What are the most ridiculous movie scenes involving

Mainly in ‘60s TV, heroes could destroy evil super-computers by either convincing them they were not performing the function they were created for or by giving them a problem in circular reasoning. The computers would start to shake, smoke would roll out of them, and the series characters would have to run for it before the machines exploded.

Capt. James Tiberius Kirk (Star Trek: Original Series, just in tiny chance that there is anyone who doesn’t know) was particularly adept at this. He does it in “A Taste of Armageddon,” “The Ultimate Computer,” “The Changeling.” Maybe others.

The Prisoner, that one season masterpiece of the late ‘60s, regrettably resorts to this stupid trope in Episode Six (of 17) titled “The General.”

Another silly computer trope that showed up a couple of times in the ‘90s – the one I definitely remember is “Patriot Games” (1992) with Harrison Ford – where the good guy is reading a file on a computer monitor. In another room, a bad guy is deleting the file. The good guy sees the text disappearing line-by-line as he is looking at it. Even 25 years ago, people knew that you can’t delete a file that is open and files delete all at once, not line-by-line.

In older films (like from the ‘80s and ‘90s), all computers used the same powerful operating system that accepts plain English commands. Character simply types, for example, OPEN PRIMARY FILE or ACCESS SECURITY SYSTEM and they are taken to the site. The operating system, though, used a gigantic, blocky font, usually bright green, apparently for the benefit of the visually impaired. Often computer were connected to a global network and could access any private file anywhere.

And then there is the ability of computer screens to project their images onto human skin, often the cheek of the actor pretending to use it. In some cases, the audience is able to read the crisply focused words from the computer screen directly off an actor’s face.

In Star Trek films during a crisis, all screens will clear themselves of useful information so large red letters display the words RED ALERT, instead of informing the crew what the problem is and how to solve it.

Whenever an actor is reading text off a computer, he/she will speak the words aloud so we, the audience, can be clued in.

Every teenager is a computer hacker.

(Thanks to the book “Ebert’s Little Movie Glossary” by Roger Ebert. Andrews and McMeel, 1994)

Demon Seed

The Adam West Batman tv show where in the bat cave every piece of equipment had its name printed on a card on top of it, just in case they forgot what it was.

Tidal Wave: No Escape - at the end the heroes hack into the bad guy's computer and reroute two nukes to collide into an undersea "mountain" that they couldn't possibly know the co-ordinates of.

...repeat...Demon Seed, the super computer Proteus impregnates Julie Christie with a peripheral schlong (for lack of a better word) and the result is a half human/half computer child...!!!!!!! LOL !!!!

Some people didn't seem to like this scene with Lex on the computer in Jurassic Park.



Meanwhile, I thought all the drama over Ellie reaching for the gun with her foot could've been avoided if Tim had just handed it to her.

lol. In a now forgotten movie from 1981 called "Rollover" (Jane Fonda and Kris Kristofferson star), a huge corporation attempts to crash the world economy. A Good Guy computer expert breaks into the corporate headquarters. He sits down at a desk and boots a computer. Immediately he gets a request for a password. At a loss for what to do, he searches the desk. Guess what he finds in the bottom drawer? You're right! A notebook with all the passwords in it.

I called the movie "forgotten" but I sure remember this howler.

Then of course there is the troupe of trying to figure out a password or even better the cancellation code for self destruct. The characters have only a couple of minutes to figure out some complicated password that the computer expert just explained that there were 984,632,270,100 possible combinations and they will never be able to solve it in time. Yet they manage to solve it either with only a few seconds to spare or just at 0.01 seconds left. Sometimes there is a "false" solve where they think they solved it but then the backup system cuts in and they realize they forgot a vital digit.

That happened in "The General" episode of The Prisoner.