alt.hn

7/5/2026 at 5:33:04 PM

Starring the Computer

 https://www.starringthecomputer.com/computers.html

by gitowiec

7/5/2026 at 6:42:32 PM

IBM's AN-FSQ-7 panels from 1950s SAGE have shown up in a huge number of movies. They are still showing up in new movies. Woody's Electrical Props in LA rents them out.[1]

Those slanted panels aren't the computer. Those are the modems.

[1] https://woodysprops.com/item.php?uid=122&page=4

by Animats

7/5/2026 at 6:17:02 PM

Fun Fact: in king of queens, most of the pcs (for example airport episode with doug's parents) are just RCT tvs with paper printout of a screen taped over it.

by ssenssei

7/5/2026 at 8:33:25 PM

Reminds me of the fake computers (and TV's) in furniture stores that were made of cardboard

by bluedino

7/5/2026 at 8:15:04 PM

Wasn’t there a PowerBook in Blade (I)?

by bsdooby

7/5/2026 at 5:52:15 PM

While not a movie, a bunch of NeXT Cubes (at least the monitors) were used in a Madonna video --- apparently some production company got a good deal on machines intended for Japan (hence the katakana interface)

by WillAdams

7/5/2026 at 6:00:31 PM

Cool, what video?

by emchammer

7/5/2026 at 6:07:59 PM

It's "Rain" (1993)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15kWlTrpt5k

by svantana

7/5/2026 at 6:15:29 PM

With Ryûichi Sakamoto as The Director.

by pieterr

7/5/2026 at 6:21:24 PM

He’s the reason Mogwai have a track called “Ritchie Sacramento”

by wgx

7/5/2026 at 5:57:10 PM

What timing. I was just preparing my Sony Vaio PCT-C1MHP only yesterday to try and sell. I remember seeing this in a movie around 2000 (probably Charlies Angels) and got one.

https://www.starringthecomputer.com/computer.html?c=64

by martin-adams

7/5/2026 at 6:57:09 PM

"A machine of this make was Yelena's choice to confirm Xander's car payment and facilitate image uploads of Yorgi's safe!"

by spankibalt

7/5/2026 at 6:16:55 PM

I remember seeing the TRS-80's in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou but I didn't know that they were Model IV's.

According to this list, there was a TRS-80 Model III in the Star Wars TV series Andor:

Andor - Season 1, Episode 1, "Kassa" (2022)

by jim_lawless

7/5/2026 at 6:04:45 PM

No Cray appearances? Surprising.

by hamburglar

7/5/2026 at 6:23:58 PM

Sneakers.

https://www.reddit.com/r/MovieDetails/comments/95izj7/sneake...

by pieterr

7/5/2026 at 6:43:50 PM

On the 'help' page, the Cray-like machine from the film Sneakers is listed under "Honourable mentions":

https://www.starringthecomputer.com/help.html

From the site:

> The following films do not appear on the site because I believe the computers they feature are mock ups and therefore do not qualify.

by st_goliath

7/5/2026 at 7:25:45 PM

That seems like an odd distinction if it's clearly portraying a Cray. It's not like we have any proof that e.g. the Commodore 64 used in Mr. Robot was the real deal.

by hamburglar

7/5/2026 at 7:25:21 PM

Huh. I always thought that there was a Cray in Wargames.

by baal80spam

7/5/2026 at 6:31:54 PM

“sort by year” is buried on the site, but definitely a fun way to sort

there should also be a “you can spot the villain early since they’re the only one not using Apple” sub-list

by timdellinger

7/5/2026 at 7:38:50 PM

Its kinda sad that I've owned 26 of them. :-)

by ChuckMcM

7/5/2026 at 5:33:04 PM

I found ZX Spectrum! And it was not popular in movies

by gitowiec

7/5/2026 at 6:11:51 PM

My fav. so far is the IMSAI 8080 in "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" (2007).

by purplezooey

7/5/2026 at 6:33:21 PM

I feel like the movie Hackers should have more entries.

by petra303

7/5/2026 at 5:45:30 PM

Commodore 64 film list is really impressive.. .

by andrea76

7/5/2026 at 6:17:09 PM

Ones in the List I have used :)

* CDC 6600

* DEC VAX 11/780 (IIRC)

* Honeywell H200, did not expect to see this on the list

* IBM S/370 (IIRC)

* IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads - 760, T43, T420, T61, W500

* Wang Professional Computer - these were bomb proof. I had a 16 bit Unix running on this.

* Wang WLTC

by jmclnx

7/5/2026 at 7:54:06 PM

[dead]

by MoneyBurning