Starring the Computer is a website dedicated to the use of computers in film and television. Each appearance is catalogued and rated on its importance (ie. how important it is to the plot), realism (how close its appearance and capabilities are to the real thing) and visibility (how good a look does one get of it). Fictional computers don't count (unless they are built out of bits of real computer), so no HAL9000 - sorry.

Please let me know if you spot any mistakes, or have any tips about films not mentioned here that feature computers.

James Carter <james@starringthecomputer.com>

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News

2009-06-30 22:47 More Apples

The Glass House has a fair role for an Apple iBook. It's all Apples at the moment!

2009-06-29 08:48 Clockstoppers

Clockstoppers is a wall-to-wall Mac-fest including an iBook, iMac, Powerbook and, a Starring-the-Computer first, a Power Mac G4.

2009-06-20 09:41 CDC Remote Calculator

Well, I've been vacillating over this one for some time. I've come across a number of films that have a CDC remote calculator in them and, up until now, I'd not put them on the site. This beast was essentially a very specialised terminal. It had no processor of its own but connected to the CDC 6600 to make that machine's computing power easily available to scientists and mathematicians. I don't normally include terminals, but this is such a specialised piece of kit that was only ever used with the 6600 so I've decided to include them, but counting them as 6600 appearances. The films in question are Soylent Green, Westworld, and Marooned.

2009-06-19 23:14 Powerbook sees Daylight

Daylight has a brief role for a Powerbook 540c, the second Stallone film to feature this machine.

2009-06-17 08:04 Marooned Trancers

Marooned has a small section from an IBM 1620 panel, and the straight-to-video sequel Trancers II has small roles for an Amiga 2000 and an Apple IIGS.

2009-06-09 22:18 Master of iDisguise

Another entry marked "I've watched it so you don't have to"! The Master of Disguise is another product-placement coup for Apple with an iBook and an iMac. There were also a couple of Sony laptops that I couldn't identify.

2009-06-08 09:25 The Client

The Client as a couple of IBM PS/2 machines lying unused in the background a Model 30/55 and a Model 50/70.

2009-06-04 08:44 Turn your 11/05 on, son - you're nicked!

An episode from season 3 of The Sweeney features our first DEC PDP-11/05 in a pretty important role (although you get to see more of the attached VT52 than the machine itself).

2009-06-02 22:18 Spun Boys

An episode of The Hardy Boys features panels from the familiar IBM AN/FSQ-7 and the film Spun had a few Mac SEs knocking around the set.

2009-05-19 09:01 Nim's iLand

Nim's Island features a Powerbook G4 and, I can't believe we've got this far without one, an iMac G4.