# What modern movie plots wouldn't work today because of the Internet? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 9, 2015, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-modern-movie-plots-wouldnt-work-today-because-of-the-internet/712229 "2015-02-09T15:59:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**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 27, 2015, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-modern-movie-plots-wouldnt-work-today-because-of-the-internet/712229/81 "2015-05-27T20:02:50Z")
“Can you send me a pdf so I’ll know which droids we’re looking for?” ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-modern-movie-plots-wouldnt-work-today-because-of-the-internet/712229/82 "2015-05-27T20:19:46Z")
> [@BaldDudePeekskill](#): > > True, bu5 what I meant was that today’s security is so much tighter, that it’d require a super computer with a great anti encryption engine to get into such sensitive systems Not necessarily - in the movie WOPR’s actual security is so hardcore even its designers can’t get in when it goes apeshit. The problem was that one of the coders deliberately left for themselves a special login that bypassed every \*other \*layer of security - which is far from unheard of in the software engineering world. OTOH, today the idea that a critical Army supercomputer would be in any way, shape or form connected to the public Internet or phonelines would be laughable. The military [have their own, fully segregated network](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIPRNet) (or rather, they evicted all the non-military bullshit the nerds who’d built them their original network had been tacking onto it, thereby creating the Internet as a separate entity). [QUOTE=Gedd] _The Breakfast Club_ - The kids sit and play their cellphones and never speak to each other. [/QUOTE] Actually, they do speak to each other. But through Facebook updates exclusively. As a result, the social masques of their respective cliques never get dropped because all of their friends can still watch them. They all remain trapped within their angsty little bubbles. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-modern-movie-plots-wouldnt-work-today-because-of-the-internet/712229/83 "2015-05-27T20:27:35Z")
Would anyone believe that Andy Jackson fought the Battle of New Orleans 3 weeks after the war was over because he hadn’t heard? No. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-modern-movie-plots-wouldnt-work-today-because-of-the-internet/712229/84 "2015-05-28T01:10:56Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > “Can you send me a pdf so I’ll know which droids we’re looking for?” Did the Empire actually know? They had tracks leading away from the escape pod and maybe a bare-bones description tortured out of a Jawa before they killed him. Astromechs of one sort or another seem common and we see two other protocol droids besides C-3PO in the movie. It might have been the equivalent of being told to look for “a minivan and an SUV”. ---
**Author:** ![Annoying\_Buzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Annoying\_Buzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annoying_Buzz)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-modern-movie-plots-wouldnt-work-today-because-of-the-internet/712229/85 "2015-05-28T02:11:34Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > _Casablanca_ – thanks to Photoshop there are literally thousands of letters of transit available to Ilsa and Victor, good enough to fool Major Strasser. Alternately, Ilsa and Victor are immediately captured when Strasser tries to verify the QR code on their papers with his smartphone. ---
**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 28, 2015, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-modern-movie-plots-wouldnt-work-today-because-of-the-internet/712229/86 "2015-05-28T03:30:08Z")
“Selling a used '58 Plymouth Fury, huh? Can I get the Carfax on that?” ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-modern-movie-plots-wouldnt-work-today-because-of-the-internet/712229/87 "2015-05-28T03:41:47Z")
Re _Breakfast Club_, I should think detention would begin by having the kids turn over their cellphones, else the “stuck doing nothing all day” object is defeated. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-modern-movie-plots-wouldnt-work-today-because-of-the-internet/712229/88 "2015-05-28T09:28:30Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Still, while I find it to be a funny movie, I find it odd that the only people who didn’t know Walley World would be closed are the Griswolds, Cousin Eddie and his family, and Aunt Edna. Even pre-Internet, nobody else was there when the family drove in, so there must have been some kind of TV/radio/print media publicity on the closure. How did all of America know Walley World was closed, except the Griswolds, Cousin Eddie and his family, and Aunt Edna? “Vacation '58”, the article in National Lampoon magazine that the movie was based on, had Clark Griswold as more of a buffoon than the movie did. Clark was a blue-collar worker with a plain-looking wife, in contrast to Chevy Chases’s college grad married to Beverly D’Angelo (and being flirted with by Christie Brinkley). Plus it took place in 1958, when it would have been a bigger deal to call all the way from Michigan to California. (The humor was also drier and IMO, much funnier - it derived from the aforementioned buffoon-ness, and the comically detached way the precocious yet wide-eyed Griswold boy narrated events: “Everybody felt so good, we laughed all the way until the Indian attack”.) > [@VunderBob](#): > > _It’s A Wonderful Life_ 3: Security video in the bank lobby clearly shows the $8000 deposit being dumped into Potter’s lap; Potter and Uncle Billy both go to prison for conspiracy to embezzle money from the Building and Loan. I like this, but I would hope that a court-appointed psychiatrist (along with three quarters of the population of Bedford Falls) would have testified as to Uncle Billy’s mental flightiness. Potter’s mute chauffeur/manservant would have made better prosecutor chow, and only bad guys going to jail would make for a better Hollywood-style ending. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-modern-movie-plots-wouldnt-work-today-because-of-the-internet/712229/89 "2015-05-28T17:44:52Z")
The Day Of The Jackal. The 1973 original. Still a terrific movie, though. ---
**Author:** ![Chicago\_Faucet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chicago_faucet/32/13910_2.png) [@Chicago\_Faucet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicago_Faucet)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-modern-movie-plots-wouldnt-work-today-because-of-the-internet/712229/90 "2015-05-28T20:28:52Z")
This thread is hilarious. I know the OP specifically said the internet, but I’m going to broaden it to all current technology. I just watched Reservoir Dogs last night - after not having seen it in several years. I know that they had cell phones in that movie, but with today’s cell phone prevalence and power, it would have gone far differently, probably in text messages: Mr. Pink: “Hey everyone, there is a rat. Don’t go back to the safe house. I have the diamonds.” Joe: “Everyone go to the _other_ safe house. Who’s alive and who’s dead?” Mr. Blonde: “Mr. Blue is dead. I have a cop in the trunk of my car.” Mr. White: “Mr. Brown is dead. Mr. Orange is shot.” Nice Guy Eddie: “Okay, we’ll have a doctor at the other safe house. Dump the car with the cop some place, and get a different car. We’ll see everyone at the other safe house.” Six months later…everyone is sitting in jail, instead of dead. End credits. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-modern-movie-plots-wouldnt-work-today-because-of-the-internet/712229/91 "2015-05-28T21:06:06Z")
> [@Gedd](#): > > _The Breakfast Club_ - The kids sit and play their cellphones and never speak to each other. So very, very true… and sad. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-modern-movie-plots-wouldnt-work-today-because-of-the-internet/712229/92 "2015-05-28T21:11:46Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > _The Music Man_ Mayor Shinn runs a 5-second Google search on “Gary Conservatory of Music.” Harold Hill would have edited wikipedia! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-modern-movie-plots-wouldnt-work-today-because-of-the-internet/712229/93 "2015-05-28T21:13:59Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > [Too damn risky](http://oglaf.com/ornithology/) Not only that but the Will of Sauron and the Nazgul would have put a crimp in that plan. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-modern-movie-plots-wouldnt-work-today-because-of-the-internet/712229/94 "2015-05-28T21:14:04Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > So very, very true… and sad. But, as noted above, wrong. The first thing that is done during Saturday School is confiscate all electronic devices. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-modern-movie-plots-wouldnt-work-today-because-of-the-internet/712229/95 "2015-05-28T21:16:03Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Would anyone believe that Andy Jackson fought the Battle of New Orleans 3 weeks after the war was over because he hadn’t heard? > > No. The war wasnt over yet. Really. The treaty had been signed, but knowing how slow the news got out in those days there was the usual codicil about fighting continuing until the news had gotten out. ---
**Author:** ![Chicago\_Faucet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chicago_faucet/32/13910_2.png) [@Chicago\_Faucet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicago_Faucet)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2015, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-modern-movie-plots-wouldnt-work-today-because-of-the-internet/712229/96 "2015-05-30T06:25:28Z")
Something just occurred to me. The movie Sneakers, having come out in the early 90’s and is based on technology, holds up remarkably well, some 20+ years later. In the movie, they relied very little on mainstream technology, but relied heavily on tried and true technologies like the phone exchange and walkie talkies - which worked better in their situations than cell phones would. ---
**Author:** ![Habeed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a587f6/32.png) [@Habeed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Habeed)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2015, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-modern-movie-plots-wouldnt-work-today-because-of-the-internet/712229/97 "2015-05-30T08:42:22Z")
> [@BaldDudePeekskill](#): > > True, bu5 what I meant was that today’s security is so much tighter, that it’d require a super computer with a great anti encryption engine to get into such sensitive systems One would hope the computers used for control of nuclear weapons are all air-gapped. Obviously, publicly available details are sparse, but that is generally what I’ve read is the case. Of course, if you read The Damascus Incident and the Illusion of Safety, you’ll realize that the physical security on nuclear weapons isn’t nearly what you would expect. Breaking into a silo is not nearly as difficult as one would assume. In this real life incident, several airmen needed to break into their own missile silo, as they had left via the emergency escape hatch but wanted to reenter through the front vault door. Well, turns out those “vault doors” which can take a nuclear blast are not designed to resist intrusion. Opening one is a simple matter of connecting a hydraulic pump to fittings that are on the outside of the door. Yes, if hostile invaders tried to get into such a silo, the crew inside are armed…with a pair of handguns. And, yes, there is a QRF of a few armed soldiers to respond to incidents. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2015, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-modern-movie-plots-wouldnt-work-today-because-of-the-internet/712229/98 "2015-05-30T09:44:02Z")
Love this thread!! I’ll have to think about a topper – or something that even comes close to these great ideas! ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2015, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-modern-movie-plots-wouldnt-work-today-because-of-the-internet/712229/99 "2015-05-31T08:05:24Z")
> [@Casey1505](#): > > “What does Marsellus Wallace look like?” “Does Marsellus Wallace look like a bitch?” No results. Did you mean “What does Marsellus Wallace look like?”? ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2015, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-modern-movie-plots-wouldnt-work-today-because-of-the-internet/712229/100 "2015-05-31T11:59:51Z")
Almost any horror/slasher picture because someone would give Freddy Krueger, Jason, and that crazy doll Chucky a Wikipedia page and a blog and everyone would be posting about them. Really their scary factor only works if they are kept a secret. Can you imagine a real place haunted by say Jason would be swarming with Jason hunters and persons wanting to get a selfie with him. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-modern-movie-plots-wouldnt-work-today-because-of-the-internet/712229.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-modern-movie-plots-wouldnt-work-today-because-of-the-internet/712229.md?page=6)