Tim Robbins must've been attracted to this project by the aroma of anti-corporate-hegemony / subvert-the-dominant-paradigm.
Ah, but underneath the power-corrupts message (how many hyphenated terms can I use ?), the message, as well as the last line of the movie, is, "Human knowledge belongs to the world !" (cue triumphant music, freeze-frame on fresh-faced grinning rebel heroes basking in paparazzi approbation).
And fake news reporters wrap up the story lines. That's convenient. Seriously. It really is a great convenience - I'm not griping.
I mean, the plot "twists" and tense thriller moments are actually paced well - not that they're any surprise, but nice tight editing. The script is weak (example line: "When you kill people, they DIE.")
It's always a challenge to have tense thriller moments comprised of people typing on laptops, staring at a screen with pained expressions and saying:
*Click, click* "There... "
*click, click, wait for 'Loading' bar* "C'mon, C'MON ! "
"Get me those IP addresses !"
"But..."
"JUST DO IT !"
So the villain, a handsome Bill Gates with hired goons, is foiled when every worldwide broadcast is interrupted with incriminating video of him declaring, "The people of this town are morons ! I will get no comeuppance !", and then Victoria Jackson embraces Weird Al and Michael Richards celebrates and... oh, wait, that's UHF. Or was it Dabney Coleman ? I seem to recall some movie where Dabney Coleman was the bad guy and he got broadcast saying nasty things. No, wait, it was that Eddie Murphy movie, and it was that senator, and somehow Joe Don Baker was involved...
Well, anyway, this movie goes all-out with this well-worn device, using all the prerequisite reaction shots: passers-by on a sidewalk stopping to watch a shop window TV - cut to mom and pop in their rocking chairs, sitting by the old B&W with the 6 inch screen - cut to the crowded barroom staring gape-mouthed at a screen... Same shot sequence as the opening of "Anchorman," in fact. Except add in stock helicopter flyovers of Times Square, the Ginza, etc., the big screens making the big payback even big big bigger.
What a nice idea. The basic assumption is that wider dispersal means more believable - the broadcast is SO big, so worldwide, that no amount of spin could fix it. Why, if it were just a local TV interruption, Mr. Big Bad could spin it away, no problem - but it interrupted Leno. In Japan !
I like the idea of media as a weapon. "Aha, you have a gun in my face, but the tables have turned cause I got BAD PUBLICITY on you !"
And it has to be something that will get the bad guy arrested - in real life, any corporate monster is going to be much more afraid of shareholders dumping stock than any actual jail time.
Anyway, so, the moral of the story, besides "when you kill people, they die," is: Human Knowledge Belongs to the World !
So those programmers were murdered for their code, then the hero declares that he's "given back the code" to the dead programmers by releasing it to the public - so, somehow, making the source code they wrote available for download appeases their revenge-minded spirits ? Are the restless earth-bound ghosts that tech-savvy ?
This movie actually tries to make a moral stance out of what amounts to industrial espionage and property theft, aka the very real problem of software piracy, by referencing the Open-Source movement. Hey, I'm all for open-source software - but it's not the SAME as pirated software. Not the same at all.
What are we saying, that intellectual property isn't real ? That it doesn't deserve to be protected, but just to be released to the wild ? Well, then, why should programmers work at all ?
It's just a simple-minded movie ending, I know - a Robin Hood story, or read in other political terms, a socialist fable. But this robbing from the rich to give to the poor happens instantly and effortlessly. It's not swiping a sack of gold and then stopping door-to-door and handing it out. Buy the domain name, set up a server, and revenge is SWEET ! So, in fact, this denies that there's any value to the property at all. Human knowledge belongs to the world - thanks, programmers, thanks content-creators, now don't be selfish, don't be greedy, just fork it over. Your work belongs to everyone. The world's benefit is your reward. Our heartiest thanks !
Anyway, if I were a programmer, my job would be cut and outsourced to India, and I'd quit the business and go to culinary school to learn to bake. Yeah - Let them steal CAKE - let 'em just TRY ! Mwah-ha-ha.
Ah, but underneath the power-corrupts message (how many hyphenated terms can I use ?), the message, as well as the last line of the movie, is, "Human knowledge belongs to the world !" (cue triumphant music, freeze-frame on fresh-faced grinning rebel heroes basking in paparazzi approbation).
And fake news reporters wrap up the story lines. That's convenient. Seriously. It really is a great convenience - I'm not griping.
I mean, the plot "twists" and tense thriller moments are actually paced well - not that they're any surprise, but nice tight editing. The script is weak (example line: "When you kill people, they DIE.")
It's always a challenge to have tense thriller moments comprised of people typing on laptops, staring at a screen with pained expressions and saying:
*Click, click* "There... "
*click, click, wait for 'Loading' bar* "C'mon, C'MON ! "
"Get me those IP addresses !"
"But..."
"JUST DO IT !"
So the villain, a handsome Bill Gates with hired goons, is foiled when every worldwide broadcast is interrupted with incriminating video of him declaring, "The people of this town are morons ! I will get no comeuppance !", and then Victoria Jackson embraces Weird Al and Michael Richards celebrates and... oh, wait, that's UHF. Or was it Dabney Coleman ? I seem to recall some movie where Dabney Coleman was the bad guy and he got broadcast saying nasty things. No, wait, it was that Eddie Murphy movie, and it was that senator, and somehow Joe Don Baker was involved...
Well, anyway, this movie goes all-out with this well-worn device, using all the prerequisite reaction shots: passers-by on a sidewalk stopping to watch a shop window TV - cut to mom and pop in their rocking chairs, sitting by the old B&W with the 6 inch screen - cut to the crowded barroom staring gape-mouthed at a screen... Same shot sequence as the opening of "Anchorman," in fact. Except add in stock helicopter flyovers of Times Square, the Ginza, etc., the big screens making the big payback even big big bigger.
What a nice idea. The basic assumption is that wider dispersal means more believable - the broadcast is SO big, so worldwide, that no amount of spin could fix it. Why, if it were just a local TV interruption, Mr. Big Bad could spin it away, no problem - but it interrupted Leno. In Japan !
I like the idea of media as a weapon. "Aha, you have a gun in my face, but the tables have turned cause I got BAD PUBLICITY on you !"
And it has to be something that will get the bad guy arrested - in real life, any corporate monster is going to be much more afraid of shareholders dumping stock than any actual jail time.
Anyway, so, the moral of the story, besides "when you kill people, they die," is: Human Knowledge Belongs to the World !
So those programmers were murdered for their code, then the hero declares that he's "given back the code" to the dead programmers by releasing it to the public - so, somehow, making the source code they wrote available for download appeases their revenge-minded spirits ? Are the restless earth-bound ghosts that tech-savvy ?
This movie actually tries to make a moral stance out of what amounts to industrial espionage and property theft, aka the very real problem of software piracy, by referencing the Open-Source movement. Hey, I'm all for open-source software - but it's not the SAME as pirated software. Not the same at all.
What are we saying, that intellectual property isn't real ? That it doesn't deserve to be protected, but just to be released to the wild ? Well, then, why should programmers work at all ?
It's just a simple-minded movie ending, I know - a Robin Hood story, or read in other political terms, a socialist fable. But this robbing from the rich to give to the poor happens instantly and effortlessly. It's not swiping a sack of gold and then stopping door-to-door and handing it out. Buy the domain name, set up a server, and revenge is SWEET ! So, in fact, this denies that there's any value to the property at all. Human knowledge belongs to the world - thanks, programmers, thanks content-creators, now don't be selfish, don't be greedy, just fork it over. Your work belongs to everyone. The world's benefit is your reward. Our heartiest thanks !
Anyway, if I were a programmer, my job would be cut and outsourced to India, and I'd quit the business and go to culinary school to learn to bake. Yeah - Let them steal CAKE - let 'em just TRY ! Mwah-ha-ha.