It’s fun to see a movie that has some relationship to reality when it comes to development.
There are many movies that try portray the R&D environment disturbingly disconnected to reality. I have criticized the “notorious and infamous” scene from Swordfish Movie (article here) a few times here in this Repo…
Luckily, there are several films that are entitled to the task of showing the development work. Of course that they do take some poetic license but they do not drop being fun and informative. They do a good job showing the reality of a developers work and problems.
Pentagon Wars
An epic . Tells the story of the beginning of manufacture of the Bradley, an American troop transport vehicle.
Why it’s cool for developers ?
All that should not be done in terms of project management, happens in this film. Great for case study of failed projects. I have spared one of the best sequences of this movie.
Office Space
Another epic. Tells the story of a frustrated programmer who changes his life after a poorly finished hypnosis session.
The scene where the computer takes a turn is fantastic. Not to mention the despair that is putting up a printer that clogs up all the time. This film is practically a course!
Why it’s cool for developers ?
It shows that contrary to what the films show the development in life is not always good. Topics such as ethics and motivation, affecting both the employees and employers are placed and exposed. In addition, several life lessons are also present.
The First $ 20 Million Is Always the Hardest
Account the story of a guy who was “the man” in marketing and decided to use his engineering degree. Although some fanciful developments, the parody of “good projects are heaven, bad projects are hell” is very true …
Why it’s cool for developers ?
It shows how difficult it is to get catch on a new product. Shows how a brilliant team can achieve little if there is no real teamwork. And also, the best scene.
Best Defense
Tells the history of nowhere brilliant engineer who encounters a large gyroscope solution. He steals without knowing how it works, takes the credit and the thing gets worse. Furthermore, the film draws parallels between the design and the use of this invention.
Why it’s cool for developers ?
It shows clearly how bad design decisions can affect a system later. This film traces the parallel between design and implementation of a poorly designed product.
The Martian
survival Style . An astronaut gets stuck on Mars after an accident during a storm on the return day before to Earth.
Why it’s cool for developers ?
It shows how the astronaut has to think to solve their problems. In every action, there is the cycle of thinking, assess, simulate and act. Without revealing spoliers worth seeing how he solved his problems.
Pi
The story of a mathematician / eccentric programmer It comes close to a disturbing mathematical result represented by a 216 digit number.
Why it’s cool for developers ?
It shows what happens with developers that are fixed in any idea no matter where and to whom they are working. Furthermore, it shows a little fanciful, as is to be a brilliant guy but completely misunderstood. And the best scene I think of this movie.
Kenoma
One of the few Brazilian movies of this genre. It tells the story of an inventor and dreamer to create a perpetual motion machine. Leaving aside the typical scenario of “drought in the Brazilian Northeast region”, the film is quite good to point the conflict between reality, dream, money and poverty.
Why it’s cool for developers ?
First, it is a dream. A dream obviously impossible to achieve, but it is believed by anything-but-virtuous investor. What if instead of a perpetual motion machine, it was a massive destruction weapon? It makes the developer think about what he’s developing …
The Imitation Game
Account romantically the story of Alan Turing. If not the father, certainly one of the biggest names in computing. Without much more to add, because surely everyone knows him very well.
Why it’s cool for developers ?
First because it tells a little of the history of man. Although not very keen historically, it is certainly a good way to explain how are developers in fact and mainly explains that when trying to automate something, developers suffers a penalty of latency before showing any output, but then the later gains are worth it. Or, in other words, that good development takes time.
In the next post, the worst movies with developers.
