So, as a movie-going public we’re used to being insulted by portrayls of the internet in film. From the ridiculous world of The Net and its talking chat icons to Hackers and its Mac-based “hacking” (a film who’s only virtue is early Angelina Jolie action), the internet has just never been given respect in the movies. It’s not like I expect the boring realism of online use to be translated to screen, but in this day and age where the vast majority of us use the web daily, the Internet being depicted in the trailer for “Untracebale” is just horrible.
I mean, come on Hollywood. Sure, this movie has the gorgeous Diane Lane (see her in hidden gem Hollywoodland), but the Internet it portrays (along with the manic typing nobody has ever done to put in a URL) is just ridiculous in 2008.
The best thing in the trailer is the homage to the “guy in the back seat with an axe” urban legend.
As someone who makes my living on the internets, I hate they way Hollywood portrays it. Then again, they can’t seem get computers right either.
Complete clueless morons.
As lame as it may seem, there is a method to their madness. I know somebody that works in the movie and television industry and while his work is limited to getting camera rigs set up (kind of like the ones you see when two people are in a car), he had inquired about how the Internet and computers are used (this was during filming of ‘24′).
And you touched on it when you said, ‘boring.’ The producers feel that showing the Internet as it truly exists would be lame. Ever notice what else is missing in such movies? The use of a mouse. People are always using keyboards. He also told me producers have said it is easier to build tension in a scene with somebody clacking on away on a keyboard instead of clicking and pointing with a mouse.
Of course the notion that some website can be ‘untraceable’ is absurd to begin with, so there’s no point I think in trying to make the Internet seem more realistic. But as you said, it does have Diane Lane, who is still smoking hot, even at the age of 43.