallowed in the majestic beauty of the first film!
The Skynet computer system has removed all human decisions from the US military defence system, whereby it quickly becomes self-aware and the next step in their grip on humanity is the Terminator! The stunning simplicity to James Cameron’s The Terminator and its sequel Terminator 2: Judgement Day is the key to two truly fantastic films.
Stanley Kubrick’s science fiction masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey was co-written with Kubrick by fabled sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke. The film is somewhat of an enigma, its meaning hidden, cryptic and obscure we’re left with questions. A race between a computer HAL and human, in the shape of astronaut Dave Bowman and his companions to discover the next step in evolution, results in the astronauts discovering that HAL is every bit mans equal, and perhaps its superior. A little bit of film trivia for you: did you know that HAL is one letter away from IBM – clever hey?!
So a lesson learnt no computer hacking for us or watching scary films, I’m sleeping with the light on. We’ll stick to doing what we do best!
Until next time…
