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