16 Memorable OSes and UIs From the Big Screen

Posted 10/21/2011 at 1:45pm | by Paul Escallier

Hollywood has a way with computer tech that makes an impression, whether we laugh out loud or cry with envy.

Hollywood has always had a way with the OSes and UIs it shows on the big screen. Sometimes they're so far-fetched, all you can do is laugh, other times they're eerily accurate portrayals of future technology, and then there are the few that just make you jealous with envy. Here are a few of our favorites that Hollywood has given use, but give us some slack on what constitutes an OS or UI...Hollywood isn't always clear about that. Be sure to add your own in the comments, too.

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The Terminator - Cyberdyne Systems Model 101 (or is it the T-850, or maybe the T-800?), the Terminator is not only a badass killing machine, but has a wicked fancy killing machine UI as well.
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Jedi Temple Archives - It doesn’t get much cooler than an interactive holographic star map of the entire galaxy. The Jedi Temple even hosts a seemingly huge server cluster with some sort of holographic mini-interface.
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Quantum of Solace - Who knows what it’s called, but Quantum of Solace featured some sort of tactile multitouch display built into a table that could scan and recognize a $20 bill just by placing it on the display. You could also fling images across the room onto wall mounted displays.
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Tron - Tron was host to a myriad of awesome computer tech. For starters, Master Control Program had a touch screen based UI built straight into a desk. Then there’s the high powered scanning laser that injects you straight into the bit-wide world of computing.
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The Matrix - When it comes to an advanced operating system, you can’t get much more advanced than the Matrix. It’s the entire world, running inside of a computer. Don’t even get us started on the brain searing awesomeness of the knowledge injecting software they have.
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Avatar - Where the Matrix could project someone’s mind into a computer, Avatar took it a step further and projected it into an entirely different being. It kind of gives new meaning to the word “Proxy.”
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Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - There’s nothing cooler than a hot chick with a bunch of fancy gadgets. Lara Croft’s clearly military grade hardware had some pretty impressive software to go with it, capable of breaking ciphers, satellite imagery, and rendering 3D schematics.
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Minority Report - It’s difficult to describe the PreCrime units interface found in Minority Report. The best explanation would probably be to call it a touchless multitouch display. We may be closer to utilizing something similar in the near future. Don't believe us? Check this out.
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Star Trek: The Next Generation's LCARS - The Library Computer Accesss/Retrieval System or “LCARS” first popped up in The Next Generation and was used in subsequent Star Trek movies. Fans loved the interface so much that they’ve created LCARS based themes for Windows, Linux, and the iPhone.
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I, Robot - I, Robot was filled with advanced tech, from hockey puck size projection puzzle boxes/voice recorders to a confused super computer named VIKI with a floating holographic head.
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Dune - It may not look it, but back in 1984 when Dune came out, the computer capabilities showed on screen were highly advanced. Real-time 3D rendering was an extremely complex task for computers of the era to tackle.
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Cube Zero - Cube Zero gave a glimpse into just how the torturous cube prison system worked, with an impressive scanning capability linked with implanted neural chips. It could relay all sorts of feedback from within the cube to its equally imprisoned operators.
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Alien - Ridley Scott’s Alien laid host to all sorts of interesting concepts, like android AI, advanced flight computers, and “Mother”, the ships main operating system. Computer images shown were all realistically achievable at the time, but Hollywood was able to spruce things up further with high-level voice commands.
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Source Code - Even though the title has basically nothing to do with the concept behind the movie, Source Code presents several different user interfaces that actually play as plot devices, including a surprisingly simple interface that reveals the mind blowing twist at the end.
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Sunshine - As a Sci-Fi psychological thriller, it comes as no surprise that Sunshine had plenty of pretty computer screens to look at. Yeah, the science behind the whole movie was a little wonky, to say the least, but you can’t deny the fact that the computer systems, including a holographic simulation room, were well done.
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The A-Team - The A-Team is the latest in a long line of badass spec ops style movies, and one thing movies like this all have in common are impossibly invasive and ridiculously “secure” computer systems that can miraculously track people from around the world. The A-Team was no exception.

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allbestmessage

January 24, 2012 at 9:23pm

Digital camera uses aim friendship sms postcard to store memorable pictures and then exploiter transfers the memorable pictures in funny messages the Mac operating system, this is mainly because Mac operating flirt messages design is very powerful operating system.

caterin

January 05, 2012 at 1:53am

. I also know that Lio Lina quit working, but I don't know where she went - just that she did quit. I’ve followed up on all the revelers, too.Phlebotomy Training

gustyk

October 28, 2011 at 7:49am

... and the king of kings: WAR GAMES!

phoenixjc

October 26, 2011 at 1:01am

I have to say, that my favorite thing has to be the boot screen from any of the computers from Hackers. I tried to find a way to do that back with my computer at the time (Running Windows 98 I believe).

I have to admit though, the "keyboard" that Hal (Penn Jillette) uses was a pretty interesting, if not uncomfortable, "UI" when paired with the Gibson OS.

great_raisin

October 25, 2011 at 8:30pm

Why isn't the OS from Iron Man on this list...? Tony Stark does some wickedly cool stuff with his omni-sensing gadgets. ;)

EarthBoundMisfit

October 29, 2011 at 2:15am

I was going to ask that one myself....

Zyryn

October 25, 2011 at 8:03pm

How about the gigantic display at NORAD from "WarGames"? And of course, the artificially-intelligent OS itself, "Joshua" as embodied by the WOPR (War Operations Plan & Response). A computer that can plan attacks and defenses for a WWIII scenario is cool on its own--but a computer that prefers to play chess or tic-tac-toe against its own creator/programmer? Now THAT'S COOL.

szore

October 24, 2011 at 1:43am

The Dune thing was lame, and I always hated minority report. Are we supposed to stand up and flail our arms around just to check our email? Stoopid, stoopid, stoopid.

fallout330

October 25, 2011 at 11:56am

Not sure how you hated Minority Report, overall it had a good rating(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181689/). I though it was an excellent story. In regards to the tech, very interesting and intruiging possbilities. I'm sure if the UI was a reality, there would probablly be settings for other interface options, I'm sure one wouldn't need to flail their arms around, unless one wanted to. :)

laxlawe

October 23, 2011 at 9:45am

JARVIS and the HUD's from Iron Man and Iron Man 2

hmp_goose

October 22, 2011 at 6:49am

Funny: Iwas thinking of all the Warp boxes in GoldenEye about half an hour ago, for some reason …

biggiebob12345

October 22, 2011 at 3:25am

Live Free or Die Hard. WAR1OCK had a kick ass UI on his command center. It was artist animated though and not actually real.

Slurpy

October 22, 2011 at 12:33am

Yeah, not sure if that "Dune" pic is actually from Short Circuit, but it's definitely not Dune - pretty sure the Butlerian Jihad would have taken out Macs as well as PCs.

And the pic from TNG isn't from TNG, it's from DS9.

/nerd

thechipper

October 21, 2011 at 10:07pm

Gamer

Surrogates

X-Men

Starship Troopers

wbrice83186

October 21, 2011 at 9:42pm

Whoah!!! Great list, very interesting, but one of the coolest was left out, IMO:

Remember that display that they used in the first X-Men movie? It was when they were planning their attack on Magneto, where it rendered the Statue of Liberty into what amounted to that toy with the nails that you put your hand under? Seriously cool.

Biceps

October 21, 2011 at 6:46pm

Sorry if I'm killing the mystery, but the greenish vertical matrix print is just a mirror image of the Japanese katakana alphabet. It does look pretty cool, though.

dustyco

October 21, 2011 at 6:23pm

Forgot HAL

luusyphre

October 21, 2011 at 3:47pm

Where's Jurassic Park? It's a UNIX system!

don2041

October 21, 2011 at 3:10pm

Being a Star Trek fan from the very first episode I had to try out LCARS. WOW this is what Winows 8 should look like. I,m going to play with this for a while

Keith E. Whisman

October 21, 2011 at 7:06pm

Windows 8 actually looks like it will be super easy to build an LCARS theme for the UI. Hell you can probably just adjust some of the box/icon sizes and colors and change some back grounds here and there and voila, LCARS.

WORMSS

October 21, 2011 at 3:02pm

I'm with Caboose, That looks like Short Circuit to me, where he is teaching the robot to play piano.

(But I could be wrong, I've not seen that film in 15 years, but I don't usually forget anything).

Caboose

October 21, 2011 at 2:06pm

The screenshot for Dune looks like it was actually from Short Circuit

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16 Memorable OSes and UIs From the Big Screen

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