Filed under: iPod Family, Odds and ends
iPod used to steal $100 million (in a movie)
The iPod is
being turned into everything from Halloween costumes to stethoscope training tools, and
now it apparently is being used to help steal hundreds of millions of dollars - in Hollywood movies, that is (don't
worry, this won't be a spoiler).Apparently Harrison Ford uses an iPod to permanently borrow $100 million from his bank in the new Firewall flick. Rick Warner, over at Bloomberg, already critiqued it quite nicely: "I don't doubt that computerized banking is ripe for theft, but the way Ford does it [sic] seems as far-fetched as James Frey's resume."
While I think it's great that the iPod and Apple are receiving all this fantastic buzz, I'm having a hard time understanding how silly product placement like this benefits anyone, let alone who instigated it. How far is stuff like this going to go? Are we going to see exploding iPods hurled down hallways to destroy genetically modified monsters in a forthcoming sequel to Doom? Here's hoping Harrison doesn't have to decode an ancient culture's chant with nothing more than his 'trusty' iPod in Indiana Jones 4.
[via iLounge]
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000088&sid=a4uL2l7YM5G8&refer=culture
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
teece said 5:35PM on 2-10-2006
In the movie Transporter 2 (not good at all), the hero uses an iPod to quickly grab some files he needs off of a computer at a security guard kiosk. Presumably the iPod was set up for disk use.
It was, at least, quasi-realistic.
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Brian said 5:40PM on 2-10-2006
This is like that scene in Transporter 2 where the guy uses an iPod to upload photos from a security camera to a computer in the US Marshalls office, but then again, everything else in that movie was intentionally unrealistic.
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b said 6:03PM on 2-10-2006
in blade 3, don't they have a scene of the main characters making playlists for their iPod?
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Matthew Williams said 6:11PM on 2-10-2006
I just got back from the movie...
POTENTIAL SPOILER!!!!!
He just needed a portable hard drive and his daughter happened to have the iPod (iPod mini to be specific). Harrison says "1000 songs, 1000 account numbers, this thing doesn't know the difference"
They also feature a iBook in the film and cinema display.
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Ruben Santiago said 6:14PM on 2-10-2006
Um, ya. By writing about this, you are proving that the s product placement deals are truly working...
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Andrew said 6:20PM on 2-10-2006
C'mon, this isn't worth reporting. Sort it out. If you report this sort of thing, it truly isn't worth my time to visit TUAW... Get yourself together... You're reaching.
ak
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sean barrett said 7:28PM on 2-10-2006
How about its only a movie? More than half the people who will see this movie are not savy enough to even second guess that an ipod would not be able to do this. People are gulable and willing to except fiction as fact, especially if good old American hero Harrison Ford is involved.
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theycallmepost said 7:38PM on 2-10-2006
Don't forget the movie Runaway Jury..
the main character kept all of his important docs related to the case on his iPod, which was stolen in the movie..
not to mention all of the Cinema Displays in the office of the jury-fixing team
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Andrew Burke said 9:53PM on 2-10-2006
I seem to recall some very lame TV show where there was a Dodge Viper that fought crime (I think it could morph into something even uglier). Anyhoo, one of the characters had a Newton MessagePad that could do things that mine never could, just like the car.
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Rick Ludwig said 10:43PM on 2-10-2006
Anybody watch House? Sure we've seen him kickin tunes on the iPod, but one episode he used the iPod and some portable speakers to play heart beats of the patient (I guess to hear something the other diagnostic tools couldn't see).
Cool stuff. There's a Newton in the Moives Wiki, maybe we need to start an iPod in the Movies Wiki!!
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Goobimama said 2:52AM on 2-11-2006
Blade trinity seems to have gotten a lot of funding from apple corp. There are loads of iMacs, Cinema Displays and iPods all over the place....
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Don Wilson said 3:57AM on 2-11-2006
They did sort of the same thing in Runaway Jury, though it was the nasty, old version.
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Veronica said 4:09AM on 2-11-2006
Not all of the product placement in the movie is iPod-related:
Firewall Chrysler Giveaway!
Uh... yay?
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brian nesbitt said 7:28AM on 2-11-2006
let's not forget the powerbook that saved us all from aliens in "independence day".....jeff goldblum could get it to interface with alien technology yet i still have trouble logging onto my windows server at work sometimes......
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penginkun said 12:13PM on 2-11-2006
Yeah, the whole iPod thing was pretty stupid. He used the scanning element from a fax machine to read account information on a dumb terminal. The iPod was magically connected to the scanning element and knew (again, magically) to write the data the element was passing to it. *sigh* Whatever. It's just a movie-it doesn't have to make perfect sense.
The film itself was okay, but Harrison's looking OLD. It's pretty typical HF fare: some bad guys choose the wrong guy to pick on. They have a fight, Harrison wins, everyone's happy, the end.
I hope that wasn't too spoilery... ;)
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Taylor said 12:35PM on 2-11-2006
This reminds me kindof of Peter Jackson who transfered all of the Lord of the Rings final shots on his iPod between computers (which were eventually worth more than 100 million).
Did anyone see the office last week where Michael made an iMovie?
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jbelkin said 4:15PM on 2-11-2006
Apple doesn't pay for product placement nor do they do much specific movie tie-ins (the car Harrison drives has its own promo web site).
What Apple does is provide you with computers & ipods (of course, the bigger your stars and production crew, the more likley your odds of being approved) their only main stipulation is that the Apple product is not used in an inappropriate manner (PB as a trigger device, etc ... etc ...). Unlike most companies, Apple doesn't insist on only the hero using the product - there are some movies that are SPOILER obvious because the "hero" is using a Dell or HP (who do have to pay for product placement) while the villian is using some generic PC.
And yes, most of the creative side in Hollywood use a Mac and/or (surprise!) they're a little more passonate about insisting on a Mac on screen versus Pc users.
In the case of Apple, it's not a major expense and they rarely spent actual money on a tie-in. There are a couple people who work for Apple doing this and I'm sure they have a couple hundred machines at their disposal - for Apple, it's a minimal expense but for instance, it will cost at least a couple million to do a tie-in these days and in fact, it creates an jarring breaking 4th wall situation since most companies insist on the label facing forward or the awkward reading of the full name of some product, "Would you like a lemon lime pizazzz Snapple?" (unless it's the 40-year old virgin on a date - then maybe :-)
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Tony said 3:25AM on 2-12-2006
If you watch CSI, you'll notice that almost all of the computers are Macs. Mostly iMac G4s or something attached to Cinema Displays.
I did see one Dell flatscreen today, though.
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SR said 5:53AM on 2-12-2006
The character "Walt Cummings" in 24 Season 5 episode 06 uses a PowerBook!! (or is that a Macbook Pro ???) :D ... I just saw that episode last night.
**SPOILER WARNING IF YOU JUST STARTED SEASON 5 of 24**
...right you are jbelkin that it doesn't have to be a hero or villain that uses a mac ;)
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Tim said 12:16PM on 2-12-2006
Speaking of strange uses for an iPod, have you seen the trailer for Scary Movie 4 yet? It plays off of War of the World's concept of tripods, replacing them with triPods... use your imagination... it's actually very humorous, check it out. http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1808489310/trailer
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