I watched Rogue One on Netflix last weekend and thought there were some funny things about it. Yes I know, Rogue One came out a long time ago so why review it now? Well, the current crop of movies that have been based on Star Trek and Star Wars just don't excite me anymore like they used to. I've decided to just wait for them to come to streaming/television instead of paying the big bucks at the movie theater.
I tried to keep and open mind about Rogue One but some of the technology that was presented I just couldn't take seriously. Before I became a Trainer in an IT department I worked for many years in the Records department. What struck me about Rogue One is that the climax of the movie involves the Rebels assaulting what was in effect the Imperial File Room. We are in a Star Wars Universe where star ships travel between solar systems in the blink of an eye yet the Empire needs a giant "File Room." The Rebels need to retrieve the Death Star plans and they need to go to a giant file repository. The files are digital but are stored on giant hard drives on this huge tower that essentially is a huge file cabinet. To retrieve the records the Rebels are supposed to use mechanical arms to retrieve the hard drive (which of course don't work) but instead need to climb the shelves/racks that are hundreds of feet high. The fact that the files are retrieved by mechanical arms make them more like file shelving than even a rack of servers. Now I know people will say these are server racks and not file shelves but they might as well be because of this mechanical interface. The data is stored more in a physical way and not a true digital way. Oh I forgot, the Star Wars saga takes place a long time ago in a place far far away. What really happened is that the director needed to represent the data in a physical way so that physical action scenes could dramatically portray the retrieval of the data. Also, throughout many scenes characters have to pull large mechanical levers to retrieve files, start an up-link for communications and to realign a giant satellite dish. Mechanical hard drives, giant towers shelving them, mechanical arms and mechanical levers all in a technically advanced universe?
I think the problem I was having was that we are still at a point in our development where things need to be represented physically on a large scale. Granted, a hacker getting the data though digital means isn't as dramatic and action packed as someone scaling a huge tower but which is more modern and real? I think the entertainment industry and society in general is wrestling with a modern era where most important things are going to be invisible, abstract and available in ways we are not used to. Does a director have an actor pull out a paper map or have them get voice navigation from a cell phone or even from an implanted chip?
Well, the Star Wars universe if full of characters using laser based swords that somehow stop three feet from a handle and X-Wing fighters that dodge lasers from huge star ships that don't seem to have any automated targeting. So I guess it makes sense in this universe that electronic files would be kept on over sized hard drives that need to be accessed with mechanical levers from a tower several hundred feet tall. The top of the tower makes a dramatic location for the villain to confront the hero. It is even more dramatic that the hero has to sneak onto a planet and start a diversion with a major land and air battle to get to this really huge file room. I guess it would be boring to have a rebel spy sneak into a real file room and steal some data on a thumb drive or even a hacker do it from their computer at home. I guess it is because I have worked in a file room and in an IT department that I don't see them as being breath taking cinematic locations full of action. Maybe I will watch Rogue One again and see it through fresh eyes that buys into and enjoys the fantasy. Hey, it is just a movie.
