Slashdot Log In
Favorite Film Scientists?
Posted by
Cliff
on Fri May 12, 2006 05:43 PM
from the that-wacky-bunch-from-real-genius dept.
from the that-wacky-bunch-from-real-genius dept.
theodp asks: "From Rotwang in Fritz Lang's Metropolis to Wallace the Engineer in last year's Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Slate notes that scientists have long been a staple of the movies. So who are some of the more memorable scientist characters from your movie-going?"
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
Favorite Film Scientists?
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 546 comments
(Spill at 50!) | Index Only
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Re:Favorite Scientists (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://homepage.mac.com/digidog/PhotoAlbum6.html)
Re:Favorite Scientists (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Thursday July 28 2005, @05:46PM)
Only one choice for me... (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.thevickersfamily.com/ | Last Journal: Tuesday July 29 2003, @12:48PM)
Re:Only one choice for me... (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://people.connexer.com/~roberto)
Re:Only one choice for me... (Score:5, Funny)
Well, not quite a movie, but I don't think anyone can top the professor in Futurama. Who could forget classic lines like:
Movie scientists got nothin' on him.
Great Scott! (Score:3, Funny)
"Nuclear Scientist" Christmas Jones! (Score:3, Funny)
Easy (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Easy (Score:5, Funny)
General "Buck" Turgidson: Doctor, you mentioned the ratio of ten women to each man. Now, wouldn't that necessitate the abandonment of the so-called monogamous sexual relationship, I mean, as far as men were concerned?
Dr. Strangelove: Regrettably, yes. But it is, you know, a sacrifice required for the future of the human race. I hasten to add that since each man will be required to do prodigious... service along these lines, the women will have to be selected for their sexual characteristics which will have to be of a highly stimulating nature.
Ambassador de Sadesky: I must confess, you have an astonishingly good idea there, Doctor. (via imdb, what else)
In The Not Too Distant Future (Score:3, Insightful)
(http://deanasc.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Thursday August 14 2003, @09:14PM)
No contest (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.sethf.com...ut.you.should.visit. | Last Journal: Saturday March 09 2002, @09:41PM)
"If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits eighty-eight miles per hour, you're gonna see some serious shit."
Let's hear another scientist top that quote.
I will pick up that gauntlet (Score:5, Funny)
I humbly submit:
Hell, you could probably take half a dozen other quotes [imdb.com] from The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension [imdb.com].
Of course, Real Genius had some great lines too.
Scientologist (Score:5, Funny)
My Favourite Movie Scientists (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Friday September 01 2006, @04:53PM)
Of course, the real heros [imdb.com] are engineers [imdb.com].
Re:My Favourite Movie Scientists (Score:4, Insightful)
We can REASON with it! (Score:3, Funny)
(Last Journal: Monday October 11 2004, @02:54PM)
He was the prototype for the scientist who, in the face of mortal danger, insists -- "Don't harm it! It is of a higher intelligence than us! We must REASON with it!" Then gets skewered/dismembered/eaten/all of the above.
- Alaska Jack
Obligatory quotes (Score:5, Funny)
(http://davenjudy.org/)
Wow! What knockers!
So which brain did you get?
Abby.
Abby who?
Abby normal.
No Matter Where You Go, There You Are (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://deanasc.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Thursday August 14 2003, @09:14PM)
Hard to pick just one... (Score:5, Insightful)
Dr. Peter Venkman
Dr. Raymond Stantz
Dr. Egon Spengler
Beaker! (Score:5, Funny)
(Last Journal: Monday January 06 2003, @10:36PM)
Kate Beckinsale (Score:3, Funny)
Okay then, I guess it's gotta be Doctor Emmett Brown and his sidekick, Dr. Delorian.
Dr Egon Spengler (Ghostbusters) (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.mahlen.org/)
See, like a true scientist, even when a epic global disaster is about to take place in front of him and his death is imminent, he says something coherent and explanatory. He even apologizes!
mahlen
Stargate SG-1 (TV) (Score:5, Insightful)
Professor Indiana Jones (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://circletimessquare.com/)
Mr. Spock (Score:5, Interesting)
His objectivity, intellect, and curiosity made him the quintessential scientist.
(Okay, he's mostly a TV character, but he appeared in his share of movies.)
Previous /. Polls (Score:5, Informative)
(https://example.com/ | Last Journal: Friday December 22 2006, @02:55PM)
Favorite Mad Scientist? [slashdot.org]
Winner: Dr. Evil
Favorite Scientist? [slashdot.org]
Winner: Einstein
Dr. Gaius Baltar (Score:3, Interesting)
Dr. Ellie Arroway (Contact) (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Dr. Ellie Arroway (Contact) (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Dr. Ellie Arroway (Contact) (Score:5, Informative)
(http://www.cuug.ab.ca/~branderr)
Page 53 of the hardback (2 pages into Ch. 3, "White Noise", it describes Ellie sitting beside the billion-channel signal analyser and also using headphones to listen to a couple of channels at a time. And knowing it was futile to imagine she could find a signal in a few that the computer monitoring the billion could not, "but it gave her a modest illusion of utility".
Subsequent paragraphs make it clear she's also fooling around with different listening patterns - two narrow-band frequencies against each other in different earphones, two planes of polarization, etc - to hone her own ideas of what a pattern recognition approach might be. And also because one often hears pleasant "patterns" in the noise. (Sagan gets poetic here about stars that sing and glissandos of sound.)
It was a very nice evocation of the drives and thinking patterns of the curious scientist at work - poking around in the data personally, kicking it from every angle.
"No Way Out" (Score:3, Interesting)
This is one of my favorite engineer exchanges in movies, from "No Way Out," 1987, with Kevin Costner, Gene Hackman, and Sean Young. A computer is crunching away at a bad photograph which when enhanced will incorrectly incriminate Costner in the death of Sean Young's character. He estimates that he has only a few hours to find the true killer before the photo is legible. The following exchange takes place. (Compare and contrast this with absolutely every other movie and TV show in which a photograph can be zoomed indefinitely by simply clicking on the interesting part, or can be immediately enhanced by the geek of the day with only a few key strokes (never a mouse) upon directions from a superior such as, "Can you make it clearer?")
- What do you want me to do?
- Slow up the resolution on that picture.
I need more time, Sam. I need more time to get this straightened out.
That's what I need.
I'm not satisfied with the way this is coming up. The eigenvalue is off.
Looks all right to me.
We're pulling away from our reference information. Program a Fourier transform.
- That seems like a waste of time.
- Just do what I want, OK?
Need you even ask? (Score:3, Insightful)
(http://acidzebra.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Thursday November 14 2002, @11:49AM)
Dr. Eldon Tyrell (Score:3, Insightful)
Dark City's Dr. Daniel Scheber (Score:5, Interesting)
Dr. Daniel P. Schreber
(played by Keifer Sutherland in Dark City)
Honorable mentions would be:
Dr. Evil & Dr. Stranglove
Re:Dark City's Dr. Daniel Scheber (Score:4, Funny)
"Back off man, I'm a scientist"
Come on People! Edna Mode! (Score:3, Funny)
(http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Thursday February 21 2002, @04:37PM)
"This is a hobo suit, darling. You can't be seen in this. I won't allow it. "
Favorites (Score:3, Interesting)
Gyro Gearloose (Ok, he's an engineer, so what?)
The Brain
Lt. Col. Samantha Carter (they will do another Stargate movie, right?)
Dr. Frank-N-Furter
And purely for looks, Dr. Christmas Jones
Gilligan's Professor (Score:5, Interesting)
He knew nearly everything except how to get them off the island. He was a social misfit, still everyone respected him because of his high intelligence.