Technology in the movies can be wonderful. Thinking of Apollo 13‘s brilliant hard science approach, Back to the Future‘s flying cars or the sentient operating systems of Her, Hollywood’s treatment of tech can be sublime.
But such instances are usually the exceptions to the rule. Let’s be honest, normally when we’re sat watching telly or ensconced at the cinema, we’re rolling our eyes when we witness the way Hollywood treats tech.
Here’s the top five worst offenders.
Hacking just involves typing really, really fast
I bet cyber criminals wish hacking was as easy as it is onscreen. Movies are plagued by hackers who appear to break into systems by just typing super quickly. Without stopping. Without making any mistakes. Not one.
Passwords are never that hard to guess
While we’re on the subject of hackers, if they take more than three attempts to guess a password then they’re slacking. And the code word used to secure incredibly sensitive data is always the name of the person’s pet or something.
Laser beam sensors are everywhere
Remember Entrapment? That film ruined break-in scenes forever. Apparently every single jewel in existence is surrounded by red laser beams that sexy black-clad burglars can climb sinuously around.
Photo resolutions increase the more you zoom in
CCTV is awful. Newspapers regularly carry police pleas asking the public to identify what must amount to just six pixels. So why hasn’t Hollywood shared its own technology with them? No matter how much they zoom in on a picture in the movies, the resolution is great. Sometimes it even gets better.
The wonderful Blade Runner is an example of this, but it’s sci-fi (and did we mention wonderful?) so perhaps it can get away with it. That might explain why we also get to see things that aren’t even in the original photo…
Every bomb ALWAYS has an override button
You think terrorists would learn, wouldn’t you? Trying to blow up a thousand people by planting a bomb on top of a building? Probably shouldn’t put a big red override button on it, or, while we’re on the subject, a defuse code the hero types in with only one second to go.
BUT THEY ALWAYS DO.
