Computers and Virtual Reality/Networks
Blinking lights, spinning disks and beeping boxes - computers have always been great visual backgroungs for science fiction movies. These movies have computers or computer space (cyberspace) as their main theme or at least an important factor in the plot.
Computers
"2001" ('68) HAL 9000 with just one small bug "Alphaville" ('65 It,Fr) ? "Billion Dollar Brain" ('67 UK) Billionaire tries to start a rebellion in the USSR with the help of a computer. "Colossis, The Forbin Project" ('69) Colossis and Guardian join to rule the world. "Crosstalk" ('82 Aus) ? "Demon Seed" ('77) Proteus IV "Electric Dreams" ('84) Edgar "Gog" ('54) Novac "Homewrecker" ('?) 'Lucy' the home automation computer goes out of control. "Terminal Man" ('74) TRON" ('82) "Virtual Assasin" ('95)A computer virus with biological components is developed to inocculate computers, but a terrorist installs it into himself with disasterous results. (a bad "Die Hard" copy) "War Games" ('83) Woper, from tic-tac-toe to global thermonuclear war!
TV
"Mad About You" Episode where Paul and Jamie debate whether to invest in Simtech, a computer company that promises its new program (Life Predicter) can tell the future. "Married... With Children" Episode where Al is pressured into bying an expensive PC that becomes obsolete before the end of the show. He silences it with a baseball bat.
Virtual Reality and Networks
"Brainstorm" ('83) Record/Playback of memories. "Brainwaves" ('82) ? "Disclosure" ('94) Michael Douglas' character enters a virtual reality database at Digicom. "Dreamscape" ('84) Looking into people's dreams. "eXistenZ" ('99) Two fugitaves retreat into a virtual-reality game. "Hackers" ('95) Good vs bad hackers on the net. "Lawnmowerman" ('92) Machine enhances the intelligence of a simple-minded subject. "Looker" ('81) Machine creates the perfect computer copy of a girl for advertising. "Matrix, The" ('99) a computer hacker named Neo (Keanu Reeves) discovers that all life on Earth may be nothing more than an elaborate facade created by a malevolent cyber-intelligence, the Matrix. "Net, The" ('95) Programmer's online identity gets changed for the worse "Netforce" ('99) Scott Bakula leads a special unit of the FBI to battle internet computer crime. "Shadowzone" ('89) Dream research makes connection into parallel world. "Third Dimension Man" ('37) ? "Thirteenth Floor, The" ('99) A computer expert enters a virtual world to solve a murder. "Total Recall" ('90) Machine to implant memories of a virtual vacation. "TRON" ('82) Machine captures people into the virtual world of a computer game. "Videodrome" ('82) ?
TV
"Mad About You" Episode where Ira tries to get Paul to invest in a computer company. Paul tests a VR machine where he "meets" Christie Brinkly. Intrerestingly, Jamie chooses to interact with Paul. "Overdrawn at the Memory Bank" ('85TV) A computer programmer's brain is transferred to a computer
Jokes/Limmericks
I have a spelling checker, It came with my PC; It plainly marks four my revue Mistakes I cannot sea. I've run this poem threw it, I'm sure your please too no, Its letter perfect in it's weigh, My checker tolled me sew. "Ravin'" by Laverne Ruby
Resources
Charles Babbage Institute Computers in Movies
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