The movie industry is full of security technology. From laser webs to grenade pens, technology in movies can stray from the realistic to the downright silly.
We want you to tell us which depictions of security technology have annoyed you the most over the years. You know what we mean, those moments when you sit up in the cinema and want to shout “Are you kidding me? That would never happen!”
Submit your ideas in the comments form below. To get you started, we’ve picked a scene from the latest Mission Impossible movie, Ghost Protocol, where Tom Cruise’s character collects his latest mission instructions using a Soviet-era retina scanner. Here’s the original scene:
We have imagined what would have happened in the real world if this was how Cruise received his missions:
Submit your ideas of your most annoying security myths in films, and the five best suggestions will each receive a t-shirt. Our illustrator, James Nash, will also create an exclusive illustration of the best suggestion, so get commenting now!
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At the end of this recent Matt Damon stinker they depict a robot using a touchscreen to log into a medical centre console. Really? A computer phsysically touching another computer to log in to it? Aren’t they wirelessly communicating through the same server?
I was very much annoyed when Artificially intelligent computer system Called S.E.T.H took control of everything and specially when it distroys the person who was about to shut it down. That really made me saying : Are you kidding me ?
Those movies/TV shows which show someone trying to steal a priceless object or masterpiece – the would-be thieves manage to successfully pass a number of security obstacles when they are faced with the ultimate challenge of a web of lazer beams. Suddenly would-be theft turns into master ninja/catwoman and is able to slice, dice, acrobatically somersault, twist, cartwheel their way successfully to the object of their desire without setting off the systems.
Right, as if!
There’s a bit in Entrapment where they do that, but they do at least practice… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxVP5PFI9b8 is that what you’re thinking of? Sure there’s plenty others!
I’ve not seen it, but looking at the trailer, there’s a Terminator sort of vibe going on there, when the computers that run the system become ‘self-aware’
Yep, that’s one, but you’re right – the same example comes up time and time again.
What about the Tom Cruise one (same movie, or is he a recurring theme?) where he drops like a spider to said priceless object, only for a drop of sweat to set off the entire security system?
#annoying
Or, what about the movie with the dinosaurs, where the girl hacks the security system to lock the doors – errrm … they just broke through the glass in the end anyway!
Vanished at the phone booth , plugged in at the back of the Neck , Touching at become the other person , more of Super Hero kind of stuff. Are you kidding me ?
More funny was that when Arnold passed the Security thumb scan with the help of a dead woman’s dead thumb which he kept in his pocket. Can a dead thumb be same useful as a lively one to pass a security thumb scan ?
The Mission Impossible films are pretty much the gift that keeps on giving with this feature!
mm, that’s an interesting one, actually. I wonder if you kept it warm it might be OK?
@Robert Brown. Yes its a bit like that. But in Universal soldier the Computer becomes a robot when it made a chip (Which contains every details of the system) of itself and planted it inside a Semi human body (Robot). and then fights with the hero as it is a martial arts expert
Jurassic Park, right? Yes, they had an electronic lock system or something that obviously wasn’t very reliably backed up…
Swordfish, Hugh Jackman cracks a Federal Database in 60 seconds with nothing but a laptop and a long island iced tea. Well honestly I dont know what he was drinking but even he couldnt explain how he did it to John Travolta so there was no way I was going to buy it…
@Lara
Here you go, on your Jurassic Park idea
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQrRg3LtjXY
its really funny the apparently rapidly evolving dinosaurs hack back…
While getting close to a lady and with a gun to his head, if I remember rightly. Yes, lots of hacker films out there guilty of some massiv faux pas. I suppose if they spent five minutes talking about how he cracked the code the casual audience would switch off to say the least.
(LOLZ!) evolved enough to speak the unevolved language of txtspk! That was great. Wish we could find a counter video like that for every example on this post!
I get annoyed with the ease that people break into safes by fiddling with the lock – it can take anything from a few hours to a few days depending on the grade and involves the use of scopes and drills etc. Grrrr.
Hah, great suggestion, hadn’t thought of that! Frontrunner suggestion so far!
I’ve always enjoyed how the good guys can remote into a ‘closed circuit’ television system, zoom optically and digitally, and if the quality is still not good enough, they can wave a wand, and in a matter of seconds, the image is enhanced enough to read a text message on the suspects phone!
Impressive tech, right? Where do I sign! Seriously though, it’s bad because it builds unrealistic expectations in the customer: first of all they think their system is less secure than it is, and second they think their system is rubbish because it can’t do the same digital enhancement!
interesting observation Rob, I think you are right… as this days everyone expect latest and greatest… but things not always works as it planed…
The movie “Enemy of the State” is full of CCTV and pretty much has every cliche imaginable.l My favorite is the way they can magically see inside a shopping bag by digitally manipulating the image.
As an aside, though, there are a number of things that happened in that movie that came true. The “evil” spying legislation John Voight is trying to get passed is uabashedly called “The Patriot Act” in the US. NSA headlines today seem to be pulled from this movie, and the bad guy’s birthday is 9/11.
Allthough I understand security through technology, what I dont understand is I dont need any……… retinal scanners, x-ray cameras, laser readers, bar scanners, optical DNA readers, survaillance tracers, ESP brain interceptors, midgit CCTV airborne parasites and a wife that peers contantly over the fence listening to my neighbours conversations and giving me half hearted info………why? you ask yourself……………………Im SUPERMAN!
I’m glad you’ve confirmed my suspicion that this film is full of dubious security footage.
you’re also spot on that on the flip side much of it views more like a drama documentary given recent events.
Yes the Bag thing was totally hilarious. How they checked that something is dropped in the bag. No one can be assumed of the technology they showed. Why these points do not came in the director’s mind and why most of the movies show unrealistic things ?
Dont understand how it becomes possible to play a game with live characters. Live human beings being played like game characters and those characters dont know most of the times that they being played by some one else.
Yes, but still a hugely entertaining movie. It did promote a healthy skepticism of overly ambitious surveillance and, in that regard, was well ahead of it’s time. Looking too closely reminds me of the “singing dog” parable, where everone complains that the dog is singing off key while no one remarks on the miracle of a singing dog.
People still worry about that, though. There were a bunch of headlines and postings about the danger of people losing fingers when the iPhone 5S came out, as the “bad guy” tries to circumvent security.
How about movies (I can’t remember which ones, although James Bond and Mission Impossible come to mind) where they use the oils from the thumbprint, some pixie dust, and cellophane tape to circumvent the fingerprint reader?
It was totally crazy how a simple man turned into a genius through the application of Computer Science.
Hah, nice parable. It’s easy to forget about the exciting possibilities of the security tech we do have.
Nice, because he has all those skills, right?
And we shouldn’t forget that many of these “gee-whiz” features may yet become reality. Go back 30 years and there weren’t auto focus cameras or variable speed PTZ cameras. 20 years ago they were still selling black & white cameras and day/night cameras were just an experiment. 10 years ago, megapixel cameras were rare and responded extremely poorly to varying lighting conditions. It’s a long list, but 30 years isn’t really that long. Imagine what we’ll have 30 years from now…
@ Robert.. Yes you are right that we have what the people before us dont have and we dont know what we will have after 30 years from now on. But still most of the things they show in movies looks very unrealistic and hard to imagine as a reality in near future.
Agreed, but some of these things do come true. The “communicator” on Strar Trek (the origonal one) was unimaginable in 1966 when first shown. Almost exactly 30 years lator, Motorola released the StarTAC “flip phone” which pretty much replicated the communicator. Similarly, the 3.5″ floppy disk was shown but not actually invented in the early 1980’s. And there’s promising work being done on a medical scanner similar to the “tricorder”. Yes, we won’t get everything, but techology will continue to amaze us and sometimes Hollywood is inspirational to inventors.
@Robert Spurr I agree with you. I am confused about who follows whom. I think like “back to the future ” flick, now 30 years down the line we are actually seeing those kind of cars actually being built which can move on roads as well as fly in the air but on the other hand in case of “Avtar” the director and producer actually waited on the film to be created once they have the technology to show what they actually wanted to communicate. So it does not matter who is following whom till the time we have good… Read more »
There was Bladerunner and their AMAZING CCTV, able to zoom in so much to pick out a snakeskin scale (I think). This reminds me of when I had SOCO in after a break in at work, she got out a crappy little case with a few brushes and powders, I said “well, thats not very CSI”. “CSI- CSI, dont mention bloody CSI to me!” she said. She then told me she went to an old woman’s house and said that she couldn’t take prints off something, the old woman, told her that she could, that Grissom did it the other day and… Read more »
This is good point. We love to see this imagined tech and try to invent it into reality. After all, imagination is limitless, technology… isn’t. With a war-like hat on for a moment, the big one always seems to remain ‘star wars’ style lasers and lightsabers. Though why anyone would want a light-based sword I’ve no idea… at least a communicator is useful!
Brilliant! Yes, CSI is the big one I think the police get sick of. And in Bladerunner, Harrison Ford’s character was able to manipulate the image to the point of changing the perspective and therefore what he could see. Was wonderfully ridiculous
I have never seen anything surpassing what I saw in “The Bourne” series of Matt Damon. I mean I asked myself, “What? Again?”. I couldn’t count how many times CIA officials tracked down Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) by monitoring CCTV cameras all around the world. I mean seriously? Is it possible to take control of all CCTV cameras just about anywhere in the world? Even if it were possible, is it really possible to monitor countless number CCTV cameras in European and North American cities and find a guy time and again?
As many of you have mentioned some tech-thieves, I am forced to remember Mr. Ocean and his eleven twelve and thirteen fellows in “Ocean’s” series of George Clooney. It was really amusing to see those bunch of guys stupefying the most sophisticated security systems in a casino or elsewhere (I doubt if such systems really existed). While I enjoyed Ocean’s Thirteen, it was really outrageous to see some seriously non-serious guys breaking into sophisticated security systems and even intercepting communication from FBI and editing pictures of suspects within a couple of minutes.