# Movies with engineers as heroes **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 23, 2010, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-engineers-as-heroes/565208 "2010-12-23T18:19:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-engineers-as-heroes/565208/1 "2010-12-23T18:19:47Z")
I watched _Apollo 13_ again the other day, and it is the very rare film where the engineers are heroes. The solve the problem with brains rather than brawn, they _work the problem_. What other films can you think of where engineers are heroes, where engineering smarts save the day and even save lives? Other than the TV movie [_Longitude_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0192263/), none come to mind. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-engineers-as-heroes/565208/2 "2010-12-23T18:34:34Z")
The Tommy Lee Jones movie _Volcano_ kind of fits your description, but had plenty of action, as well. _Force 10 From Navarone_ did this with the dam scene, as well. They didn’t have enough explosives to just blow up the dam, so they had to set up a shock wave with the explosives they did have, that would reverberate around the reservoir and overstress the dam and tear it apart. I don’t know about the _actual_ engineering in accomplishing such a feat, but it’s what they did in the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-engineers-as-heroes/565208/3 "2010-12-23T18:37:21Z")
African Queen with Bogart? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-engineers-as-heroes/565208/4 "2010-12-23T18:38:19Z")
Much of **[The Dam Busters](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046889/)** is about the engineers who developed a “bouncing bomb” to blow up German dams ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-engineers-as-heroes/565208/5 "2010-12-23T18:41:40Z")
The Fighting Seabees, maybe? ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-engineers-as-heroes/565208/6 "2010-12-23T18:48:21Z")
Independence Day? weak, i know. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-engineers-as-heroes/565208/7 "2010-12-23T18:50:38Z")
> [@obfusciatrist](#): > > The Fighting Seabees, maybe? That’s what I came here to post. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-engineers-as-heroes/565208/8 "2010-12-23T18:50:52Z")
ARMAGEDDON? You didn’t specify GOOD movies. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-engineers-as-heroes/565208/9 "2010-12-23T18:54:24Z")
How about the ductwork guy Harry Tuttle from _Brazil_? 😉 ---
**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:** [December 23, 2010, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-engineers-as-heroes/565208/10 "2010-12-23T19:02:45Z")
The hero of the TV series _Prison Break_ was a structural engineer. While he didn’t actually design any load-bearing columns over the course of the show, he generally used his mind - in particular his spectacular planning abilities - to get out of trouble (and usually into bigger trouble). ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-engineers-as-heroes/565208/11 "2010-12-23T19:20:23Z")
Hardy Kruger in the original _Flight of the Phoenix_, until Jimmy Stewart used the shotgun shell to clear the cylinder. _Executive Suite_. Furniture factory engineer William Holden makes chairs while the other execs play musical chairs. ---
**Author:** ![Alpha\_Twit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alpha_twit/32/265_2.png) [@Alpha\_Twit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alpha_Twit)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-engineers-as-heroes/565208/12 "2010-12-23T19:24:04Z")
Not a movie but this was basically the whole idea behind the series _MacGyver_ ---
**Author:** ![Khaki\_Campbell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Khaki\_Campbell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khaki_Campbell)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-engineers-as-heroes/565208/13 "2010-12-23T19:30:25Z")
Arguably, Stanley Goodspeed (Nicolas Cage) from _The Rock_. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-engineers-as-heroes/565208/14 "2010-12-23T19:32:15Z")
_Iron Man_? _Primer_ has engineers as the main characters, if not actual heroes. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-engineers-as-heroes/565208/15 "2010-12-23T19:48:06Z")
The recent Denzel Washington movie,\* Unstoppable,\* where Denzel’s character was a train engineer, comes to mind. ---
**Author:** ![Arjuna34](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Arjuna34](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arjuna34)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-engineers-as-heroes/565208/16 "2010-12-23T20:05:00Z")
[Paycheck](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338337/), with Ben Affleck? ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-engineers-as-heroes/565208/17 "2010-12-23T21:15:12Z")
The Australian movie _The Dish_ may qualify, although it’s more of pseudo-documentary/dramatization than a movie with heroes/villains, and it’s not just engineers involved - technicians are at least as important. Technically, in _Independence Day_ it was the team that wrote the virus Jeff Goldblum delivered (or maybe he wrote it himself, but either way it’s the same) that saved mankind from the aliens. The credit can be spread around to Will Smith and Randy Quaid, plus POTUS in a jet fighter for making it succeed. ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-engineers-as-heroes/565208/18 "2010-12-23T22:08:09Z")
MacGyver. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-engineers-as-heroes/565208/19 "2010-12-23T22:42:19Z")
[Enigma](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0157583/) set in Bletchley Park during WWI, where the hero is kind of a straight Alan Turing without the stutter. Though he is a mathematician, he is also an engineer in that he seems to have been involved in designing the computer. ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2010, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-engineers-as-heroes/565208/20 "2010-12-23T23:21:47Z")
a beautiful mind? good will hunting? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-engineers-as-heroes/565208.md?page=2)