World on a Wire 

Somewhere in the future there is a computer project called Simulacron one of which is able to simulate a full featured reality, when suddenly project leader Henry Vollmer dies. His ... See full summary »

Stars:

Klaus Löwitsch, Barbara Valentin, Mascha Rabben

1 win.

Cast

Complete series cast summary:
Klaus Löwitsch	...	Fred Stiller unknown episodes

Storyline

Somewhere in the future there is a computer project called Simulacron one of which is able to simulate a full featured reality, when suddenly project leader Henry Vollmer dies. His successor Dr. Fred Stiller experiences odd phenomena. A good friend, Guenther Lause, disappears in the middle of a conversation and a week later nobody has ever heard of him. And those fits of dizzyness - Stiller cannot believe himself to be fool. There has to be an explanation for all this. Could Simulacron have something to do with it?

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Plot Keywords:

future | computer | mysterious death | cybernetics | research institute | 

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Genres:

Crime | Mystery | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

West Germany

Language:

German English

Release Date:

14 October 1973 (West Germany)

Also Known As:

World on a Wire

Filming Locations:

Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Box Office

Budget:

DEM 950,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

205 min (2 parts)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Rainer Werner Fassbinder was only 27 years old when he directed this.

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Goofs

One shot is fired at a car, yet three bullet holes are then seen in the windscreen (2hr 50m).

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Quotes

Franz Hahn: I can imagine what Vollmer's shattering discovery was. I bet it had to do with his attitude towards the identity units we'd programmed in his computer. You remember how he called them "my children".
Fred Stiller: He was only joking.
Franz Hahn: You can't spend years feeding data into a computer that allows for the simulation of every aspect of human behavior without asking yourself if it might lead to the creation of something resembling human consciousness.

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Connections

References Alphaville (1965)

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Soundtracks

Amara terra mia
Music: Domenico Modugno
Lyrics: Enrica Bonaccorti

User Reviews

Welt am Draht changed the way i perceive the world

I saw Welt am Draht in German TV when it was broadcast first, sometime 1973 or 74 i guess. I was nine or ten years old then, and it left a tremendous impression on me -- World On Wires is definitely one of my Myths of Childhood.

The two or three parts were aired again two or three times, the last time i watched it must have been in the eighties. I recorded them, but, very unfortunately, somehow these tapes got lost in the eddies of reality. It is hard to impossible to find Welt am Draht anywhere these days, which is really sad.

Welt am Draht changed the way i perceive the world. It is its credibility, the haunting story, the atmosphere of Germany in the early seventies, the actors, everything. It was very up to date then, and i think it is very much so now. We used to watch a lot of SF on TV, and I remember several serials that were in atmosphere and outlook so close to RWF's Welt, it has almost all melted into a kind of emotion, some sort of dim remembrance of future.