Starring the Computer

(starringthecomputer.com)

145 points | by gitowiec 5 hours ago

23 comments

  • Animats 4 hours ago
    IBM's AN-FSQ-7 panels from 1950s SAGE have shown up in a huge number of movies. They are still showing up in new movies. Woody's Electrical Props in LA rents them out.[1]

    Those slanted panels aren't the computer. Those are the modems.

    [1] https://woodysprops.com/item.php?uid=122&page=4

  • roughly 4 hours ago
    Similar: https://www.imcdb.org/ IMCDB, the Internet Movie Car Database
  • jfultz 1 hour ago
    This is a really impressive amount of effort. Every entry has a fairly even quality to it...screen grabs and contextual descriptions of even one-off episodes of television shows, yet alone decades worth of movies.
  • ssenssei 5 hours ago
    Fun Fact: in king of queens, most of the pcs (for example airport episode with doug's parents) are just RCT tvs with paper printout of a screen taped over it.
    • bluedino 2 hours ago
      Reminds me of the fake computers (and TV's) in furniture stores that were made of cardboard
  • sgt 34 minutes ago
    My 90s Macintosh was in How to make a killing (2026). I should put it up there.
  • WillAdams 5 hours ago
    While not a movie, a bunch of NeXT Cubes (at least the monitors) were used in a Madonna video --- apparently some production company got a good deal on machines intended for Japan (hence the katakana interface)
  • martin-adams 5 hours ago
    What timing. I was just preparing my Sony Vaio PCT-C1MHP only yesterday to try and sell. I remember seeing this in a movie around 2000 (probably Charlies Angels) and got one.

    https://www.starringthecomputer.com/computer.html?c=64

    • spankibalt 4 hours ago
      "A machine of this make was Yelena's choice to confirm Xander's car payment and facilitate image uploads of Yorgi's safe!"
  • piratejon 3 hours ago
    Pairs nicely with https://accessmaincomputerfile.net/ (although that site might not be working any longer).
  • jim_lawless 5 hours ago
    I remember seeing the TRS-80's in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou but I didn't know that they were Model IV's.

    According to this list, there was a TRS-80 Model III in the Star Wars TV series Andor:

    Andor - Season 1, Episode 1, "Kassa" (2022)

  • hamburglar 5 hours ago
    No Cray appearances? Surprising.
  • timdellinger 4 hours ago
    “sort by year” is buried on the site, but definitely a fun way to sort

    there should also be a “you can spot the villain early since they’re the only one not using Apple” sub-list

  • gitowiec 5 hours ago
    I found ZX Spectrum! And it was not popular in movies
  • alexhornby 2 hours ago
    Atari ST, Jason Bourne in the hacker space
  • purplezooey 5 hours ago
    My fav. so far is the IMSAI 8080 in "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" (2007).
  • ChuckMcM 3 hours ago
    Its kinda sad that I've owned 26 of them. :-)
  • bsdooby 3 hours ago
    Wasn’t there a PowerBook in Blade (I)?
  • petra303 4 hours ago
    I feel like the movie Hackers should have more entries.
  • andrea76 5 hours ago
    Commodore 64 film list is really impressive.. .
  • afterburner 4 hours ago
    No listing for Wargames?
  • jmclnx 5 hours ago
    Ones in the List I have used :)

    * CDC 6600

    * DEC VAX 11/780 (IIRC)

    * Honeywell H200, did not expect to see this on the list

    * IBM S/370 (IIRC)

    * IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads - 760, T43, T420, T61, W500

    * Wang Professional Computer - these were bomb proof. I had a 16 bit Unix running on this.

    * Wang WLTC

  • MoneyBurning 3 hours ago
    [dead]