For the first time since I can remember, Elizabet and I put aside all of our work and various to-do lists and took off to see a movie in the middle of the week. We had quite a few movie options because its also actually been quite a while since we've been to the theater at all. Out of "Knocked Up", "Live Free, Die Hard", "Transformers", and "Ratatouille" the obvious choice was of course "Live Free Die Hard". It sounded fun and after the last few days... we both really needed a dose of fun.
I guess I arrived fairly uninitiated because what I really wasn't prepared for in this movie at all were all the tech / computer / geek references. Actually "references" is an understatement. The entirety of the plot is centered around a terrorist-style computer hacking incident of mythical proportions. Ultimately it was one implausible scenario after another, ultimately culminating in Bruce dodging a very lethal attack from a F-35 Joint Strike Fighter... which was really fun to watch - have you come to expect anything less from a Die Hard sequel?
I'm tempted to say that I think I got an extra level of enjoyment out of it over the non-geek movie goer simply because in an attempt to follow the "geek dialog" it became painfully obvious that they were totally making stuff up. In one of the first scenes, when the FBI's computer systems have just been hacked, one FBI dude turns to another and says something like "Our system has been compromised from the outside... its not DOS level but they definitely cracked the door. What the heck does that mean? It was almost as if the writer just had to show off the fact that they knew the acronym for Denial of Service even though it didn't quite fit.
I think my favorite part though was during a hacker vs hacker type scene where one geek causes another geek's computer to start displaying all kinds of pop-up ads for Viagra, sex toys and whatever else. What a great example of the filmmaker taking something totally incomprehensible to the common citizen - computer hacking - and making it something that they can relate to - pop up ads. Genius. Its at that point where the hacker who has just been inundated with flashing Viagra ads yells -- "Its an e-bomb!". Awesome! I'm already trying to figure out how to work that one into some code comments on my next project.