Computers in Movies Trivia Quiz

Answer: Independence Day

"Independence Day" (1996) - Aliens invade Earth and attempt to wipe out the human race. They are using technology far superior to ours, but that doesn't stop our super-hacker from writing a virus that runs on their system. Oh yes, good old Jeff Goldblum was able to hack into an alien spaceship and bring down their shields long enough for the President to save the day! Not to mention the fact that Will Smith was capable of flying an alien spaceship.

Answer: Tron

"Tron" (1982) - Whilst trying to prove that his software had been stolen, Jeff Bridges is "lasered" into the computer and forced to fight for his survival. This was a great film. Sure, it was completely incorrect and impossible, but it was good fun and intentionally fictitious. You wouldn't watch this movie to learn how to use a computer.

Answer: Love, sex, secret, God

"Hackers" (1995) - An innocent hacker breaks into the wrong system and uncovers a worm that has been leaching money from every transaction that takes place. He then gets framed for creating a virus. To avoid prison, the hackers must unite to bring down the bad guy. The four most used passwords are mentioned twice in the film. Once by the good hackers and once by the evil hacker. Actually the two most used passwords are "Password" and "Drowssap" (password backwards).

As for "sex" or "God", most login scripts won't allow a password that short, and a lot of them don't like it to be a complete word.

But it sounded good in the movie.

Answer: Blade

"Blade" (1998) - Vampires exist and are feeding off the human race. Blade is half vampire, half human, and has made it his mission to rid the world of these bloodsuckers.
Deacon Frost, played by Stephen Dorff, translates an ancient vampire script using a single laptop. If no one can understand the language, who wrote the software?

Answer: AntiTrust

"AntiTrust" (2001) - A star programming graduate lands a job at the biggest software firm around. Everything seems awesome until he realises his boss is stealing code and then killing the programmer to avoid getting caught.
Whenever the camera shows the monitor of one of the programmers there is actual code there. I'm not saying it compiles or runs, and I'm REALLY sure it doesn't do what the movie says it does. But at least they have text and curly brackets ({) unlike the other movies in the list.

Answer: Star Trek: The Motion Picture

"Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (1979) - Captain Kirk leads the crew of the Starship Enterprise in the exploration of the "final frontier". This saga began in 1966 as a TV series and is still going strong. Through most of the movies there are a number of discussions ABOUT computers but somehow the computer knows they aren't talking to it.

It must be the tone of voice they use when they actually give the computer a command. At least they don't say please or thank you. I always laugh in movies when they do that.

It's almost as if they didn't the computer would respond with "Operation Failed: Incorrect use of Manners".

Answer: Johnny Mnemonic

"Johnny Mnemonic" (1995) - This film was based on a short story by William Gibson. It involves a data courier (Reeves) carrying a data package in his head that is too big and is starting to leak into the rest of his brain. He has to get it out before it kills him. I was really disappointed with this movie. It had potential and they killed it.

Answer: Bill Gates

"AntiTrust" (2001) - There's a big software firm with a powerful owner stealing code. Sound like Gates? This is, of course, entirely hearsay. It's not like it was obvious or anything.

Answer: War Games

"War Games" (1983) - A student hacks into a military super-computer, thinking it's a gaming environment. He thinks he's playing a game of "Global Nuclear War", but the computer is taking it a little more seriously.
Considering when it was made, this film was actually quite close to the truth, well, closer than the others. Brodericks' character doesn't simply guess the passwords, he steals them. The computer is real and there's no fancy toy that goes "bleep" at the right moments.

Answer: Searches/Scans are run discreetly in the background.

In movies, all searches/scans take place in the foreground. Often images of completely unrelated topics are flicked into the foreground as well, until finally the computer finds exactly what we're looking for. In real life, searches are run in the background and only the results are displayed on the screen.

Another thing worth noting is that searches of large databases (e.g. fingerprint databases), that in reality can take days, only takes an hour at the most.