Keyboards in movies/TV series!

[Muirium]

Yeah, something about Einstein seems to attract bad writers and producers. No audience is too dumb to recognise him, right? Just give some old guy an accent and a wig!

I'm always amazed that the cliché image of genius is Einstein is as a grey haired old man, when he actually did all his best work before he was 30. (though of course he'd be old when he met Marilyn)

Indeed. It's all about tropes. As he got older – and especially after the atomic bomb became tangible evidence of the power of his theories – he looked like the mad old scientist of legend that we always wanted. Or indeed insist on! Remember: scientists = wizards, so you measure them by their white hairs.

When did Hawking's renown kick in? After his confinement to a wheelchair I presume? He gets to escape the white haired old guy shtick because that one is his own. Ah, culture!

[mr_a500]

It looks like a keyboard in the foreground. Not seen in the movie.

Nice find. Too bad it didn't make the cut. That's my main disappointment about Star Wars - no keyboards ....aside from this thing, of course:

Death Star keyboard.jpg

[Grond]

Margin Call (2011). A Wall Street movie, so you know there's plenty of keyboards to be spotted.






In this case is mostly the Bloomberg Terminal keyboard.

[Pacifist]

Don't have pics on me right now, but all the die hards have keyboards in them and so does wolf of wall stree

[Grond]

Right, I found a couple from the first Die Hard (1988). There's probably more of the same in the film.





And here's some from The Island (2005). Apparently in the future keyboards kind of suck...






...but the worst thing is how we'll gather informations: :S

Spoiler:

[Muirium]

Glad that one didn't pan out!

The Die Hard keyboard has a few features from the IBM PC/XT. The high hat caps, the wall of caps layout with 2u and 3u keys at the bottom right, and of course the pen holder! That's no Model F, though. No curve in the backplate. Could be one of its many clones.

Meanwhile, I love a good metal keyboard like the second picture from last. The look of it reminds me of Apple's keyboards since they went aluminium (a year or two after the film) and the .com key was soon to be on touch screens the world over!

[JesuswasaZombie]

Anyone seen The Double yet? Caught a blank keypad in it, maybe the bird electron one with different caps (red row on top)?

Great movie, loved the amazing prop work. Same director as Submarine.

[Grond]

Meanwhile, I love a good metal keyboard like the second picture from last. The look of it reminds me of Apple's keyboards since they went aluminium (a year or two after the film) and the .com key was soon to be on touch screens the world over!

Is that even futuristic? I think I've seen those around since the 90s. But it makes sense they need to go to a msn kiosk for a on-the-go search on the internet, because here's the best phone you can find in the future:

Spoiler:

[Muirium]

There was nothing futuristic about "chiclet" keyboards: wasn't the PC Jr. the machine to make them famous in the 80s? But I do like metal caps, especially on a matching metal faceplate. Looks like the kind of keyboard you'd find in the top dog's office of an evil corporate empire…

Anyway, this keyboard wasn't featured on film or TV, but as it's BASIC's birthday, here's its creator and his daughter at a teletype terminal:

Image 4: John Kemeny and his daughter Jennifer look genuinely awed by this revolutionary technology. The lady in the portrait remains unimpressed.

For the dude who invented one of history's most influentially bad programming languages, he still had a nice car.

Image 5: Kemeny’s vanity plates. If this car still exists, I will buy it. Let me know.

http://notational.tumblr.com/post/84647 ... -dartmouth


And here's Woz at his Apple II and his story of how interpreting BASIC led him to make the Apple I.


http://gizmodo.com/how-steve-wozniak-wr ... 1570573636

Surprisingly clean looking bedroom office he's got there…

[Grond]

Boiler Room (2000). This is very disappointing for keyboard spotting, considering it's a Wall Street movie. There's plenty of keyboards in it, but they're all like this: :S

[mr_a500]

For the dude who invented one of history's most influentially bad programming languages, he still had a nice car.

Hey! I won't have you bad-mouthing BASIC. (...at least not the good versions of it)

Since Muirium already went horribly off topic, I'll post a video I just saw today - describing what the far future of 2001 will be like:

[Muirium]

I saw that a few years ago. It's terrific! And completely accurate… about what corporate futurists expected at the time.

[Findecanor]

Boiler Room (2000). This is very disappointing for keyboard spotting, considering it's a Wall Street movie. There's plenty of keyboards in it, but they're all like this: :S

I would guess that is a Compaq, seeing that it is white and has that printed warning text.

[Grond]

Looks like a Compaq indeed, though I didn't see any branding in the movie – besides the guy's monitor, which happens to be a Samsung.

[Perrko]

Here are a couple of keyboards from the movie Pi (1998).

Keyboard from the movie Pi

pi kb.jpg (283.64 KiB) Viewed 9896 times

Another Keyboard from the same movie

pi kb 2.jpg (260.11 KiB) Viewed 9896 times

[Grond]

Great find! The first one seem to sport Cherry doubleshots as well as older sphericals, and apparently some other keys from a typewriter. I remembered the film had strange "naked" custom computers but I didn't expect it to feature such an unusual keyboard!

[Muirium]

We tried to figure out what they were, back here:

http://deskthority.net/photos-videos-f8 ... t5566.html

[Perrko]

The people that put all the props together in these kind of movies really know their stuff.
I mean, it makes everything look so much better when then strip and change a keyboard to look home made or futuristic.
It makes me wanna have a custom keyboard where you can actually see the pcb and everything. Making it look very uniqe .

[kile]

Have you ever lost a tooth over a keyboard?

[Grond]

Gattaca (1997). This has been discussed before and identified as QTRONIX Scorpius 83A (QX-083). It's also used as a murder weapon! The movie offers several shots of this same keyboard, but no other models are to be found in it.






Star Wars Episode IV – A New Hope (1977). A couple of "keyboards" in the Death Star. Those have been posted before, but perhaps I have better shots – froma a 1080p rip.




I also found a sort of keyboard in Star Wars Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2003). Yes, it's almost as lousy as the movie itself.

[mr_a500]

I still want one of those mini vacuums in Gattaca.

[Grond]

Yes, that's pretty cool! I think this may be the only film in which we see both a keyboard being cleaned AND a keycap being pulled!

[E TwentyNine]

I still want one of those mini vacuums in Gattaca.

Google "battery powered keyboard vacuum", there's a bunch out there, some very close to that one.

[mr_a500]

Wow, you're right!

It's not as spiffy, though.

[E TwentyNine]

This one's pretty close: http://www.airyear.com/proskit-msc001-m ... 28575.html

[Halvar]

Wow, you're right!

It's not as spiffy, though.

I have this one. Utter crap, don't buy.

[Muirium]

Not quite the right thread, but I know no better one. Name that keyboard!


http://caveviews.blogs.com/.a/6a00d8341 ... 799970b-pi

Adobe's founders, back in the lab.

[Perrko]

An IMSAI 8080 from the movie wargames (1983)

[mr_a500]

That one's pretty obvious. It's the most talked about computer movie ever.

I just noticed though - on his shelf is the first VHS VCR made - the JVC Videostar HR-3300:

[mr_a500]

Not quite the right thread, but I know no better one. Name that keyboard!


http://caveviews.blogs.com/.a/6a00d8341 ... 799970b-pi

Adobe's founders, back in the lab.

I thought that was a joke photo. The guy on the left looks like his face was morphed with a chimp or something.