Technology on Screen
In honor of the release of “The Circle”, some of the writers at CineNation explore their favorite movies dealing with technology.
This weekend sees the release of The Circle, a techno-thriller that boasts a very talented cast and a eerily topical story of a seemingly innocent tech company pushing the boundaries of privacy invasion. Whether or not you decide to head to the theater this weekend to see Emma Watson take on Tom Hanks’ sinister Silicon Valley Goliath, there are plenty of great films already out that explore technology and the way it relates to our society. Read on to find out what some of the CineNation contributors picked when asked about their favorite technology movies…
Minority Report
By Brandon Sparks
I didn’t plan for this to happen, but I’m getting to talk about Tom Cruise for two straight articles, and I’m fine with that. Minority Report is easily one of Steven Spielberg’s most underrated films. It is not brought up in the conversation usually when talking about the greatness of Spielberg, but it should be. When tackling Philip K. Dick’s short story, Spielberg wanted to make a science-fiction film that featured technology that could actually be possible in the future. He wanted to show a plausible future, not an unreachable one.
Spielberg put together a “think tank” of fifteen scientific researchers, computer scientists, architects, and consultants to help create realistic ideas for futuristic technology. They met for three days in a hotel in Santa Monica to pitch ideas. Since the release of the film, things like retina scanners and multi-touch interfaces are now a reality. There are also a number of technologies that are currently in development that originated in Minority Report. When talking with Roger Ebert before the release of Minority Report in 2003, Spielberg talked about his desire to showcase technology that could actually happen.
I wanted all the toys to come true someday…The Internet is watching us now. If they want to they can see what sites you visit. In the future, television will be watching us, and customizing itself to what it knows about us. The thrilling thing is, that will make us feel we’re part of the medium. The scary thing us, we’ll lose our right to privacy. An ad will appear in the air around us, talking directly to us.
Television will be customizing what it knows about us? Kind of sounds like Netflix, Ben. Spielberg was able craft a phenomenal neo-noir that was set in futuristic world of 2054. It was less of a science-fiction movie and more of a film noir like The Maltese Falcon or Chinatown. The film has a great story and it builds a great world. The pairing of Spielberg and Tom Cruise is also a great one. Spielberg likes working with the same leading actors a lot like Tom Hanks or Harrison Ford, but like this movie, the duo of Cruise and Spielberg might be Spielberg’s most underrated pairings. If you are a Spielberg fan and you haven’t seen this film, then do yourself a favor and go watch. It’s the Spielberg masterpiece that no one brings up when they are arguing about Spielberg’s best.
Apollo 13
By Ben Goertz (He finally wrote something)
I watched Apollo 13 repeatedly as a kid. I think I loved it then, and now, because my granddad worked for NASA and I remember hearing stories about the parts of the Saturn V that he worked on. A few years ago we went to the Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville together and I got an even clearer sense, going back as an adult, of just how many pieces and people were involved putting together those improbable machines (the memory in the Saturn V was HAND WOVEN by seamstresses).
The technology in the film is antiquated and almost laughable compared to the technology we take for granted around us — “there’s more computing power in your smartphone than the Saturn V” — but with all the technology we have today humans don’t have anything that can take us to the moon. The US doesn’t even have a launch vehicle to get to the International Space Station in lower earth orbit (we pay the Russians). To me that makes the technical accomplishments of the Apollo missions unparalleled and the Apollo 13 rescue astonishing, because they solved all the critical failures decades before programmers just could search StackOverflow.
Technology, the human drive to create it and fix it, plays like a lead character in the film. Each technical hurdle is masterfully explained, to a level of detail that helps you understand how complex each problem was at the time and how amazing each solution felt. The fact that the story is true, the people are real, the technical solutions worked, and the mission to bring them back alive succeeded — it’s an amazing testament to what we can achieve.
Inception
By Sean Randall
Spoiler alert: Yes, I have a degree in philosophy. No, I don’t care that I’m a cliche. This movie is, by far, one of my favorite movies of all time. And the greatest thing about the technology at the crux of this film? You completely forget it’s there.
There are lots of excellent movies where technology is the forefront of the plot, the conceit, the conflict. Many of those movies and television series are even in this list. And there are a lot of dumb fun ones I enjoy, like I, Robot. But Inception is simply a great movie which relies fully and completely on this amazing, bizarre technology which allows Dominick Cobb and company to delve level by level into your mind. A technology… that completely disappears from the movie.
To me, this is a fascinating and frightening concept for technology. Like Total Recall, we have a piece of tech that can completely and utterly manipulate our perception of reality. It can be used to steal our deepest secrets. It can be used to force us into ideas and actions that are not truly our own, invisibly manipulating us toward desires and dislikes.
Can anyone say social media?
Inception is the pinnacle of this technology, the ultimate path these apps and internet tools will eventually take, if allowed to go far enough. The fact that they manage to package the tech into a fantastic film, filled with stunning visuals and complicated narrative concepts Christopher Nolan deftly weaves across a tense cinematic journey, gives the movies another layer deeper to consider as we get to the heart of things. And with that famous ending, we are forced to ask ourselves: If given the chance, do we stay in the experience machine? Or is life more than living out a dream?
Gattaca
By Alex Bauer
Without a question, my favorite author of all time is Ray Bradbury. The sci-fi great penned incredible stories and novels that were magical, yet believable. Even reading Bradbury in the 2000s, his world seemed it would arrive sooner than later. I enjoyed that aspect of his stories. They did not go too far into sci-fi craziness.
Gattaca, a 1997 film written and directed by Andrew Niccol, is the closest example of a film feeling like Ray Bradbury story. The setting, the not-too-distant future, and construct of the world fit right into Bradbury’s world. The film tells the tale where science and technology are on steroids. As soon as someone is born, their lifespan — from sickness to occupation — is mapped out. That is done so by incredible medical examinations with a newborn baby. That’s just the beginning.
The crux of the story follows a man (Ethan Hawke) who wants to be an astronaut. His DNA makeup informs him that dream is not feasible. So, he gets around his “faults” and uses another man’s (Jude Law) DNA to mask his own. While training to go into space, a murder investigation at the training facility threatens to unmask his dreams.
The technology in Gattaca always excited me. First the ability to travel into space — where rockets leave, seemingly, every hour — is incredible. Now, it’s a big deal if one goes into space every 3–4 years. But every hour? Space travel is always a huge technological feat, and this population seems to have mastered getting into space. On top of that, the way Hawke’s character is able to hide his own DNA is remarkable. Every aspect is changed for Hawke to become viable for space travel.
Gattaca takes place in a futuristic noir place. The technology is much more advanced than now, but seemingly only by 5–10 years. I love when technology advancements seem plausible. No flying cars; no teleportation. Gattaca is a remarkable film in its honesty of the future.
Her
By Thomas Horton
It’s still kind of difficult to write about Her, even after revisiting it several times since the first time I fell in love with it in the theater, because I come away from it with different lessons every time I see it. But mainly, it’s my favorite film about technology, because it’s the most human film about technology. Despite technically being a futuristic, science fiction film, Spike Jonze makes every choice to keep this film human, from the story to the performances to the visuals.
Some of most striking aspects, even from the very beginning of the film, are the choices Jonze makes in building this world. Unlike most science fiction, this is not a utopia or a dystopia. Her’s vision of future Los Angeles is probably the most realistic prediction of the future any film has offered us. The technology is there, present in everyday life, but nothing is as far advanced as flying cars or the like, and style really hasn’t changed that much. If anything, Theodore and his friends embrace an older, vintage style. Gone are the cold, distant feelings of futuristic films. Everything here feels relatable, from the human characters to the artificial intelligence.
Just as it avoids the polarities of utopias or dystopias, Her avoids any extreme positive or negative judgements on technology. I’ve heard many people come away from Her with many different interpretations of its lesson, but I think the important thing here is that it’s entirely subjective. There are wonderful things about Theodore and Samantha’s relationship, and there are some concerning things about Theodore’s dependence on technology, but in the end you’re left to draw your own conclusions about our relationship with our tech. The greatest human aspect of this film is that it realizes that, just like the people who use it, technology exists in complex shades. That ambiguity makes Her one of the most realistic and pertinent explorations of technology in our time.
