# What was the first movie to depict a computer? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 24, 2002, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-movie-to-depict-a-computer/129461 "2002-09-24T15:17:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![the\_great\_dalmuti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b2d939/32.png) [@the\_great\_dalmuti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_great_dalmuti)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-movie-to-depict-a-computer/129461/1 "2002-09-24T15:17:35Z")
Just curious what the first, or the first few “computers” ever featured on film looked like. Any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-movie-to-depict-a-computer/129461/2 "2002-09-24T15:24:04Z")
The earliest movie I can think of where a computer played a key role is Billion Dollar Brain, a 1967 spy film. I suspect there’s likely earlier ones, though. ---
**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-movie-to-depict-a-computer/129461/3 "2002-09-24T15:30:26Z")
Oldest I can think of is _Desk Set_ ([http://us.imdb.com/Title?0050307](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0050307)) from 1957. There, it’s a big box with blinking lights and a couple of tape reels. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-movie-to-depict-a-computer/129461/4 "2002-09-24T15:31:26Z")
Jumped the post button a bit early. As I recall it looked like the traditional box with flashing light that innumerable b-films used to stand in for computers. ---
**Author:** ![Horseflesh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horseflesh/32/7502_2.png) [@Horseflesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horseflesh)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-movie-to-depict-a-computer/129461/5 "2002-09-24T15:35:31Z")
[_Metropolis_](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0017136) (1927) featured a robot. Does that count? ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-movie-to-depict-a-computer/129461/6 "2002-09-24T15:41:55Z")
If I recall, the 1933 comedy short [Techno-Crazy](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0224225) features some sort of computeresque creation. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-movie-to-depict-a-computer/129461/7 "2002-09-24T16:05:28Z")
_Metropolis_ (in the recent restoration) also has a number of control consoles that organize data and generate reports and such, so I think that certainly counts. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-movie-to-depict-a-computer/129461/8 "2002-09-24T16:31:58Z")
I suppose you mean specifically an all-electronic digital computer. Mechanical calculators, which are in their own way computers, are seen often enough in scenes involving accountants in movies of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. It’s interseting to note that in 1964, when Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick began writing _2001: A Space Odyssey_, with its artifical intelligence theme, the most powerful computer in the world, at the University of Illinois, had all of 5 megabytes of RAM. Today a lot of toys have more RAM.