Movies for dorks, geeks and the like.
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SETEC_Astronomy
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Movies for dorks, geeks and the like.
I love to watch movies and also to see how things work and are built. I have seen everything I know about that is related to electronics, gadgets, hi-tech, hacking, phreaking, etc.... Can anyone suggest movies that fit in these categories? I can't think of another way to find them. You can't pick them by the title and beyond that what else is there, it's word of mouth or seeing an ad. I'm looking for movies like sneakers, Bond, entrapment, hackers, wargames, etc.... This may be an odd request but I figured you guys would know some movies that most electronics type people enjoy. Engineer ####3 as some refer to it. I am more interested in non fiction like Robot Wars and documentaries on people building robots, electronics, CNC machines in action that sort of thing. Sites with downloadable video is great too (Not stolen or illegal but maybe home video of people building and testing something). Modern marvels is a good example, it's just to bad I don't have cable. Thanks for any videos you guys can come up with.
Hmmm. Movies for dorks and geeks. Being the latter I can provide movies I like:
The ultimate geek series is of course Star Trek. I like TOS. Picard is okay. Get rid of Sisco, Janeway, Archer, and any of their ilk.
Matrix (Just the first one. They lost it in the follow ups.)
Weird Science. What teenage dork/geek boy could resist building their own woman in their bedroom? Kelly LaBrock clones would sell.
Forbidden Planet. The first real robot. This is the robot C-3PO and R2-D2 strive to be.
Of course the Star Wars movies. The original versions of the A New Hope (HAN FIRED FIRST), The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. You can also let in Revenge of the SITH. The other two had Jar Jar and other nasty junk that detracted from them.
Terminator movies. Okay, just the first and second.
Alien, Aliens. The other two are junk.
The Arrival (I think this is the name of it.) Charley Sheen plays a radio astronometer that gets fired when he discovers intellegent signals from space. After being fired he becomes a satellite repairman for home dishes and hooks up all of the backyard dishes to track the signals since he no longer has access to the big dishes. (Yes, this works perfectly. No problems from the customers moving either dishes to communications satellites and swaping the alien signal. And sure, the aliens are going to use the same frequency our C-Band satellites downlink on.)
Pitch Black A planet made up of only predators. The predators feed on whatever is alive on the planet. After eating all of that life they feed on each other. Sort of like a factory that runs on batteries it builds. It then uses the batteries it builds to run the equipment and charge up the new batteries it is building. Free energy. Okay, I'll stop. Watch the movie for the movie and ignore science and it becomes a very good movie.
Chronicles of Riddick Follow up (part two) to the above movie. Completely different but with the same characters.
Waterworld (real science here)
The Day After Tomorrow (again, real science)
The Absent Minded Professor Flubber, not rubber, bounces with more energy than is put into it. Again, real science here.
Frequency (Time Travel via ham radio. Son talks to his dead dad and tries to save his life. Communication is done over the dad's ham radio that links the two across time. )
Contact Similar story line. Woman who was taught ham radio by her dad grows up without him. Learning radio as a girl, she makes it her career. She then works for SETI type group and discovers an alien signal. Aliens send her plans on how to build a space/time machine. She goes on a trip. SPOILER: The alien she visits is her dead dad.
Pump Up the Volume (high school kid forced to move with his parents gets a ham radio to talk to his old friends. Not able to be with them he turns it into a pirate radio station to transmit to the kids at his new school.)
Airport '77 Plane crashes in Bermuda Triangle. Passengers survive but are trapped under water and must be rescued. Yes, this would really happen.
Airport 1975 Jet plane and small plane collide killing the pilots on the jet. Flight attendant must fly plane until another pilot can be transfered to the jet to land it. (The likelyhood that a fully loaded jet does not have at least ONE military or private pilot on board seems kind of low.)
(Speaking of Airport movies, can someone help me remember one of these? There was an airport/airplane movie where the plane got "stuck" while flying because of witches. No, I am not making this up. Anyway the plane is stuck not going anywhere and running out of fuel. The passengers must then perform some sort of ritual to rid the plane of the witches before they can get free and land. This, I believe, was some strange CBS movie. I have not seen it in many years (30?) but would like to know what the movie was.
OHMS Evil electric company wants to string power lines across farm land. Farmer objects because of the dangerous electric fields. Gets friends and activists to rally against electric company. (This would be one of the few times I would be for eminent domain to take ALL of this farmer's lands; just because he is an idiot.) Idiots near me fought a gas line crossing the state. Said it would destroy the landscape. BS, all of it. You can see ONE gas substation from this entire project now as the land is farm land and is back to its natural state. Lest you think I am for this progress because it does not happen to me, I have a gas line like this at the northern end of my yard. Causes me zero concern. I also have power lines along the same road. Only concern is during ice fog as it wipes out AM radio. Anyhow one scene shows a woman holding up fluorescent tubes under power lines and how they light up. I lit these same tubes using CB radio; which brings up another movie.
Citizens Band You will probably never see this one. It is about CB radio and one REACT vigilante that tries to clean up the airwaves. Set in 1977 the doom of CB radio was already in hand.
SALVAGE Andy Griffith plays a salvage guy that buys old airplanes and parts them out and other goofy things. Then he gets this idea to get an ex astronaut with an idea of using "slow" acceleration to get a rocket to the moon. A woman explosive expert for movie special effects develops such a unique fuel. The trio then builds a rocket out of a cement mixer to go to the moon and salvage the stuff left behind by the Apollo missions. I like the unique hacking sub plot that seems to get ignored. They hack into NASA's computers via dial up phone system to get the navigation computer info. Apparently this is sometime available on eBay.
Dark Star Space movie where guys go around blowing up unusable planets with SMART BOMBS. One bomb becomes too smart.
Bladerunner (I still need the LaserDisc version)
War Games
Tron
Fifth Element (Strangely, I really like this one a lot)
Total Recall (If you have watched this and don't know what the real answer to the question is was it an implanted "fantasy" or if it "really" happened, PM me and I will tell you the scene that lets you know the answer.)
Back to The Future Trilogy
The Last Star Fighter
Silent Running Keepers of the last plants (mostly trees) are on a space station and must keep the trees alive. All trees on earth are gone.
V (Vistors from another planet come down to earth asking for help. But in reality they are more like the aliens from the short story "TO SERVE MAN".)
Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzi
They Live Construction worker discovers a pair of alien sunglasses. These glasses allow him to see the the aliens that have invaded earth and have planted subliminal messages everywhere in an attempt to take over the earth.
Starship Troopers (The only obvious missing scene would have invovled Denise Richards. Don't see the second one. You have been warned.)
War of the Worlds Both the original and the Tom Cruise version. The lastest one is "Eye Candy". I love the alien call sound from this. So much so I had to figure out how they made it and made my own sound effect for my computer. Sounds real good from a 100 watt stereo with lots of bass.
Failsafe
The Day of the Triffeds ('60s version)
Enemy Mine
Plan Nine From Outer Space (This has got to be one of the worst movies every made. The only movie I have seen that I thought was worse is Gods and Generals.)
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. The board room scene is one of the funniest things I've seen.
Andromeda Strain
Space Balls
The Day The Earth Stood Still
Flash Gordon (Music by Queen)
Darkman
There is another movie I would like to add but cannot think of its name. Please help me with it. It might be DARKMAN but cannot be sure but don't think it is. The movie involves a "Superhero" that goes around fighting these bad guys. The bad guys turn out to be Chinese with mystic powers. They (the Chinese bad guys) manage to hide an entire highrise hotel from everybody so that it looks like a vacant lot. This is where their hold out was located. I don't think this was Big Trouble in Little China either. I have not seen this in some years but only because I cannot recall the name.
\m/_ _\m/
The ultimate geek series is of course Star Trek. I like TOS. Picard is okay. Get rid of Sisco, Janeway, Archer, and any of their ilk.
Matrix (Just the first one. They lost it in the follow ups.)
Weird Science. What teenage dork/geek boy could resist building their own woman in their bedroom? Kelly LaBrock clones would sell.
Forbidden Planet. The first real robot. This is the robot C-3PO and R2-D2 strive to be.
Of course the Star Wars movies. The original versions of the A New Hope (HAN FIRED FIRST), The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. You can also let in Revenge of the SITH. The other two had Jar Jar and other nasty junk that detracted from them.
Terminator movies. Okay, just the first and second.
Alien, Aliens. The other two are junk.
The Arrival (I think this is the name of it.) Charley Sheen plays a radio astronometer that gets fired when he discovers intellegent signals from space. After being fired he becomes a satellite repairman for home dishes and hooks up all of the backyard dishes to track the signals since he no longer has access to the big dishes. (Yes, this works perfectly. No problems from the customers moving either dishes to communications satellites and swaping the alien signal. And sure, the aliens are going to use the same frequency our C-Band satellites downlink on.)
Pitch Black A planet made up of only predators. The predators feed on whatever is alive on the planet. After eating all of that life they feed on each other. Sort of like a factory that runs on batteries it builds. It then uses the batteries it builds to run the equipment and charge up the new batteries it is building. Free energy. Okay, I'll stop. Watch the movie for the movie and ignore science and it becomes a very good movie.
Chronicles of Riddick Follow up (part two) to the above movie. Completely different but with the same characters.
Waterworld (real science here)
The Day After Tomorrow (again, real science)
The Absent Minded Professor Flubber, not rubber, bounces with more energy than is put into it. Again, real science here.
Frequency (Time Travel via ham radio. Son talks to his dead dad and tries to save his life. Communication is done over the dad's ham radio that links the two across time. )
Contact Similar story line. Woman who was taught ham radio by her dad grows up without him. Learning radio as a girl, she makes it her career. She then works for SETI type group and discovers an alien signal. Aliens send her plans on how to build a space/time machine. She goes on a trip. SPOILER: The alien she visits is her dead dad.
Pump Up the Volume (high school kid forced to move with his parents gets a ham radio to talk to his old friends. Not able to be with them he turns it into a pirate radio station to transmit to the kids at his new school.)
Airport '77 Plane crashes in Bermuda Triangle. Passengers survive but are trapped under water and must be rescued. Yes, this would really happen.
Airport 1975 Jet plane and small plane collide killing the pilots on the jet. Flight attendant must fly plane until another pilot can be transfered to the jet to land it. (The likelyhood that a fully loaded jet does not have at least ONE military or private pilot on board seems kind of low.)
(Speaking of Airport movies, can someone help me remember one of these? There was an airport/airplane movie where the plane got "stuck" while flying because of witches. No, I am not making this up. Anyway the plane is stuck not going anywhere and running out of fuel. The passengers must then perform some sort of ritual to rid the plane of the witches before they can get free and land. This, I believe, was some strange CBS movie. I have not seen it in many years (30?) but would like to know what the movie was.
OHMS Evil electric company wants to string power lines across farm land. Farmer objects because of the dangerous electric fields. Gets friends and activists to rally against electric company. (This would be one of the few times I would be for eminent domain to take ALL of this farmer's lands; just because he is an idiot.) Idiots near me fought a gas line crossing the state. Said it would destroy the landscape. BS, all of it. You can see ONE gas substation from this entire project now as the land is farm land and is back to its natural state. Lest you think I am for this progress because it does not happen to me, I have a gas line like this at the northern end of my yard. Causes me zero concern. I also have power lines along the same road. Only concern is during ice fog as it wipes out AM radio. Anyhow one scene shows a woman holding up fluorescent tubes under power lines and how they light up. I lit these same tubes using CB radio; which brings up another movie.
Citizens Band You will probably never see this one. It is about CB radio and one REACT vigilante that tries to clean up the airwaves. Set in 1977 the doom of CB radio was already in hand.
SALVAGE Andy Griffith plays a salvage guy that buys old airplanes and parts them out and other goofy things. Then he gets this idea to get an ex astronaut with an idea of using "slow" acceleration to get a rocket to the moon. A woman explosive expert for movie special effects develops such a unique fuel. The trio then builds a rocket out of a cement mixer to go to the moon and salvage the stuff left behind by the Apollo missions. I like the unique hacking sub plot that seems to get ignored. They hack into NASA's computers via dial up phone system to get the navigation computer info. Apparently this is sometime available on eBay.
Dark Star Space movie where guys go around blowing up unusable planets with SMART BOMBS. One bomb becomes too smart.
Bladerunner (I still need the LaserDisc version)
War Games
Tron
Fifth Element (Strangely, I really like this one a lot)
Total Recall (If you have watched this and don't know what the real answer to the question is was it an implanted "fantasy" or if it "really" happened, PM me and I will tell you the scene that lets you know the answer.)
Back to The Future Trilogy
The Last Star Fighter
Silent Running Keepers of the last plants (mostly trees) are on a space station and must keep the trees alive. All trees on earth are gone.
V (Vistors from another planet come down to earth asking for help. But in reality they are more like the aliens from the short story "TO SERVE MAN".)
Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzi
They Live Construction worker discovers a pair of alien sunglasses. These glasses allow him to see the the aliens that have invaded earth and have planted subliminal messages everywhere in an attempt to take over the earth.
Starship Troopers (The only obvious missing scene would have invovled Denise Richards. Don't see the second one. You have been warned.)
War of the Worlds Both the original and the Tom Cruise version. The lastest one is "Eye Candy". I love the alien call sound from this. So much so I had to figure out how they made it and made my own sound effect for my computer. Sounds real good from a 100 watt stereo with lots of bass.
Failsafe
The Day of the Triffeds ('60s version)
Enemy Mine
Plan Nine From Outer Space (This has got to be one of the worst movies every made. The only movie I have seen that I thought was worse is Gods and Generals.)
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. The board room scene is one of the funniest things I've seen.
Andromeda Strain
Space Balls
The Day The Earth Stood Still
Flash Gordon (Music by Queen)
Darkman
There is another movie I would like to add but cannot think of its name. Please help me with it. It might be DARKMAN but cannot be sure but don't think it is. The movie involves a "Superhero" that goes around fighting these bad guys. The bad guys turn out to be Chinese with mystic powers. They (the Chinese bad guys) manage to hide an entire highrise hotel from everybody so that it looks like a vacant lot. This is where their hold out was located. I don't think this was Big Trouble in Little China either. I have not seen this in some years but only because I cannot recall the name.
\m/_ _\m/
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Dave Dixon
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Just a small list...
1. Dune
2. Blade Runner
3. Star Wars
4. Fifth Element
5. Event Horizon
6. Minority Report
7. The Island
8. The Matrix
9. THX 1138
10. Short Circuit
11. RoboCop
12. Johnny Mnemonic
13. Cherry 2000
14. D.A.R.R.Y.L.
15. Robot Jox.
http://www.limewire.com
2. Blade Runner
3. Star Wars
4. Fifth Element
5. Event Horizon
6. Minority Report
7. The Island
8. The Matrix
9. THX 1138
10. Short Circuit
11. RoboCop
12. Johnny Mnemonic
13. Cherry 2000
14. D.A.R.R.Y.L.
15. Robot Jox.
http://www.bittorrent.com/Sites with downloadable video is great too (Not stolen or illegal but maybe home video of people building and testing something). Modern marvels is a good example, it's just to bad I don't have cable. Thanks for any videos you guys can come up with.
http://www.limewire.com
Re: Movies for dorks, geeks and the like.
Your name made me think of the phrase, "No more secrets."SETEC_Astronomy wrote:I love to watch movies...
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SETEC_Astronomy
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