Schneier on Security

Alamaine, IVe • June 16, 2006 5:42 PM

I realise this is a little late in the game as far as “movie-base plots”
are concerned but there is still the issue of what inspires people to
respond to events that may involve some sabba-tooging or the creation of
unsettled states of mind in various nefariosities using whatever ways and
means. “Terror” is something that can change according to circumstances
and specific events. Earthquakes, high-rise fires, airplane disasters,
tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, and all sorts of other “normal” or “Godly
act” situations might affect peoples’ range of emotions from
hypersensitivity to insensitivity.

Perhaps a lot depends on what is thrilling, what triggers a person’s
trip. People have lived in the San Francisco Bay Area under the threat
of another “Big One” for about a hundred years. People still live in
places where dams are built upstream from their homes. The Gulf Coast is
not in any danger of being depopulated any time soon. Nevertheless, many
of the same people will find that some eery movie that is filled with
imaginary issues and images to be petrifying. It comes down to some sort
of fascination with the “what-if” rather than the “what-is” reactions and
responses. The pharmaceutical and psyche shrinkers are making a mint off
of people and panic attacks, many of which have no foundation in reality
but remain an accepted fact.

I have long considered movies along the lines of “Die Hard” and “Lethal
Weapon” (and their knock-offs and collective iterations) to be
provocative in the sense that they inspire and incite the inner sanctums,
making them more dangerous than anything “real” could ever be. We see
situations in which the protagonists find themselves, blowing things up
and shooting people, their “star power” blown up as the scenes are shot.
But we don’t see a lot of this in reality, no one like a “John McClane”
or a “Martin Riggs” as seen in very many of the situations they depict on
the big and little screens, especially saving building captures or
dinette table surfing down some California highway. There are even
websites and other resources devoted to the very best car-chase scenes
provided by wHollyweird^, and, as we’ve seen on the cop shows, the real
things are much, much more boring.

The conclusion drawn is there are very many things in life that seek to
satisfy through reality many things that have previously only been
available through literature or other media. Much of what passed for
fantasy has now come to pass with aerospace travel, moon landings, very
small communications devices, and various other technological advances.
So it is with the movies, bringing to peoples’ live scenarioes that
provide them with opportunities to engage in conjecture and consideration
of the aspects of various plot lines. Your site has done this as well.

The performance art events of 11th September 2001 only mirror what has
been previous thunked up by the script writers and producers, reflecting
some sort of need for injecting realism into what has so far passed as
mere two-dimensional (albeit with sensory effects like SurroundSound)
representations. Even those living well beyond New York and Northern
Virginia were treated to something akin to two dimensions with the
vicarious experiences provided by breaking news and other images on their
television screens. Yes, it was reality but, again, only in two
dimensions, with not all of the senses engaged. The terror once again
was provided in projections and imaginings, watching the people covered
with ashes of buildings and their contents and occupants, seeing all
aspects of what happened in real time (or close to it) as what many
thought was compared to a what? A movie?

Are we to suggest that the culture is obsessed with trying to rekindle
those old atavistic fires when there were real bears and rattle snakes
outside, when a thunderstorm caused real fear because of the (then) lack
of grounding and the potential for starting fires, when societies buckled
under the effects of influenza, smallpox, or some other disease
transmitted by anyone, anywhere, any time? What do people find valuable
when their embers are be blown upon by watching movies like “Wolf Creek”
or any of the slasher flix, almost literally dripping in blood, almost
certainly bruising companion movie-goers’ arms or legs? “Jack the
Ripper” remains in the mainstream but why?

There is a certain customer service mentality provided by those who
actually present real events in response to the stated need of the
various societies. Why should the Londoners or the New Yorkers or anyone
vacationing in Bali be bored or unsatisfactorily tantalised by the
flickering images on the screen when, when, when the real thing can be
had? The Twin Towers were built with the idea that some airplance could
be flown into one much like one once did into the Empire State Building.
Skyjackings have been well-known for decades. Airplane crashes have been
an almost routine occurrence since the dawn of flight, or even before
considering all of the failed experiments. Things blow up for any number
of reasons, much more often than a tsunami rolls through the land masses
situated near to or in the Indian Ocean.

Of course, there is the imagination to rely upon in order to provide the
ultimate vehicle for the unknown. I’ve had my nightmares caused by
movies as I am sure many others have had also. But there is a certain
Poe-ish satisfaction when confronting dread. It is part of the psyche.
People somehow know what is necessary in order to keep that little bit of
animal instinct alive, to keep the adrenal glands functioning, to be able
to respond. To what degree have previous opportunites to watch public
punishments or executions, subsequently denied, contributed to the need
for some sort of justified judicial gore or violence perpetrated on
others of the species of humans?

While everyone has become inured to the requirement for automobile travel
and the prospect of having to wait in traffic, they still have become
numb to the reality that the real terror is all around them. Some thirty
thousand or more people die — dead and gone — in car wrecks every year.
Many are sent to the hospitals where hundreds of thousands are
misdiagnosed or given wrong treatments resulting in their demises
annually. How many more are just maimed or otherwise debilitated? And,
how many people really realise that they, too, can “die hard” in that
rolling “lethal weapon?” The real terror is just a drive down the
street, sans vigilante cop or dinette table.

^ e.g., http://www.moviesforguys.com/articles/top10chases.shtml

Alamaine, IVe
Grand Forks, ND, US of A