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21

A while ago I asked this question and the result was this.

Following the response I got in the meta question I'm re-asking the question with new guidelines to focus it on the direction I wanted it to have originally.

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The guidelines are as follows: by "programming related" I mean movies from which we can learn about stuff like the development process, or history of software/computers, or programming culture. In other words, they must be grounded in the industry. No tangential stuff.

Good entries answer as many of the following criteria as possible:

  1. Teach you about the history of the industry, or the development process, or teach you about important industry related topics (software patents for example)
  2. Are based on real life events, companies, people, practices, and they are the main focus of the movie
  3. After watching them, you feel like you understand or know something about the programmers' world that you didn't before (or you can see how someone could have such a response).
  4. You can point to it and say "this faithfully represents the industry/programmer culture at some point in time". This might be something you would show laymen to explain to them what "your people" are like and what is it that you do.

Examples for good entries include:

  • Pirates of Silicon Valley- the story of how Microsoft and Apple started the industry.
  • Revolution OS- The story of Linux's rise to fame, and a pretty good cover of the Free Software/Open Source world.
  • Aardvark'd: 12 Weeks with Geeks- development process.

Examples for bad entries:

  • Movies who's sole relevance is that they can be appreciated by programmers. The point of this question is not to be "what are some good movies" with "for a programmer" appended to it. Just because the writers got a few computer jokes right in itself doesn't make it about the industry.
  • Movies where there's a computer related element, but are not about the industry. For example, 24 (the TV series). It's a product of the information age but it isn't actually about it. Another example is movies where there's a really cool programmer character, but are overall about something completely different. Likewise, The Big Bang Theory is not about physics, even though they have a cool physicist as a character.
  • Science fiction, even if it draws ideas from computers. For example, the Matrix trilogy.
  • Movies that you can't point to them and say: this is a faithful representation of our world (at some point in time). If you can't do that then it doesn't mirror the industry.

Keep it one entry per answer so that the voting could sort the entries out.

EDIT: of all the entries I still like Pirates of Silicon Valley the best, so I'm selecting it as the answer.

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Since the original question hasn't been closed, is this question really necessary and not just an almost exact duplicate? – gablin Oct 10 '10 at 14:13
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@gablin Since the previous question was trashed, I'm going to close it as a duplicate of this. – TheLQ Oct 10 '10 at 14:32
@gablin You'll notice that I voted to close the previous question. I'm hoping that this question will replace the original. – EpsilonVector Oct 10 '10 at 16:07
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@Mark: He discuss it on meta and he was advised to do that. The edit will invalidate most answers on old question. meta.programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/416/… – bigown Oct 11 '10 at 6:58
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@bigown whoever advised him to do that is mistaken. The question should be updated to be on-topic/constructive, and the answers should be reviewed. If the answers still suck, they should be down-voted. The goal is to have one question with the best possible answers, not to re-phrase the same question over and over again in hopes of a better result. – user8 Oct 11 '10 at 17:34
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closed as off topic by Anna Lear♦ Nov 6 '11 at 4:34

Questions on Programmers Stack Exchange are expected to relate to software development within the scope defined in the FAQ. Consider editing the question or leaving comments for improvement if you believe the question can be reworded to fit within the scope. Read more about closed questions here.

14 Answers

up vote 16 down vote

The Social Network

It (mostly) accurately depicts a number of aspects of the world of software development and entrepreneurship. The personal aspects are exaggerated, but the technical jargon seems accurate, and it's an interesting view of the problems of a quickly growing startup.

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You stole my answer :o – Jonas Oct 10 '10 at 16:19
4  
It's only accurate in the sense that there is a company called Facebook that was founded by students from Harvard, it's been very successful, and there have been rancorous legal disputes among the founders. The director and the author of the book that inspired the movie both capitalize on folk's belief that it is a true story, but when they get pinned down they admit that the book and the movie are mostly their own imagination of what it "might have been" like. – Charles E. Grant Oct 10 '10 at 18:07
Aw, I was training for the intern test and everything :( takes a shot – glasnt Nov 10 '10 at 6:33
+1 for being the first one to say it – Aditya P Mar 24 '11 at 12:57
up vote 15 down vote accepted

Pirates of Silicon Valley

Good artists copy... Great artists steal. The story of how Microsoft and Apple started the PC revolution. The chronology is a bit off, but otherwise accurate. A very well done movie.

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1  
See my comment about "Social Network". If you want entertainment, these movies are fine, but they inevitably will sacrifice facts for entertainment value. It you want factual information about the history of the computer industry, you are better off sticking to genuine documentaries like "Code Rush, or books like "Fire in the Valley". – Charles E. Grant Oct 10 '10 at 18:18
2  
So you put the question and the answer 2 hours apart then proceed to accept your own answer. I believe WTF is in order. – Baboon Aug 24 '12 at 8:44
@Baboon I accepted my own answer months after posting the question. I watched the other recommendations and deciding that out of all the entries here, I still like Pirates of Silicon Valley the best. – EpsilonVector Aug 25 '12 at 9:41
up vote 15 down vote

Anyone who's ever worked in IT absolutely has to watch Office Space at some point, and compare their experience with the workplace from hell depicted in the movie. It certainly fits into your "teaching about the industry" category... as a stark warning of what happens when it goes very very bad.

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1  
+1 - this is the most realistic movie about the Corporate Culture in the U.S. – Metro Smurf Mar 5 '11 at 19:38
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@timday - Just started watching it this morning after you're recommendation... absolutely hilarious. "Yyyyyyyeah, it's Bill Lumbergh, mmmkay". What a character. – Anonymous Aug 24 '12 at 14:10
up vote 10 down vote

Code Rush

A behind the scenes look at the Mozilla open source project back in 1998.

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up vote 6 down vote

Micro Men

In 1979 Clive Sinclair, British inventor of the pocket calculator, frustrated by the lack of home investment in his project,the electric car, also opposes former assistant Chris Curry's belief that he can successfully market a micro-chip for a home computer. A parting of the ways sees Curry, in partnership with the Austrian Hermann Hauser and using whizz kid Cambridge students, set up his own, rival firm to Sinclair Radionics, Acorn. Acorn beat Sinclair to a lucrative contract supplying the BBC with machines for a computer series. From here on it is a battle for supremacy to gain the upper hand in the domestic market.

Has a really nice feeling about it how it captures the spirit of the times.

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Love this film - demonstrates the important role that British entrepreneurs played in those early days... – MattDavey Aug 24 '12 at 10:01
up vote 6 down vote

Revolution OS

A documentary about Linux's rise to popularity, and its Open Source/Free Software roots.

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Why so few upvotes? This movie is awesome! – Anto Mar 5 '11 at 13:27
up vote 4 down vote

The Big Bang Theory

It's not a movie but a TV Serie. It's so amazing that I wanted to put it as an answer even if not appropriate. Feel free to downvote me, I deserve it ;)

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1  
I like your humour. You made me lol with your answer. -1 (Although I really wanted to upvote this one for kicks) – Terence Ponce Oct 10 '10 at 17:20
There were a popular home-made series on Google video/Youtube, about a geek (or a pair of), at episode ~#13 I recall a girl who plays WoW with her b/f. Anyone remember? – kagali-san Oct 10 '10 at 22:27
The Big Bang Theory is full of jokes like that. I did watch another episode yesterday. I'm addicted ;) – user2567 Oct 11 '10 at 6:56
@mhambra: You may be thinking about "The Guild", but they're always playing some game tho'. – Spoike Feb 15 '11 at 9:54
2  
@mhambra do you perhaps mean Pure Pwnage? – Htbaa Mar 24 '11 at 11:18
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up vote 2 down vote

The KGB, the Computer and Me about a group of hackers in Germany working for the KGB getting chased by an american astronomer and administrator. It's about a real incident. The movie 23 is also about that hacker group.

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up vote 2 down vote

Inventions That Changed The World - Computers

Knowing the history of computers is always fascinating, especially if you know how to program them.

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up vote 2 down vote

Nerds 2.0.1: A Brief History of the Internet

Haven't actually seen this one yet, but it looks promising.

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up vote 1 down vote

History of Computer Animation

or

The Story of Computer Graphics

Summary from IMDB:

The History of Computer Animation Volume 1 takes you on a delirious trip through a strange and magical world where anything can be created - from chrome dinosaurs to a melancholy nightclub piano player. From the very first uses of computers to create motion and make art - to the futuristic wizardry of motion picture special effects, this award winning one-hour documentary explores the furthest reaches of computer animation using the hypnotic works of over 150 production companies and artists from around the world! See how computer animation sequences are built up step-by-step, from the construction of wire frame models to the addition of color, lighting and texture. Dozens of spectacular, state-of-the-art examples show the effective use of computer graphics in such diverse fields as advertising, production, business communication , architectural and product design, education, medicine, scientific research, real time simulation, children's games and dramatic production.

I've seen The Story of Computer Graphics, which is really good if you're into graphics, but the History of Computer Animation is newer and I'm assuming it pretty much covers the same material.

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up vote 1 down vote

The Machine that Changed The World

Documentary that aired on PBS... 4 part series. Starts with the human computers of WWII on through relatively modern times. Very informative, highly recommended.

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up vote 1 down vote

I would recommend to watch The Code which is about Linux and open source in general.

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up vote 1 down vote

Well, cracking (and not hacking as incorrectly abused) still involves programming at some points. Thus I see that nobody has mentioned Takedown and WarGames. The second one is a classic. Some more to watch just for fun are Sneakers and (if not already watched since it's relatively recent) Swordfish.

PS: IMHO Antitrust, WarGames: The Dead Code, and Hackers are just a waste of time.

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