On Call

We all know how absurd computers in movies can be.  They can do whatever is necessary for the plot, far beyond what real computers can do.  The older the movie the better, since these computers will have ridiculously ancient trappings but still manage something like consciousness.

A prime example is the cautionary tale known as WarGames, a 1983 film starring Matthew Broderick as a whiz kid who hacks into a government computer and almost starts a global nuclear war.  It's actually pretty good if you ignore some of the sillier plot elements.

But watching it recently it struck me that not only will kids today laugh at the computers, they'll look at other stuff and wonder what's going on.  In particular, there's a small scene after Broderick escapes from the feds and needs to call girlfriend Ally Sheedy.  He's dropped off by the side of the road (he hitchhiked!--do people do that any more?) where he finds a phone booth in the middle of nowhere.  We don't have phone booths any more, and what we do have aren't generally just sitting there by themselves along the side of the road.  He doesn't have money so, being a master of technology, unscrews the mouthpiece knowing if he can make some sort electrical arc he'll get a dial tone.  Okay, I'll buy that.  But he needs a piece of metal to do it.  So he goes outside, looks on the ground and finds a pull-tab someone threw away from a beverage can.  What's that?  Finally, he gets the dial tone and next thing you know he's dialing a--huh?--rotary phone.

Why didn't he just pull out his cell?

PS  Lately I've seen a bunch of 80s films reflecting the fear of nuclear war.  I guess it was in the air, with the nuclear freeze movement, the book The Fate Of The Earth, TV's The Day After and opposition to Ronald Reagan.  So we get stuff like WarGames and Miracle Mile and The Manhattan Project.  Nuclear destruction makes for a dramatic situation, though they seem a bit overwrought today. (Not that there's no threat any more.)