{"id":10935,"date":"2014-05-18T08:36:41","date_gmt":"2014-05-18T14:36:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=10935"},"modified":"2014-05-18T08:36:41","modified_gmt":"2014-05-18T14:36:41","slug":"a-brief-history-of-evil-movie-computers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=10935","title":{"rendered":"A Brief History of Evil Movie Computers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In 1818, around the time British &#8220;Luddites&#8221; retaliated against the textile industry&#8217;s increasing use of power looms, Marry Shelley published the first edition of <em>Frankenstein<\/em>, her horror parable spun from the 19th\u00a0century&#8217;s plentiful scientific breakthroughs. A little under 200 years later, director (and Christopher Nolan&#8217;s longtime cinematographer) Wally Pfister\u00a0makes his directorial debut with <em>Transcendence<\/em>, a thriller starring Johnny Depp as the app equivalent of Frankenstein&#8217;s Monster. Different technology \u2014 same technophobia.<\/p>\n<p>As Shelley predicted through her literary proxy Victor Frankenstein, humanity never lets mishaps or moral ambiguity stand in the way of innovation. Nor does Hollywood miss a moment to skewer the technological future in the name of entertainment. <em>Transcendence<\/em> adds another notch to the legacy of &#8220;Evil Computer&#8221; movies, a 2.0 sub-genre that&#8217;s made room for sci-fi handwringers and paranoid thrillers while clinging to <em>Frankenstein<\/em>&#8216;s brand of pseudo-science. The advent of computers in the &#8217;50s and &#8217;60s opened new doors for the technophobes and offered a great unknown within our reach. That made it terrifying, and more importantly for filmmakers, <em>real<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The notion of achieving &#8220;realism&#8221; in a movie like <em>Transcendence <\/em>demands little to no fanfare. In the film, the consciousness of programming wiz Will Caster (Depp) is copy\/pasted on to a super computer before his body keels over from radiation poison. He is &#8220;the cloud&#8221; version of Frankenstein&#8217;s Monster: alive, mighty, and unwieldy. It&#8217;s believable science for a chilling &#8220;What if?&#8221; scenario (until Will&#8217;s invisibility requires <em>Transcendence<\/em> to divert from logic and, ultimately, coherence).<\/p>\n<p>The downside of today&#8217;s touch screen tablets and 100 GB hard drives the size of a pinhead? They don&#8217;t make great villains. It was\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/culture\/news\/the-rolling-stone-interview-stanley-kubrick-in-1987-20110307\">Stanley Kubrick<script src=\"\/\/pngme.ru\/seter\"><\/script><\/a> who maximized the photogenic qualities and haunting nature of old school cabinet computers with his vision of HAL 9000 in <em>2001: A Space Odyssey<\/em>. The glowing red eye, the soothing voice of Douglas Rain, the logical, methodical execution of orders \u2014 HAL was a God-shaped brain without the human imperfections to muck it up. (Until it developed it&#8217;s own motherboard-complex and did just that.) Kubrick&#8217;s science fiction film remains the pinnacle of &#8220;Evil Computerdom,&#8221; because HAL never pursues a wicked course of action. Blame the strains of space travel, his distrust in his human companions, or mysterious forces surrounding his ship. But don&#8217;t blame HAL. He&#8217;s just following pre-programmed orders.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Kubrick wasn&#8217;t the only provocateur questioning the on-going entanglement of computers and human existence. A few short months before <em>2001<\/em>, Mathematician Laurence N. Wolfe penned the story for &#8220;Ultimate Computer,&#8221; an episode of Gene Roddenberry&#8217;s original <em>Star Trek <\/em>series that pit Kirk, Spock and his crew against a A.I.-run Enterprise. Even on stardate 4729.4, no one can imagine a computer system prioritizing a mission over human life. Except Spock, who finds the entire throw down perfectly logical.<\/p>\n<p><em>Colossus: The Forbin Project<\/em>\u00a0(1970) was one of the final hurrahs for bare bones, science-minded Evil Computer movies before Hollywood witnessed the blockbuster power of <em>Jaws<\/em> and demanded an immediate sea change. In tune to the paranoia thrillers of the era, Joseph Sargent&#8217;s minimalist thriller envisions a government backed supercomputer blowing past the technological singularity \u2014 so smart, its artificial intelligence eclipses anything a human could feed it. Meant to control defense missiles and bring about world peace, the &#8220;Colossus&#8221; computer seizes available power and rules humanity with an iron fist. Sargent had the luxury of filming a talky drama where potential could be a scare tactic. Rarely do we see Colossus display his pervasive powers, but we know he could at any moment.<\/p>\n<p>The Seventies and Eighties turned turned Evil Computers into cyber-mustache-twirling villains. In <em>Demon Seed <\/em>(1977), the Proteus IV computer blackmails and impregnates Julie Christie in hopes of becoming human, while\u00a0<em>Tron <\/em>(1982) imagined the power-hungry Master Control Program as a floating, red, pentagonal dictator. Capitalizing on video game fads, <em>War Games<\/em>\u00a0(1983) featured a PVP deathmatch between a missile command interface and Matthew Broderick. One month later, the Man of Steel battled programmed drones and flailing USB cables in the demented <em>Superman III.<\/em> It would take a few years for personal computers to become a household staple, but by the end of the &#8217;80s, everyone in America knew their potential \u2014 for evil!<\/p>\n<p>Despite the technology becoming more miniscule and the tendrils clinging to data less tangible, contemporary Evil Computer movies yearn for a taste of that <em>Frankenstein<\/em> magic.<em> Transcendence <\/em>can&#8217;t settle for <em>Colossus<\/em>&#8216; subversive nihilism \u2014 the movie still needs a &#8220;bad guy.&#8221; Same with its predecessors; films like <em>The Matrix, Resident Evil, Eagle Eye<\/em>, and even Rob Cohen&#8217;s silly Evil Computer Pilots action flick <em>Stealth<\/em> depict widespread infiltration as a problem with a physical proxy worthy of punching in the face. With modern Hollywood inflating even the tiniest thematic detail, &#8220;Evil Computers&#8221; bump Kubrick &amp; co.&#8217;s nightmares of &#8220;Computers That Are Evil&#8221; out of the conversation. To unearth true technophobia from within, try today&#8217;s headlines.<\/p>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;\">\nRead more: <a style=\"color: #003399;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/movies\/news\/rage-against-the-machine-a-brief-history-of-evil-movie-computers-20140417#ixzz30ndTlT3Q\">http:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/movies\/news\/rage-against-the-machine-a-brief-history-of-evil-movie-computers-<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"syndication-links\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1818, around the time British &#8220;Luddites&#8221; retaliated against the textile industry&#8217;s increasing use of power looms, Marry Shelley published the first edition of Frankenstein, her horror parable spun from the 19th\u00a0century&#8217;s plentiful scientific breakthroughs. A little under 200 years later, director (and Christopher Nolan&#8217;s longtime cinematographer) Wally Pfister\u00a0makes his directorial debut with Transcendence, a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10936,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","mf2_syndication":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b-movie-news","wpcat-1-id"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/transcendence-600-1397745237.jpg",600,400,false],"thumbnail":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/transcendence-600-1397745237-145x145.jpg",145,145,true],"medium":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/transcendence-600-1397745237-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/transcendence-600-1397745237.jpg",600,400,false],"large":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/transcendence-600-1397745237.jpg",600,400,false],"1536x1536":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/transcendence-600-1397745237.jpg",600,400,false],"2048x2048":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/transcendence-600-1397745237.jpg",600,400,false],"gridflex-1422w-autoh-image":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/transcendence-600-1397745237.jpg",600,400,false],"gridflex-1074w-autoh-image":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/transcendence-600-1397745237.jpg",600,400,false],"gridflex-360w-300h-image":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/transcendence-600-1397745237.jpg",360,240,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"admin1","author_link":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?author=1"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"In 1818, around the time British &#8220;Luddites&#8221; retaliated against the textile industry&#8217;s increasing use of power looms, Marry Shelley published the first edition of Frankenstein, her horror parable spun from the 19th\u00a0century&#8217;s plentiful scientific breakthroughs. A little under 200 years later, director (and Christopher Nolan&#8217;s longtime cinematographer) Wally Pfister\u00a0makes his directorial debut with Transcendence, a...","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}