# Movies engineers like **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 20, 2017, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-engineers-like/787093 "2017-05-20T17:32:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2017, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-engineers-like/787093/21 "2017-05-21T00:00:19Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > He’s an inventor–I’m not sure if that should be interchangeable with engineer. I’m not sure he is primarily an inventor. The real invention was the arc reactor, but his daddy did that. Most of what he does is ultra-engineering and uber-optimization. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2017, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-engineers-like/787093/22 "2017-05-21T00:26:23Z")
[_Infrastructure._](https://youtu.be/XTopVi1hVVM). ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2017, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-engineers-like/787093/23 "2017-05-21T01:52:14Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > _The Great Train Robbery > Silver Streak > The General_ _The Polar Express_ ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2017, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-engineers-like/787093/24 "2017-05-21T02:19:27Z")
_ **Breakheart Pass** _. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2017, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-engineers-like/787093/25 "2017-05-21T02:28:44Z")
In addition to many of those mentioned, I add: Primer, Cube, Forbidden Planet, The Day the Earth Stood Still, 2001, Silent Running, and Total Recall. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2017, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-engineers-like/787093/26 "2017-05-21T02:52:14Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > _The Great Train Robbery > Silver Streak > The General_ _The Train_ _Unstoppable_ Seriously, though, most of the engineers I know seem to have an affection for hard SF, or whatever comes closest to that on film. Also, _Deepwater Horizon_ seems generally well thought of by the oil industry types I know. ---
**Author:** ![Some\_Call\_Me.Tim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Some\_Call\_Me.Tim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Some_Call_Me.Tim)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2017, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-engineers-like/787093/27 "2017-05-21T04:07:33Z")
_The Dish_ ---
**Author:** ![Tinker\_Grey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tinker_grey/32/8136_2.png) [@Tinker\_Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tinker_Grey)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2017, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-engineers-like/787093/28 "2017-05-21T04:10:54Z")
> [@Some\_Call\_Me.Tim](#): > > _The Dish_ I remember that. It was good. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2017, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-engineers-like/787093/29 "2017-05-21T04:36:50Z")
My dad thought \*National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation \*was a riot. ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2017, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-engineers-like/787093/30 "2017-05-21T05:46:29Z")
> [@Sefton](#): > > I’m surprised that I’m the first to mention _Iron Man_. In essence, Tony Stark’s superpower is that he’s the world’s greatest engineer. The thing the first Iron Man movie got right was the sheer joy of building cool stuff. The sequence where he’s figuring out the suit’s flying mechanism is just gloriously fun. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2017, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-engineers-like/787093/31 "2017-05-21T07:25:47Z")
The aforementioned Primer is high on my list and I’m surprised it’s taken so long to mention Gravity. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2017, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-engineers-like/787093/32 "2017-05-21T07:47:57Z")
> [@Sefton](#): > > The two terms aren’t interchangeable, but they’re not mutually exclusive either. I’d say that Tony Stark is both. Can you be a successful inventor without being an engineer, at least in practical terms? ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2017, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-engineers-like/787093/33 "2017-05-21T08:59:20Z")
Bridge on The River Kwai - there is a speech by the young demolitions man as a disgruntled draughty about drawing and redrawing and redrawing that girder, which is why he wants to blow the bridge up [sorry - couldn’t find a clip]. Maybe it doesn’t resonate in a post-CAD world. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2017, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-engineers-like/787093/34 "2017-05-21T18:06:09Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > One of our stress dept engineers was quite fond of _No Highway In The Sky_, perhaps the only movie to feature a stress engineer as the hero. > > I joked once that, if they remade it, they’d go full Hollywood and cast Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts. Then I thought about it, and basically, that’s how they did cast it! I teach Reliability Engineering, and I always cite this movie. Amusingly, the aircraft in the movie is called a “Reindeer.” A few years later, life imitated art when several British “Comet” aircrafts crashed for the same reason. Comet of course being one of the most famous reindeer! Other movies that trip my engineering trigger: The original _Cheaper By The Dozen_ (not the execrable remake with Steve Martin) and all the \*Iron Man \*films, plus _Army of Darkness_ where Ash is “inventing” stuff from the future. I also like how \*MacGyver \*and _Burn Notice_ do similar stuff, but those aren’t movies. Of course most of my favorite movies are not favorites based on me being an engineer. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2017, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-engineers-like/787093/35 "2017-05-22T03:21:22Z")
Three not mentioned so far (yes, I have an engineering degree): Brazil - the steampunk [Ministry of Information](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xNnRBksvOU) scene cracks me up - he got the technology kind of right (I know it’s a spoof), but how people use said technology is spot on Twister - one of my favorite movies, seeing the engineering design choices between TOTO and Dorothy, both of which are kind of stupid Office Space - not the software engineering, but the most accurate depiction of the workspace ever filmed ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2017, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-engineers-like/787093/36 "2017-05-22T13:39:46Z")
The Illusionist, The Sting, The Train, Worlds Fastest Indian, Fat Man and Little Boy Love African Queen - great steam engine, but if they had oxy acetylene tanks for torpedoes, why did the repair the propeller on an open forge? Crane ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2017, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-engineers-like/787093/37 "2017-05-22T13:46:22Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Can you be a successful inventor without being an engineer, at least in practical terms? Depends what you’re inventing, and more importantly, who you’re collaborating with. Is someone with great ideas that gets other people to make them work an inventor? I certainly think so. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2017, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-engineers-like/787093/38 "2017-05-22T13:52:12Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > **Flight of the Phoenix** , where they build an ultralight aircraft from a much larger plane which has crashed. It isn’t an ultralight. They are kites with engines. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2017, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-engineers-like/787093/39 "2017-05-22T13:55:08Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > **Flight of the Phoenix** , where they build an ultralight aircraft from a much larger plane which has crashed. I don’t think an aircraft consisting of about 1/3 of a [C-82](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairchild_C-82_Packet) would qualify as an ultralight. > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I’m going to guess _The Martian_ is popular among engineers. They would identify with the “let’s break this problem down and solve it one step at a time” attitude. [XKCD](https://xkcd.com/1536/) (of course) comments on this very thing. Nija’d by **carniverousplant**. ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2017, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-engineers-like/787093/40 "2017-05-22T14:02:05Z")
Oh yeah - Horatio’s Drive Crane [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-engineers-like/787093.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-engineers-like/787093.md?page=3)