BBC Writer Picky About Skyfall; No One Cares

I was on the BBC's website yesterday and read an interesting opinion piece on the fallacies of representation of technology in Skyfall. The author of the piece used a number of examples to detail how director Sam Mendes had let viewers down in the area of technological accuracy, and despite the fact that every Bond film features its fair share of technological fiction, I found the piece interesting because when I saw Skyfall recently I found my disbelief entirely suspended. A laundry list of inaccuracies follows, all of which I happily failed to notice two weeks ago. Firstly, in the dynamic scene featuring a captive Bond talking to villain Raoul Silva in a room full of the computers Silva uses in his hacking operations, there is a conspicuous absence of background noise coming from the equipment. Also, the room in which Silva's computers are housed appears to lack air conditioning, making the chance of a fire pretty high. When Silva launches a cyberattack on MI6 later in the film, Q and Bond watch a visual representation of the code involved in the attack.... one which is entirely made up in order to give viewers something to watch. The fallacy most integral to the plot of Skyfall is Bond's radio tracker. Bond relies on this tracker during most of the film, despite the inherent difficulties of tracking via radio signal that would make his signature tough to trace aboveground and almost impossible underground, such as when Bond navigates the tunnels of the London Underground.

But all movies rely on inaccuracies to keep viewers entertained, right? (I used to think that any mention of tachyons in Star Trek signaled a section of tacky plot, until I learned that tachyons are real subatomic particles.) The benefit of sacrificing truth for entertainment is that some viewers are inspired by the excitement of technology. From an educational perspective, Skyfall highlights some of the more exciting uses of modern technology and the need for cybersecurity in today's world. Perhaps the movie will serve as an inspiration to some future computer scientists. Regardless of how accurately Skyfall represents technology, it has served its main purpose of providing high-quality entertainment and promoted Bond to further glory.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20555621