MovieChat Forums > Alien (1979) Discussion > All those blinking lights...

All those blinking lights...

posted 4 years ago by Ripkens25 (2030)
65 replies | jump to latest

Kinda similar to Star Trek, back in the day. The filmmakers weren't aware of what technology in the future would look like...so instead, they figured....just like an airplane, a spaceship would probably have lots and LOTS of switches and buttons that light up. Just rows and rows of them, all OVER the place. No computer screens or holograms or virtual reality, etc.

Just lots of switches and blinking lights! That should do the trick.
LOL, how did that ship ever get off the ground!

Plus, they had enough technology for galactic travel....but not enough for each of them to have cell phones?

There’s just something….incongruous about it. But again, it’s just interesting how they attempt to forecast.

[–] moviechatterer (15777) 2 years ago

I guess if Ripley really wanted to he could update it , lucas style, by CGI in some more current display over the green CRTs

[–] thingmakersback (1382) 2 years ago

I read a lot of "antique" science fiction. You get used to seeing things in terms of when they were written and not stressing overmuch about the common anachronisms based on the technology of the times and the imperfect imaginings of future-tech. Films... likewise.

About the only time I can recall being simply offended at the technological stupidity was 2010. Fifteen years AFTER the making of 2001 - which included wafer thin flat panel video - 2010 had CRTs in full view with their bulky, ventilated, early '80s cabinets...

[–] Ripkens25 (2030) 2 years ago

It’s how films like Rollerball imagined the future to look like. For example, doors that open in a cool, futuristic way, like the top and bottom coming to meet in the middle…..yet we also have orange shag carpeting? LOL.

There are cool, futuristic blaster guns, yet we also have background music at a party that sounds like what would be playing during a Warhol exhibit.

There’s cool, futuristic-looking helicopters….with dot-matrix font writing on them.

The big screen TV they did kinda forecast correctly…..but, surrounded by wood paneling?? LOL

And again, where are the cell phones/communication devices?

At least Star Trek did well in forecasting the flip phone.

Another example is in Star Wars. There’s enough technology in their world for space travel and even HYPER space travel. Enough technology for droids to have AI and even emotions….yet C-3PO waddles around looking like an early concept sketch for Plan P from Outer Space….and R2-D2 can’t speak?? Only beeps and chirps?

And again, where are the cell phones and Internet?

[–] Ace_Spade (9569) 2 years ago

I do the same thing. Other eras just had a different vibe to them, so when reading or watching media from those eras, you just accept it. Or, at least, I do. I read mythology, and I never expect one of those stories to conform to modern ethics or storytelling conventions (inner monologue is all but absent, for instance).

There are some people who can't get over those kinds of anachronisms, and I tend to avoid watching movies with them. They're the kind of people who will be in the middle of The Maltese Falcon and won't shut up about how "cheesy" the dialogue is (all I hear is sharp, witty and insightful) and how "corny" the acting is (stylized, sure, but it's not corny). Now, to each their own, but I just avoid getting annoying remarks through great movies.

I don't remember 2010 enough to comment directly, but yeah, that's dumb. The original anticipated better tech and the sequel doesn't do it. That's what happens when you stack up the obsessive drive of Stanley Kubrick with basically anybody else.