Favorite depictions of internet/internet use in movies and TV?
October 17, 2017 6:16 PM Subscribe
What are your favorite depictions of the internet/internet use in movies and TV?
I'm interested in all of it – literal or expressionistic use, neat/unique visual portrayal, the internet serving as a plot point of significance or symbolic character of the movie/show – really anything that comes to mind at all.
I’d particularly like to see representations of modern day usage (phones, social media, etc) although I'd love to see more things like Hackers or You've Got Mail, too.
Thank you!
I'm interested in all of it – literal or expressionistic use, neat/unique visual portrayal, the internet serving as a plot point of significance or symbolic character of the movie/show – really anything that comes to mind at all.
I’d particularly like to see representations of modern day usage (phones, social media, etc) although I'd love to see more things like Hackers or You've Got Mail, too.
Thank you!
The first episode of Black Mirror, The National Anthem, features all sorts of online communication. The premise is... Unusual.
posted by the duck by the oboe at 6:47 PM on October 17, 2017
posted by the duck by the oboe at 6:47 PM on October 17, 2017
If you're willing to go a bit back into history and abroad, "All About Lily Chou Chou," a 2001 Japanese film, counts -- the characters' real-world actions and their anonymous forum posts are present in parallel. (Trigger warning: jr. high students being horrible to eachother, including some fairly explicitly implied adult themes).
posted by Alterscape at 6:59 PM on October 17, 2017
posted by Alterscape at 6:59 PM on October 17, 2017
Two that do it well IMO (although they're kinda dated now) are Me and You and Everything We Do for when a very young char interacts with another in a chat room; and the Japanese "Densha Otaku" Train Man where the protagonist has a set of online buddies who pop up around him in little web-cam windows when they're in discussion.
posted by Rash at 7:19 PM on October 17, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Rash at 7:19 PM on October 17, 2017 [1 favorite]
Hello, My Name Is Doris gets a lot of mileage out of how characters of very different ages use Facebook (or maybe it was just a Facebook-like site — the font is wrong for Facebook).
posted by John Cohen at 7:23 PM on October 17, 2017
posted by John Cohen at 7:23 PM on October 17, 2017
Tsuki ga Kirei (As the Moon, So Beautiful) depicts texting really well. It's an anime about middle schoolers falling in love, in a very sweet, realistic, way—makes me nostalgic for my teenage days!
Text messaging is shown to be a natural part of two teenagers getting to know each other, becoming more intimate, and saying things they couldn't say in person yet, etc.—just it certainly is in real life. Usually I find texting in books/movies too precious or unrealistic, but this was surprisingly well done.
posted by fire, water, earth, air at 7:52 PM on October 17, 2017
Text messaging is shown to be a natural part of two teenagers getting to know each other, becoming more intimate, and saying things they couldn't say in person yet, etc.—just it certainly is in real life. Usually I find texting in books/movies too precious or unrealistic, but this was surprisingly well done.
posted by fire, water, earth, air at 7:52 PM on October 17, 2017
I was going to mention The Net, but in a less derogatory way. If you read the visuals as a metaphor for the visually dull process of actually breaking into networks it's not that bad. Taken literally it is a terrible film, though.
Mr. Robot has a lot of internetty stuff, and hews somewhat closer to reality in that respect.
There were several 80s films that involve hacking of various sorts, including (notionally, not named) ARPAnet and/or the early Internet. And then there's You've Got Mail (and several similar films since), which may as well be Internet email despite being partly an AOL ad.
posted by wierdo at 9:12 PM on October 17, 2017 [1 favorite]
Mr. Robot has a lot of internetty stuff, and hews somewhat closer to reality in that respect.
There were several 80s films that involve hacking of various sorts, including (notionally, not named) ARPAnet and/or the early Internet. And then there's You've Got Mail (and several similar films since), which may as well be Internet email despite being partly an AOL ad.
posted by wierdo at 9:12 PM on October 17, 2017 [1 favorite]
Since you cast a wide net, hopefully the Creed Thoughts scene from The Office counts.
posted by Room 641-A at 10:00 PM on October 17, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Room 641-A at 10:00 PM on October 17, 2017 [2 favorites]
Not sure how you feel about documentary, but I'm hoping docu-drama will work: The KGB, the Computer, and Me (YT) is a 1-hour episode of NOVA, in which the real-life participants of a spy drama play themselves in a dramatization of Clifford Stoll's book "The Cuckoo's Egg." The events took place in 1986, when a freelance East German hacker used a very early Internet to hack US Government secrets, and Stoll, a UC Berkeley Astronomy postgrad, in his job as a computer sysadmin, blundered into the hacker's trail via a billing anomaly.
It's a funny little documentary, it really happened, and in it Stoll and crew explain the state of nature of the Internet in 1986.
Werner Herzog's 2016 documentary "Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World" features a number of segments about the internet, but the one depicted first in the trailer shows the Internet as it once was-- a very sturdy cabinet the size of a fridge.
Back to drama: "Middle Men" is a movie based on the story of the 3 men who invented universal internet commerce basically: they created the system by which porn sites could take credit cards. Take a look at the trailer-- the first 60 seconds or so have something that might be up your alley. It's also funny to see Gabriel Macht, who wears a lot of polish in "Suits," looking decidedly unkempt.
posted by Sunburnt at 10:32 PM on October 17, 2017 [1 favorite]
It's a funny little documentary, it really happened, and in it Stoll and crew explain the state of nature of the Internet in 1986.
Werner Herzog's 2016 documentary "Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World" features a number of segments about the internet, but the one depicted first in the trailer shows the Internet as it once was-- a very sturdy cabinet the size of a fridge.
Back to drama: "Middle Men" is a movie based on the story of the 3 men who invented universal internet commerce basically: they created the system by which porn sites could take credit cards. Take a look at the trailer-- the first 60 seconds or so have something that might be up your alley. It's also funny to see Gabriel Macht, who wears a lot of polish in "Suits," looking decidedly unkempt.
posted by Sunburnt at 10:32 PM on October 17, 2017 [1 favorite]
Halt and Catch Fire! Seasons 2-4 prominently feature the growth of the internet from the mid '80s to the mid '90s.
posted by wsquared at 10:56 PM on October 17, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by wsquared at 10:56 PM on October 17, 2017 [1 favorite]
“The Gay Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo” (on youtube) is hilarious and the plot moves forward by a lot of use of texting and cell phone usage. “Please Like Me” is an Aussie sitcom (which, like Caleb Gallo, is about 20-something gay men, maybe non-coincidentally) which does a similar thing with cell phones.
posted by mymbleth at 1:01 AM on October 18, 2017
posted by mymbleth at 1:01 AM on October 18, 2017
Antitrust for the darkside of late 90s/early 00s tech wonderlands.
Last Tango in Halifax - particularly S01E01, but the whole the plot hinges on the two main protagonists signing up to Facebook and starting chatting, then meeting in person.
Several Murder, She Wrote episodes, where Jessica switches from her trusty old typewriter, learns computer skills, or sees cutting-edge tech in action: Lines of Excellence (S08E05), Programmed for Murder (S08E18), A Virtual Murder (S10E05).
See also the site Starring the Computer which collects instants of computer use in TV and film, and catalogues details as to hardware, etc.
posted by thetarium at 4:50 AM on October 18, 2017 [1 favorite]
Last Tango in Halifax - particularly S01E01, but the whole the plot hinges on the two main protagonists signing up to Facebook and starting chatting, then meeting in person.
Several Murder, She Wrote episodes, where Jessica switches from her trusty old typewriter, learns computer skills, or sees cutting-edge tech in action: Lines of Excellence (S08E05), Programmed for Murder (S08E18), A Virtual Murder (S10E05).
See also the site Starring the Computer which collects instants of computer use in TV and film, and catalogues details as to hardware, etc.
posted by thetarium at 4:50 AM on October 18, 2017 [1 favorite]
Silly parody examples (that are still super real):
-A spoof of AIM chat in the youtube-famous Gay He-Man video
-The Movie Poop Chute forum in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back ("what the fuck is the internet?")
-That one South Park episode where the internet "goes dry" and everyone heads West like pioneers to watch some Brazilian fart porn
posted by ElectricGoat at 4:55 AM on October 18, 2017 [1 favorite]
-A spoof of AIM chat in the youtube-famous Gay He-Man video
-The Movie Poop Chute forum in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back ("what the fuck is the internet?")
-That one South Park episode where the internet "goes dry" and everyone heads West like pioneers to watch some Brazilian fart porn
posted by ElectricGoat at 4:55 AM on October 18, 2017 [1 favorite]
pseudostrabismus
Thank you for turning me on to another Canadian TV treasure.
posted by james33 at 7:06 AM on October 18, 2017
Thank you for turning me on to another Canadian TV treasure.
posted by james33 at 7:06 AM on October 18, 2017
Oh, speaking of South Park, I believe there was at least one other internet outage plot involving a giant WRT54G-looking router. Also several where the boys start some ridiculous Internet-based business.
posted by wierdo at 2:59 PM on October 18, 2017
posted by wierdo at 2:59 PM on October 18, 2017
New show, old internet: There's at least one episode of The Americans ("Arpanet") that deals with ARPANET.
posted by Room 641-A at 6:19 PM on October 18, 2017
posted by Room 641-A at 6:19 PM on October 18, 2017
Moss Introduces Jen To The Internet | The IT Crowd Series 3 Episode 4: The Internet
More prediction than usage, but: Douglas Adams, "Hyperland" from 1990; (Wikipedia)
posted by MonkeyToes at 4:42 AM on October 19, 2017
More prediction than usage, but: Douglas Adams, "Hyperland" from 1990; (Wikipedia)
posted by MonkeyToes at 4:42 AM on October 19, 2017
These are two of my favourite TV scenes of hacking/computer security stuff. I (sincerely) love them both because they're both extremely terrible, so they may not be what you want!
- The aeroplane scene in Scorpion
- 'Two idiots, one keyboard' from NCIS
posted by daisyk at 8:19 AM on October 19, 2017
- The aeroplane scene in Scorpion
- 'Two idiots, one keyboard' from NCIS
posted by daisyk at 8:19 AM on October 19, 2017
There is a cyberpunk subreddit - their wiki includes list of cyberpunk media. If you go to the movies page and scroll down to Hacker Movies, you might find what you want.
whoami - Kein System Ist Sicher is a pretty hardcore film about German hackers.
The Glass House is not a well-made or popular film, but I mention it because Ruby Baker/Leelee Sobieski uses AOL in her efforts to escape the eponymous house.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 12:03 PM on October 19, 2017
whoami - Kein System Ist Sicher is a pretty hardcore film about German hackers.
The Glass House is not a well-made or popular film, but I mention it because Ruby Baker/Leelee Sobieski uses AOL in her efforts to escape the eponymous house.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 12:03 PM on October 19, 2017
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posted by pseudostrabismus at 6:36 PM on October 17, 2017