“Welcome my son… welcome, to the Machine…” – Pink Floyd
This week at the Film Guys Online / Chasfilm Productions Office of Cinematic Research, we bow down to our Electronic Overlord, the Computer. Whether it’s PC or Mac, these business machines mean business. Let’s take a look at the
TOP 5 COMPUTERS TO FEAR
5. HAL 9000 (“2001: A Space Odyssey,” “2010”) – Short for Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer, HAL could take you to the deepest depths of outer space and then have you sucked out the airlock. It’s all part of its master plan…
4. Colossus (“Colossus: The Forbin Project”) – I blame Forbin. Here a guy creates a supercomputer and it links to a Russian supercomputer called Guardian. And the supercomputers take over the world. Good job there, Forbie.
3. Master Control Program (“Tron”) – What can a computer bent on world-domination in the real world and sadistic slaughter of programs within the video game realm do if you piss it off? Suck you into the world it controls. Good luck, and don’t crash your Light Cycle into the wall. End of line.
2. Skynet (“Terminator,” “Terminator 2,” “Terminator 3”) – For those who don’t know the mythos, August 29, 1997 a computer called Skynet “woke up” and nuked civilization. What people were left went underground and the machines began taking over, finally creating a Terminator to destroy mankind and take out the leader, John Connor.
1. The Matrix (“The Matrix,” “Matrix Reloaded,” “Matrix Revolutions”) The most evil computer of all has already enslaved mankind, turning humans into “batteries” to continually power it. Neo, the One, is wakened from the world he was plugged into and must find a way for humanity to strike back.
In Colossus: the Forbin Project, it was Colossus itself, not Dr.Forbin who discovered the corresponding Soviet system, Guardian. He was as much surprised as anyone else. The flaw, of course, was no external “off” switch that Colossus couldn’t override. A fable of total faith in technology. Like those people in 1912 who thought they were going (and indeed they were) in resplendent style on the R.M.S. Titanic.
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