eWEEKs Technology in Film Awards

Edited by Deb Donston

eWEEK’s award for the best use of technology as a metaphor for chaos under bureaucratic control goes to Terry Gilliam’s 1985 classic ‘Brazil.’ Both Orwellian in nature and a comedic satire, the perils of technology breakdown are a central theme in ‘Brazil

The eWEEK award for best depiction of an operating system that no one understands goes to ‘Wargames’ (1983), in which Matthew Broderick hacks into an ultra-sophisticated Department of Defense simulation system. No one–including its creator–knows what th

The eWEEK award for best sci-fi flick starring Keanu Reeves goes to Bill & Teds Excellent Adventure (1989). We know what youre thinking: How can this movie top sequel Bill & Teds Bogus Journey? Simple: It features a time-tra

The eWEEK award for best legitimate use of technology goes to ‘The Matrix Reloaded’ (2003), in which Trinity hacks into a power-plant network. Rather than using something that doesn’t look anything like a real computer screen while typing a thousand words

In ‘The Departed’ (2006), which garners eWEEK’s award for the most effective use of everyday technology in the service of justice, Leonardo DiCaprio’s undercover cop uses text messaging to bring down the leader of the criminal gang that rules South Boston

The eWEEK award for best compost-triumphs-over-reality film goes to ‘Silent Running.’ In this 1972 movie, the caretaker of a spaceship containing Earth’s last nature reserve is told to destroy the ship. The caretaker cuts the ship loose instead of snuffin

The eWEEK award for best prediction of 20 minutes into the future goes to Max Headroom. OK, so maybe it was a 1987/88 TV series. So sue us–it was too good not to mention. In the series, we see an urban world where Zic-Zac, Micro (ahem) and other powerful

The eWEEK award for sappiest use of e-mail goes to ‘You’ve Got Mail’ (1998). In the film, sicky-sweet Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan hate each other in the real world but unknowingly romance each other in the virtual world of e-mail. (And AOL wins an award for be

The eWEEK award for best depiction of the dangers of vaporware goes to Antitrust (2001), in which Ryan Phillippes character is brought in by a Microsoft-like company to make sure it meets the launch date for its global communications system

The eWEEK award for the best example of human voice/computer user interface goes to ‘2001: A Space Odyssey.’ In this 1968 movie, Hal is the malevolent, super-intelligent computer with the human voice interface that is determined to eliminate all the human

eWEEK’s award for the most effective use of networking goes to ‘The Terminator,’ the 1984 film in which networked computers begin talking to each other and eventually plot the overthrow of the human race. Hell, they even build a time machine.

eWEEK’s award for the best integration of technology into the slasher genre goes to The Mangler 2′ (2001). In this straight-to-video turkey, billed as a sequel to a Stephen King short story, a student uploads a nasty virus into her high school’s co

eWEEK’s award for the strangest use of an iPod goes to the 2006 movie ‘Firewall,’ in which Harrison Ford plays a security expert at a bank who gets caught in a scheme to steal money for a gang that has taken his family hostage. Ford takes his daughters i

The eWEEK award for best reverse nerd-gineering goes to Revenge of the Nerds. In this 1984 movie, the titular characters love for technology brands them as outcasts and lands them, for a time at least, as roomies in the gym. But their compu

eWEEK’s award for the best use of biometrics goes to ‘Minority Report’ (2002). Set in the year 2054, ‘Minority Report’ is the story of a futuristic society where pre-cogs prevent murders before they happen. Department of Pre-Crime Chief Ande

The eWEEK award for the best peripheral device in a movie goes to the flux capacitor from the ‘Back to the Future’ series. It turned a DeLorean into a time machine. Enough said. –Sarah Shemkus

This special award goes not to a movie but to the Motion Picture Association of America, whose representatives assured filmmaker Kirby Dick that no copies would be made of his documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated while a secretive panel ev